Hi and welcome 😊 I hope that everyone in Canada had a good Thanksgiving. The weather has gotten quite cooler - still cool but darn close to cold! It's difficult to predict the weather at this time of year, but I'm very happy that it's mostly sunny while I walk Poppy! 🐕
Hand-stitching Ode to the Goose
I've been working on this piece for a few months. It's been sitting on the side of the dining room table, waiting for me to have a few minutes to stitch. This is what it looked like this afternoon.
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| Ode to the Goose as of this afternoon |
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| Ode to the Goose - so far |
Last month I thought I had finished stitching the Canada goose. I showed it to JJ and they said that I probably didn't want to just fill in the head and the feet. They were right - so I've started filling in the body. That doesn't really bring me joy, so I'm working on everything else first!
The background of the piece is a vintage handkerchief with a narrow lace band. I added neutral scraps and started moving things around. Here was my first attempt. I take pictures because they seem to be more objective than looking at the piece.
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| Throwing a few things at the piece |
It's at this point that I thought about the focus of the piece, which is the Canada goose. I removed what wasn't relevant and then using the tracing of a picture I took this summer, I stitched over the paper. It's not my favourite way of transferring an image but it was the best one since I was stitching over several different fabrics.
This August the Out-of-the-Box (OOTB) fibre artists met at a local park. I took many photos of the geese - I have never been that close to so many of them! There are other photos (see Related links) but this is the one who is the star of my Ode!
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| Star of Ode to the Goose |
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| Stitching the goose following the image on the tracing paper |
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| Starting to get there |
This is what it looked like before my holidays.
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| Figuring out what to keep and what to stitch |
This is the evolution of the piece so far. Until it's finished, anything can happen! 😁 On the bottom right, I've added the stems of bullrushes. I want them to be fluffy - so I'll have to figure that out. These are the kinds are challenges that I love!
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| The evolution of the piece - so far! |
I'm still working on the Pink Turtlehead flower piece. It's almost done but I'll wait until it's finished to post it. You'll be seeing it next week, just before the Fall Fling Show. I'm also hoping to have Ode to the Goose done for the show. The handkerchief is 8" x 8" so I plan to hand quilt it a little and then mount it on a canvas. In theory it should work!🤞
A Fourth Bloomers Block
I'm following Denise's Bloomers Sew Along. I'm on my fourth block - I love it! I sort of made this one up from two different blocks.
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| Fourth block of Bloomers SAL |
What I learned
- I always find it daunting to start a new piece, especially if I'm not sure where I want to go with it.
- As you saw, I went through my odds and ends and started playing around. I knew that it would be mostly neutral but I did want a bit of colour.
- Once I started stitching the goose, it was easier to see where the piece should go. It wanted a pond, a path, and a sky with a cloud. From there, it was mostly playing with stiches.
- There will be a lot of background stitching but I have to ensure that I don't overwhelm the goose - it's the star of the show!
- After adding my photo to a linking party, I realized how much I need to stitch in the Canada Goose. Right now it's disappearing into the background (except for the black!) That should help motivate me 😉
- I'm happy with my latest Bloomers block. I think that I'll need at least a couple more to make something interesting. I also want to experiment with EPP hexies soon!
Related links
- Another Border on the Cowboy Panel (and pictures of Canada Geese), August 20, 2025
- Three Finished Bloomers Blocks, September 03, 2025
- Bloomers SAL and Hexies, July 28, 2025
- Bloomers Sew Along with Denise @Quiltery
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out, after you've linked up below! Bloomers Update, Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday,
Free Motion Mavericks
Welcome to week 553 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks so much for joining the party! Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.
Donnalee is in the Fall spirit and making a lovely falling leaves runner. What great fabric! Now we know why she wanted to keep the black pumpkins - that runner is really great!
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| Donnalee is finishing up a falling leaves runner |
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| Donnalee's lovely pumpkins in black |
Gwyned will be showing her Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2022, How Does Your Garden Grow?, during her upcoming Cohasset Open Studios.
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| How Does Your Garden Grow? by Gwyned |
Kat from Scrapbox Quilts is making more Lil Bear Hug Quilts. She's quilting them using a mix of FMQ and walking foot. Here are a few - you'll want to check out her post to see them all!
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| Lovely Lil Bear Hug quilts, quilted by Kat |
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| Walking foot work by Kat |
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| Love that FMQ by Kat |
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| Quilted by Kat - almost orange peels! |
Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has a lovely new quilt on the cover of Quilter's World! Milo is a layer cake friendly quilt that was quilted with squiggly lines using the walking foot.
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| Details of Preeti's Milo quilt |
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| Preeti's latest finish - Milo! |
Gail from Quilting Gail made this amazing Switchback bag using a ByAnnie pattern. Gail quilted the fabric using the walking foot.
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| Gail's new Switchback bag |
Brenda from Songbird Designs gave us a peek at the quilt she's making for her next blog hop project. Have a look at the pumpkin that she FMQ. We're looking forward to seeing this project soon!
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| Pumpkin FMQ by Brenda for an upcoming blog hop |
Brenda also made a bag designed ByAnnie. It's the On the Go 2.0 Bag. She quilted it using a serpentine cross hatch using the walking foot. What a gorgeous and useful bag! You'll want to see the details of her bag on her post.
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| Brenda's On the Go 2.0 Bag |
What eye candy! It's now your turn to share😊
