Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Many Updates and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm sorry about not letting you know that I would miss last week. I needed a break and now I'm back. I hope that you're having a good week.

Slow stitching updates


In Fleur Woods' Joyful Embroidery workshop, I have been stitching away. It's very slow! I love it but have I mentioned that it's very SLOW?

Coming along....very slowly

This is where I was November 7th. 

The beginning

I've also been working a bit on the needle punch piece. I really love how it's coming along.😍 It's expanded from my round 10" hoop to a square snap-on frame. I'm going to see if I can get a slightly larger one! 

Latest work on my punch needle piece

Since my last photo, I've added a couple of fabric manipulation areas in the blue and blue-green. I used a technique taught by Mirjam Gielen through Patreon. It's called "cuir froissé" or "creased leather". Here is a quick explanation.

Start by drawing a shape on your background - round or oval works well. You then cut out a piece of fabric much larger than your shape. Stitch the outside of the fabric piece along your drawn image so that the image is covered by the fabric. Yes, you'll have lots of extra fabric flopping around the middle. Next stitch that extra fabric down. I just stitched in down in random places with simple stitches until I liked what I had. Since I didn't do a great job of stitching down the outside of the shape of the first one, I added seed beads over those stitches. 

Close-up of the fabric manipulations

This is a really great way to add texture into a piece. Next I'll do some organic embroidery over the two pieces of orangish fabric in the top right corner.

Next the orangish fabrics will be stitched organically

Quilting Floral Fusion


I've begun quilting my Floral Fusion wall hanging. I used my walking foot to stitch-in-the-ditch. 


Since I hadn't stitched down the appliqué, that was the next task. I tried using one of the appliqué stitches on my machine but it was very difficult to see what I was doing. That's the drawback when trying to blend in your stitches. After doing one of the flowers, I gave that up and just used free motion quilting (FMQ) to slowly stitch very close to the edges of the appliqué. Again, since the thread blended in, I did a couple of passes to make sure that I got everything. Here is a close-up of the quilting that I've done with the light thread.

FMQ down the appliqué


Next, FMQ down the appliqué with dark thread

What I learned
  • The Fleur Woods' Joyful Embroidery has been interesting. I've learned a lot, but it is very slow going. 
  • I've done quite a few small projects in the last month or so - I wanted a few finishes for all of the time that I've spent stitching and quilting! 
  • I don't think that Fleur will have any competition from me. I love the slow stitching but only as a supplement to other things. 😊 I thought that it might be a little too slow for me and I was right. I am going to keep at it though. Both of these pieces will be gorgeous when they are done....eventually! 
  • I've enjoyed quilting Floral Fusion. Stitching-in-the-ditch with my walking foot worked well as I took it slowly to stay in the ditch.
  • The experiment with the appliqué stitch on my sewing machine reminded me why I often work with contrasting thread - it's so I can SEE IT! 
  • Tonight I'm going out to find a larger frame for my punch needle and a larger, brighter lamp. My eye is healing well but I need stronger light with the option of a magnifying glass. Hopefully that will help.
  • I'll be going through my thread next to see what I can use to stitch the darker appliqués. I'll probably need a few different colours. I hope to have the quilt finished by next week - wish me luck!
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out after you've link up below?

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 507 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thank you for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Donnalee finished her Eggplant Cat - what a cuty! The next one is Pepper Puss - I hope that she gets it done in time for the fundraiser!

Donnalee's quilted Eggplant Cat 

Deb from A Scrappy Quilting has a production line of quilts - some ready to quilt, others quilted and needing bindings. Way to go Deb!

Legacy quilt













After a false start, Gail from Quilting Gail finished her amazing vase of Dresden flowers. She used two of her Silly Moon rulers to quilt the flowers. Check out her post to see close-up pictures of the quilt and her ruler quilting.

Gail's vase of Dresden flowers

Did you get a chance to see my finished Newfoundland Houses Table topper? I got it finished just in time to give it to our friend at his retirement party. He's very happy with it.

The topper and the fence!

It's now your turn 😊




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Sunday, November 10, 2024

Newfoundland's colourful houses as a table topper

Hi and welcome! The table topper is finished - some free motion quilting (FMQ) and mostly walking foot quilting. Here is a quick post to celebrate!

Painted fence becomes a table topper


As I mentioned in my last post, I made a table topper based on my friend's Newfoundland (NFLD) colourful houses painted fence. 

