Thursday, October 09, 2025

More of the Pink Turtlehead Flowers

Allô and welcome 😊 I hope that you've had a good week. In Ottawa, we had lots of sun, even humidity, but after yesterday's poring rain, fall seems to be here. It looks like the trees changed drastically overnight. 🍁 The cold to freezing night temperatures may have something to do with it. It's all very beautiful.

The pink turtlehead flowers art piece

Last week you saw the beginning of the pink turtlehead flowers art piece. I was able to work on it a little. I like it much better and it's coming along nicely. I'm even looking forward to my next piece using fabric coils. Here's what it looks like now.

Pink turtlehead flowers

Before it got dark outside, I pinned the fabric to the canvas and took some pictures outside. It makes such a difference in the colours. It was also good to see how it's coming along at the edges after being pinned to the canvas. As I had mentioned, I had used a running stitch to very loosely mark the sides. Now I'll be able to use this photo to ensure that the sides are nicely covered.

Here's another photo that I took of the pink turtlehead flowers while on another walk. I guess what I love about this flower is the contrast in the greens of the leaves and flower, and those gorgeous pink petals.

Pink turtlehead flowers

I don't have much more to share, so here is another photo of the art piece.

Pink turtlehead flowers - photo taken in the back yard

Last but not least, Poppy chilling on the couch as I work on the piece.

Poppy chilling

What I learned

Once I unstitched the coils from the top left side, it became obvious that I just needed to add more leaves to the piece.
I've been making the fabric coils as I watch TV - it's the perfect place to do these, now that it's cooler outside. When I stitch the coils onto the background fabric, I listen to a podcast or an audiobook.
I haven't had much time to work on this piece but it will be finished for the Out Of The Box (OOTB) Fibre Artist's Fall Fling sale.

Related links

Textured Pink Turtlehead Flowers, October 03, 2025
Julia Wright, website, Instagram
Julia Wright, Artist interview in TextileArtist.org

Linking parties

I'll be linking to many fun linking parties. Why not check some of them out after you've linked up below?

Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 552 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. Since I missed a few weeks, I've decided to feature projects from the last two weeks that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. I'll start with the most recent.

Donnalee finished two lovely pumpkin placemats. Aren't they cute? We may be seeing a few more of these soon!

Donnalee's pumpkin placemat

Another of Donnalee's pumpkin placemat

Gwyned Trefethen has been busy learning how to use her new Bernina 990. She used it to embroider 3 practice pieces. She then put those pieces together to make a runner.

Gwyned's runner

Here is one of the practice blocks that she embroidered and then FMQ. She quilted around the leaves and flowers, then micro quilted in tiny loops.

Gwyned FMQ around the leaves and flowers
then micro quilted in tiny loops.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts finished three lovely Lil bear hug quilts. The quilt tops were donated and she finished and then quilted them.

Quilted by Kat with a diagonal crosshatch

Quilted with a double diagonal crosshatch by Kat

Kat quilted this one with an overall spiral circle

Gail of Quilting Gail made this gorgeous quilt using Island Batik fabric line, Splish Splash. Gail "used Silly Moon’s 4″ Beanie to create the orange peel flowers in the neutral squares. Each short and each long strip was quilted differently" with rulers and FMQ. "There are swirls, loops, circles, feathers, flowers, hearts, squares, ribbons and many many more." You'll want to check out her post for the closeup photos.

Gail's quilt using Splish Splash fabric line

Closeup of the FMQ by Gail - as seen from the back

Melva took one of her first quilts from the cedar chest to place on the guest room bed. It was a cross-stitched wild rose quilt, made with 7 cross-stitched panels. Melva quilted it as a quilt-as-you-go, long before she knew what that was.

Melva's first quilt - a cross-stitched wild rose quilt

A closeup of the cross-stitched panel by Melva

It's now your turn! 😊Sorry for the mix up - I managed to put 12 pm as opening instead of 12 am. It's all fixed. Let's party!🎈🎉🥳

Friday, October 03, 2025

Textured Pink Turtlehead Flowers

Hi and welcome! 😍 I'm so grateful that you kept the linking party going without me. I'm way behind on reading, commenting and replying but I will get there. 😊 Here's what I've been working on since I've been back. I watched the latest TextileArtist.org Stitch Club workshop and quickly got hooked. Our teacher, Julia Wright, makes textured and sculptured landscape fragments with strips of coiled fabric.