Our friend in front of the fence!

We attended his retirement party yesterday. It was a lot of fun and it was obvious that he enjoyed every minute! I asked his daughter to take his picture in front of the fence, so here it is. 

Quilting the table topper


I used the pillowcase technique to finish it. The batting was on the bottom with the front and backing facing each other. I cut the backing very carefully to ensure that it would be stitched at ¼" along with the front. Before flipping it right-side out, I could tell that the backing wasn't taut and this could lead to puckering😲.  Re-stitching one side made everything right!

Above is the pillowcase finish with just the opening to close up. I stitched the ⅛" around the piece with different coloured threads so that it would match the quilting. 

I started quilting the yellow house with the walking foot. Each line is 4 stitches from the other. That meant that I could follow the previous line in one of the openings of my walking foot. At the windows, I would secure the thread before and after the window and pass over them. There were a lot of threads to cut once it was over. 😀

Quilting the house with a walking foot

I quilted the yellow and purple houses before attempting the roof. I marked the lines of the grid (see What I learned!) I didn't take any pictures after that 😞- but next came the orange house and then I FMQ the sky in simple wavy lines.

Using the walking foot to quilt the houses and roof.

I mentioned in my last post that I had issues with my zig-zag stitch. When I finished quilting the houses, I went over the zig-zag stitches around the windows and doors twice with straight lines. It helped to emphasize the outline. 

Our friend in front of his lovely painted fence.

Our friend and NFLD's 
colourful houses

What I learned
  • There were a few learning moments in the making of this piece.
  • Designing a quilt late in the evening can lead to artistic interpretations (see previous post).
  • When using the pillowcase method on larger pieces, it's important to pin the back to ensure that the backing fabric is taut.
  • Covering parts of the zig-zag stitches with straight stitches may have helped, when the lines actually covered the zig-zag stitches. 😁
  • When marking lines on a quilt, keep the Crayola gel pens away from the FriXion pens!!!!! The pink lines within the gray roof area just added a little hint of colour but weren't so great on the edge of the sky area!😞
  • No matter how much I try, my quilts will never be perfect. I should accept this by now...but it is a lovely quilt 😊and my friend loves it!
  • The moment I saw the painted fence in our friend's backyard, I knew that I would make him a quilt.
Related links
Linking parties

Project details
Finish table topper

NFLD's colourful houses table topper
based on our friend's painted fence
18" x 18"
Materials: hand-dyed and commercial fabrics
Techniques: piecing, appliqué, pillowcase technique, quilting with walking foot and free motion quilting (FMQ)





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Thursday, November 07, 2024

Table Topper and Playing with Weaving

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm late but finally here. I can't imagine anyone is waiting impatiently for me to click on Publish, but if you are, then please accept my apologies. I had a great day out with my girlfriend. We had an amazing Thai lunch to celebrate our October birthdays and then attended a preview at the National Gallery of Canada. What a lovely, carefree afternoon.

Making a Table Topper


The friends whose pool I took care of this summer are having a party on the weekend. He is retiring and I'm making him a special table topper/placemat. He is from Newfoundland and had painted his back fence in the style of the homes there. 

Here is the quilt, ready to be FMQ (free motion quilted).

Newfoundland Houses Table Topper ready to be quilted

Here is the backyard fence, painted in the style of houses found in Newfoundland. The picture is slightly fuzzy because I took it from inside the gazebo. 

Fence in the backyard

I didn't take process pictures. I drew the three houses on graph paper, cut and pieced the fabric for the houses. I then used Steam-a-Seam light to appliqué the windows and doors. On the fence, the white doors are outlined in black and the black doors are outlined in white so I used black and white zig-zag stitches around the windows and doors. I made two passes at them since some of the stitches were missed. It might have been a tension issue because there was no issue stitching on the thicker purple fabric.

I'll be finishing this piece before Saturday, so I'll try to write a post on the weekend.

Playing with Weaving


This afternoon was the preview of Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. What a great exhibition. The premise of the exhibition is that modern tapestry has influenced abstraction in modern art. A lot of the work was done in the sixties and was very ahead of its time. The majority was also made by women 😍

I'm just going to share a couple of pieces with you and hope that if you can, come see the exhibition (see Related links below). 

Liz Collins Heartbeat 2019
silk and linen textile, Jacquard woven and cut

Liz Collins' Heartbeat 2019

Here is Olga de Amaral's art piece, Cintas entrelazadas c. 1969 made of wool and cotton. The colours and the construction are so interesting.

Olga de Amaral, Cintas entrelazadas c. 1969
wool and cotton

Close-up of Olga de Amaral's, Cintas entrelazadas

After viewing the art, my friend and I stopped in at the creation area of the exhibit. There were materials and information on how to weave. Here are our creations!

Woven on cardboard with strips of printed paper and raffia. 

My woven piece after visiting the exhibit

Lise says she's not creative
but her piece begs to differ!

If you can't make it to Ottawa to view the exhibit, there are many articles in the Related links below. The exhibition, Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction will be at MOMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, April 20–September 13, 2025.

End Notes

Here are a couple of photos taken today.

Poppy and some street art in Ottawa's
Byward Market

Louise Bourgeois' outdoor sculpture, Maman,
outside of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa


What I learned
  • The table topper is coming along. My proportions are off compared to the fence. We'll call it artistic interpretation (aka accuracy challenged).
  • The zig-zag stitch was a challenge. I changed my needle but I'm not sure that my machine likes to stitch over Steam-a-Seam. In the end, if I stitched very, very slowly, the zig-zag stitch was better. It also worked fine when I stitched over a section in reverse! Next time I need to appliqué, I'll try to do it when I'm fresher and more patient. That will surely help to trouble shoot.
  • You probably noticed that the table topper is the mirror image of the fence. I must have sewn the fabric upside down, but didn't notice until it was too late. Oh well, another artistic interpretation 😁
  • I have already cut out the backing and will sew it up using the pillow case method. This means that I won't have to deal with binding. Yay!
  • It turns out that the Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction exhibit has been around for a while. This was great in finding the links below. I took quite a few pictures of the text since I'd like to research a few of the artists.
  • I really wanted to include other art pieces here but sometimes textile art just doesn't photograph well, at least without great equipment. I'm going to change my phone soon and I can't wait to get a much better camera.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking to many fun linking parties. Why not check them out after linking up below? Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts,

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 506 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was another productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Gail of Quilting Gail made this cute Dresden Plate mini that is at the Hobb's Batting booth at the Houston Quilt Market! Very cool and colourful.

Gail's Dresden Plate mini

Deb the Scrappy Quilted quilted and bound three legacy quilts. Here is one of them.

Deb's quilted charity quilt

Did you see my finished scrappy placemat? This one is for my son. Now we all have one 😊

My scrappy brown placemat

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Sunday, November 03, 2024

Table Scraps Challenge - light & dark brown

Allô and welcome 😎 to my short and sweet post for the October Table Scraps Challenge 2024. Today is the deadline for posting - so here it is! Almost everyone in my family had a scrappy placemat made during a Table Scraps Challenge except my son. Since he wanted a neutral placemat, he had to wait until now😁 

Light and Dark Brown Scrappy Placemat


I'm happy to present my last scrappy placemat for a family member... and it even had a cat😺, which was the October theme. 

Scrappy brown placemat in the leaves

Other side of the scrappy brown placemat

Cat hiding in the placemat 

Since I had many brown scraps, I made the placemat double-sided. The top side was quilted with bright  variegated King Tut thread while the bobbin thread had variegated brown and yellow thread. I finished the placemat using the pillowcase method. It worked beautifully.

Family Scrappy Placemats


I've been making scrappy family placemats since 2023. Finally I have all 5 done!

Family scrappy placemats since 2023

Here's the latest happening in my back yard.

Squirrel!

I haven't been doing any eco-printing but nature does it's own thing - I just wish that I could use it!

Eco-printed leaves on the car 😍


What I learned
  • I'm glad that I've finished my last family scrappy placemat. The table sure will look good with all of these wonderful placemats!
  • I've been wondering if I could use the pillowcase method for finishing a placemat. Well, I now know that I can. It was so easy and since they don't get used that much, I'm sure that a lack of binding won't make a difference.
  • I just had to FMQ the cat - I don't think my son cares about cats but it was the theme, so it's on!
Related links
Linking parties


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Thursday, October 31, 2024

Scraps, Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks

Allô and welcome 😎 I believe that this is the loveliest, warmest Hallowe'en day I've ever seen. Not very spooky here 👻👻 It's been another busy week but I did teach, in French, on Monday and it went really well. I was happy to see that my French and IM (Information Management) knowledge weren't too rusty after two years away from work😊 I've taken the rest of the week off to rest and read, so not much sewing except for repairs to a friend's boat cover. Now that it's no longer in my studio, I can get back to artsy things!