Pink Turtlehead Flower

As I walked Poppy this summer, I started taking pictures of interesting flowers in the neighbourhood gardens. The pink turtlehead flower intrigued me and I thought that it would make an interesting art project some day. After watching Julia Wright's workshop, I decided to give this flower a try.

Pink turtlehead flowers

This is the flower part of my piece. You can see the fabric coils that make up the image - it is a bit abstracted but the flowers, pods, leaves and stem are all there. I worked this part in a 12" embroidery hoop until it got too large. I'm working to cover an 8" x 8" canvas.

The flower part of the piece

After that, it becomes more difficult - how to cover the fabric with coils and still make some sense. This is what it looked like when I first started this post. After considering it overnight, I decided to remove the green coils on the side. I think that the flowers are curved and that the almost straight green coils didn't fit in.

The flowers so far - with outline of leaves to be filled in

I've kept the leaves and the flower buds that are underneath. At this time, I'm thinking that more leafy shapes would be best....we'll see!

The latest photo of the piece

You can see around part of the piece the running stitch that outlines how large it needs to be. It's a very rough outline and there will be coils sticking out over the frame.

Making the Fabric Coils

The process of making the art starts with creating coils. I went through my scrappy strips for fabric that could be wound into these coils. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the process.

I started off with a scrap of fabric (it's actually green). I ripped it up into strips, but only about a half inch from the edge. I did this for the whole piece of fabric. After that, I coiled the fabric with sewing and hand-quilting thread that I probably won't use to quilt with. Using irregular fabric strips creates bumps in the coils that add texture to the piece.

Fabric scrap

Fabric scrap ripped into sections

Rolling up the fabric into coils using thread

Coil of fabric, bound with
thread

What I learned

Julia Wright uses this technique to make abstract landscapes. I'm not sure how my piece will end up - there are a lot more details than there would be in a more linear landscape.
The background fabric, where I removed the coils, is a bit messy, but it'll be covered again with coils, just in different shapes.
At first I found it difficult to use scrappy strips to make the coils - as a quilter I want to sew them together! But I've gotten over it - I still have so many 😉
Making coils to then use in the art is time consuming but it is very meditative and enjoyable. I've been making most of my coils outside in the back yard while keeping an eye on Poppy.

Poppy keeping the yard free of animals!

Related links

Julia Wright, website, Instagram
Julia Wright, artist interview in TextileArtist.org

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out after you link up below? Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 551 of Free Motion Mavericks! I'm back home but getting over a cold and have no energy. I intended to feature your projects this week but I'm already very late in posting. Things should be back to normal next week.

Since I was late to post, the party will be open until the Wednesday night 😍

It's your turn!

Thursday, September 25, 2025

Embroidering Mercury Retrograde

Hi and welcome 😊 I finished the Mindful Stitching project that I mentioned in a mid-July post. At that time, I had completed the tree and its roots. The background is an eco-printed linen fabric from a while back. When I shared this project, it was pretty traditional - now it's more metaphysical.

Mercury Retrograde - Strong Roots Required!

I love the picture below - the light behind the piece makes it so dramatic!

Mercury Retrograde - Strong Roots Required is finished

The photo below, taken on the cement deck, shows some of the details better. The very top of the piece is a pocket made of white and sparkling tulle and contains a variety of thread. It was meant to be ethereal.

The next section in orange-brown is embroidered using chain stitch. The yellow section coming out of the door includes many different yellow thread in running stitch layered with tulle. The rays of light end at the heart located near the top of the tree.

Mercury Retrograde - Strong Roots required!

As I mentioned in my original post, "I used a double and single chain stitch for the tree, and the feather stitch for the roots. I chose these stitches after watching Mirjam Gielen's branching video on Patreon. She's a great teacher and uses stitches in a very creative and organic manner."

The beginning of my Mindful Stitching piece

Sketch of the branching of the tree and roots

What I learned

I found it difficult to keep going after finishing the tree and the roots.
Part of it was that I loved it and didn't want to "mess" it up!
I knew that I needed a door with light streaming through...but what else?
After using tulle in the stitching of the light, I thought that it could be used at the top of the piece to give it an ethereal quality.
I don't often use my sketchbooks but drawing the branching of the roots and the tree really helped me get a feel to embroider it.
It's been a real joy to embroider on my eco-printed fabric. I have quite a large piece that I'll be able to cut up and stitch on.

Related links

Hexies and a Mindful Stitching Project, July 17, 2025
Mirjam Gielen on Instagram and Patreon

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out after linking below? Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Beauties Pageant, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching,

Great news! Mercury Retrograde - Strong Roots Required was featured by Denise at Put your foot down!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 550 of Free Motion Mavericks! I hope that you'll be linking up below. I'm on vacation so I'm sorry that I can't feature any of your projects this week. If I can, I will be visiting but it depends a lot on whether or not my data works as promised!😉

Please party without me 😍. I'll be back soon! 😀

Thursday, September 18, 2025

Scrappy Neutral Placemats

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm still away on vacation but technology is allowing me to schedule these posts. If all goes well...(and of course it will!), when you read this, I'll be on the Atlantic Ocean, making my way to Portugal. Once we finish our cruise, we are spending a few days in Denmark with my brother, SIL and niece. I'm mentioning them because this post is about the gifts that I made for them before leaving.

What do you bring with you from home when you don't have much room in your luggage? Scrappy placemats of course!

Scrappy Neutral Placemats

Here are the three scrappy neutral placemats that I made. Each is finished differently.

Three neutral placemats - ready to leave 😉

This placemat is the least neutral...which of course means that it's my favourite!

The most colourful of the neutral placemats

The next two placemats are scrappier. For one of them, I sewed up strips into sections, slashed them, rotated and then added the diagonal strips. The other one has the diagonal strip in the side corner.

Scrappier neutral placemats

The most neutral of the placemats

There are three different bindings on the placemats. The top one is a yellow tone-on-tone fabric and I ended up binding it totally by machine. I did manage to miss a few spots on one side, so I'll be bringing the thread with me and hand-stitching those spots. I cut the binding at 2¼". I'm sure that it would have been fine if I hadn't been so stressed (I finished it the day before leaving!).

For the other two placemats I found brown binding fabric in my stash that had already been cut at 2½". The placemat with the centre diagonal went on great and I stitched it by hand. If you look closely to the third one (with the side diagonal), you'll see that I managed to sew the binding on to the wrong side of the placemat. In theory it shouldn't make a difference but it did. I stitched that one by machine.

FMQ the Placemats

Here are a few pictures of the FMQ. For the two scrappy placemats I used my walking foot to create straight and diagonal lines, and then added FMQ for a bit of curves and zing.

Free motion and walking foot quilting

More Free motion and walking foot quilting

FMQ in the spaces between the walking foot lines
as well as a feather near the top

FM and walking foot quilting as seen from the back

The last placemat I made is entirely FMQ. My intention was to lightly FMQ it... but that's not what happened 😁 I FMQ most of it, bound it and then finished quilting it.

FMQ details of the most colourful neutral placemat

What I learned

The first two placemats were made and finished a while back but I only finished the last one the day before leaving - not a good idea since I had so much to do.
I do love how they came out. I think that this is the first time that I used the walking foot so extensively and then added FMQ. I really love the effect.
I find that straight lines are harsher - that's why most of my FMQ is made up of curves. It lightens things up!

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some of these out after you've linked up below? Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 549 of Free Motion Mavericks! I hope that you're having a good party without me 😎! I will be reading your posts and comments but since I don't have my laptop, I'll be skipping the features while I'm gone. Have a great week!

It's your turn.

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

FMQ a Baby Quilt and Cell Phone/Device Holder

Hello and welcome. By the time you read this, I will be ready 😕 and hopefully making my way across the Pond for an amazing trip! Our first destination is London💂 and then Southampton to embark on the ship. Before I leave, I'll share my latest finish.

FMQ a Baby Quilt for the Guild

You've seen the two scrappy BB/cuddle quilts that I made this summer. I took them, as well as the quilt shown below to the Common Thread Quilt Guild (CTQG) meeting this week. They are donated through our Community Projects.