Light and Dark Scrappy Runner


October's colour for the Table Scraps Challenge is light or dark browns so I'm finally making my son's placemat with both dark and light brown scraps. I'll try to include a quilted cat since that's our October theme.

Dark and light brown on this side

Dark and light mostly brown on this side

During our Fall Fling, one of the artists gave me a bag of mostly cotton scraps. How fun! Many of the scraps in these two pieces come from that haul (way better than Hallowe'en candy!) It included what looks like fabrics from a Thanksgiving line of fabrics. I made sure to add more fabric because I didn't want the placemat to only be about Thanksgiving. On the second picture the three strips on the right come from pillow shams that my mother made for my grandfather (along with a quilt). I know that my son will appreciate that.

This is as far as I've gotten. The two pieces will be cut down to match the scrappy placemats that I made everyone. My son was last since he wanted neutrals. I have until November 3rd to link up to the October Table Scraps Challenge, so watch out for a post this weekend.

A bit more Embroidery


I haven't done much embroidery this week, but I did add a little bit to the Needle Punch piece that I've been working on for the Joyful Embroidery course. Since my last post, I added the brown leaf fabric at the bottom and covered it with organic blanket stitch. I decided to stitch outside of the fabric area and I love how it looks. I'll probably go back and do the same for the blue-green fabric.

Adding stitching on and around the leaf fabric

I added a row of yellow thread between both fabric areas which I'll be thread-weaving. If it looks good, I'll make it a larger area.

After looking at the YouTube videos about the different yarns to use in punch needle, I experimented with adding my lovely linen yarn which was too slippery to use alone. I paired it with a thin cotton yarn and it worked beautifully. There is also so much dimension when more than one yarn is used.

A Black Eyed Susan in my Almost Daily Stitching piece

Since Fleur Woods encouraged us to stitch more than one of our flowers for additional practice, I added a sweet Black Eyed Susan in my Almost Daily Stitching piece 2024. I drew it on with a Frixion pen and then stitched it in no time. Practice does make it better and easier. 😊

On my way from work to my car, I noticed this amazing mural. I knew that you would appreciate it also!
Mural in Hull district of Gatineau

I also saw hundreds of Canada Geese in the sky as I was coming home from Fall Fling last week.

Safe journey everyone!

What I learned
  • It was so nice to get back to sewing after so long. Hand stitching is awesome but it seems that I need both in my life.
  • I love going through scraps that I've been gifted. What can I say, it's better than Hallowe'en chocolate (but not quite as good as great chocolate! Thanks Lise for that amazing birthday chocolate😋)
  • Now that I "discovered" fabric twining, I get to keep narrow, long pieces of fabric - or even ripping up long strips. Oh joy, I'll need another basket just for twining strips!
  • It's so much fun adding "special" scraps to a project, like from my mother's pillow sham for my grandfather. 
  • I'm having a great time experimenting with the punch needle project, like playing with different yarn and embroidering outside of the lines. 
  • Since I'll be making a quilt sandwich for the placemat, I'm also going to take the opportunity to sandwich my Floral Fusion wall hanging and a small quilt that I got from the Community Quilts table at the last guild meeting. Hopefully there will be some fun FMQ here soon! 
Related links
Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 505 of Free Motion Mavericks. It was a lovely and productive week for last week's party! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts finished up a lovely 18" Christmas Candle Mat. 

Kat's lovely 18" Christmas Candle Mat

Donnalee added the eyes and whiskers to her Avocado Cat. He is gorgeous! Look out for her Eggplant Cat next!

Donnalee's finished Avocado Cat.

Quilting Gail linked up her latest wonderful quilt - this time for her son's birthday. This one was all about the fabrics (a bundle of Tim Holtz fabric). Gail used her Silly Moon Kite ruler for the blocks and then swirls for the 

Gail's latest finish for her son

Here is the FMQ loveliness.

Gail's quilt as seen from the back

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has produced another beauty, Presto Mushrooms! It's got an amazing amount of colour going on! Perfect for a six year old and me! 

Presto Mushrooms by Preeti

A close up of Presto Mushrooms by Preeti

 It's now your turn

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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