I picked up the flimsy, batting, backing and binding last year at a guild meeting. I quilted most of it months ago and just needed to finish FMQ the borders. This time I didn't bind the quilt before quilting the border since the borders are 6" wide. That's quite wide and I didn't want to take a chance that it wouldn't work out.

Finished baby quilt for Community Projects

Back of the baby quilt

I FMQ the centre blocks with straight lines converging to the middle of the triangles but extending out to the next rows/columns. With that geometric quilting, I wanted to add organic shapes to the borders. I FMQ vines of heart shaped leaves. Even though I was using an orange thread, it was still sometimes difficult to see within the colourful fabric pattern. I'm always amazed how a colour that I think should pop out, will disappear. The only reason I wanted it to pop out was so that I could see it clearly when I FMQ it. 😕

Here is the pretty backyard photo. My garden is mostly weeds but at least they're mostly alive now that we've finally gotten some rain.

Backyard glamour shot 😎

Scrappy Cuddle Quilts

Because we all love photos of quilts, here are the two scrappy cuddle quilts that I handed in this week at the guild meeting. You can read more about them in previous posts (see Related Links).

Purple Scrappy Cuddle Quilt

Teal Scrappy Cuddle Quilt

Cell Phone/Device Holder

Last Spring, my childhood friend, Sylvie, made me a cell phone or device holder. JJ (my adult child) and I have been moving it around the house and using it. JJ asked me to make more so that we could keep them handy....so I finally did. They will be very useful and I have made one to take with me and another as a gift for my niece.

Original holder made by my friend Sylvie

More cell phone/device holders

The holders only require a 9" x 12" fabric piece., a cup and a half of rice and some fluffy batting. I used batik fabrics since they are pretty and already out to use for the Bloomers blocks, Of course, the neutral batik one is for my niece - I love the leaves pattern on it. The one supporting my old cell phone is an amazing fabric that looks like cathedral windows. I've been wanting to use that fabric for years - so now I have and I'm keeping it 😍 JJ got the two other two and we'll keep my friend's one downstairs to share.

I did learn a couple of things 😊while making these. The first thing is that once the holders are filled with rice and fluff, you want to place the pins facing the top so that they can easily slide out of the way when sewing that last seam. This became very evident when I tried to remove the pins that were pointing up and difficult to remove before stitching.😉

Ensure that the pins can be easily slid out of the way!

I also added a quilting clip at the beginning of the seam. It just keeps the fabric together while you fiddle around with it but is easily removed just before you start to sew.

What I learned

I enjoyed FMQ the baby quilt that I didn't have to piece.😁
At the guild meeting in June, I picked up another quilt top to be finished. It's wonderful - the committee puts the quilt top, batting, backing, binding and a label together. It goes so much faster to finish without having to figure things out...since there's always a chance of getting it wrong!
I'm really glad to give back to the community, now that I have a little more time. Since my favourite part is the FMQ, it's a great way to get more practice without spending so much time piecing.
Making the phone/device holders went really well and it was as easy as promised!
I didn't have any fibre fill, so the first holder I made, after adding the rice, was filled with scraps of batting. I just had to try - but I removed it and then refilled it once I had bought the correct fill.

Related links

Finished Teal Cuddle Quilt, August 28, 2025
Scrappy Purple BB Quilt Finish and FM Mavericks, July 31, 2025
How to make a phone pillow holder

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Consider checking some out, after you've linked up below. 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Finished or Not Friday, Beauties Pageant, Off The Wall Friday, Put your foot down, Patchwork & Quilts, Sew & Tell, TGIFF

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 548 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts finished two scrappy bargello quilts in the RSC colours. Each was simply FMQ. They are so lovely!

Kat's scrappy bargello quilt FMQ with slight waves

Kat's scrappy bargello quilt FMQ with straight lines

Sally from Crafts, Cavies and Cooking is in the process of FMQ a lovely, large quilt. In her plan of attack, she stitched all of the stars first. Now she's working on the crosses. What lovely FMQ!

Sally is now FMQ the crosses!

Sally was FMQ the stars

Deb, the Scrappy Quilter is rolling along and finishing more quilts! This latest one involved curves :-) The FMQ is lovely as it echoes the curves of those gorgeous blocks.