Thursday, September 10, 2026

Playing and I Quilted This!

Bonjour and welcome 😃 I spent most of the day outside playing with hexies - that was nice 😍 I'm writing this ahead of time since I'll be in Toronto for my semi-annual eye exam. I used to be able to stitch in the car but not anymore. That means that not much will get done quilting wise, so I may as well prepare this post before I go.

Playing with FMQ Designs

As you saw last week, I finally started quilting Square Dance, a baby quilt. Since then I've been FMQ one block per day. I'm so excited - it's pure play. Of course I said that I would keep it simple but you know me...a chance to practice and play with FMQ. I just can't help it. 😁

Since the first block I FMQ just had straight lines, I wanted to add some curves into the next one.

Straight lines with "C" curves

The next one, on the turquoise background was FMQ with Lori Kennedy's Swirling Stars. I drew the design on the fabric with a white chalk pen.

Swirling Stars

The maroon block has a pickle ball fabric in the middle, so I practiced drawing on paper and then on the fabric, pickle ball pallets and balls. The rest was FMQ with squiggly lines.

FMQ pickle ball pallets and squiggly lines

Summer Hexies Sew Along

As well as playing with FMQ, I also spent time doing EPP (English Paper Piecing), the wreath for the Summer Hexies Sew Along.

This is what I have done so far.

Hexie Wreath so far

Another double flower

I now have 10 single hexie flowers and 4 double hexie flowers. Now I need to make one double hexie flower and 8 single hexie flowers and the leaves. It's coming along nicely 😊

Focus & Flow Course

I'm taking the Focus and Flow course offered by Fibre Arts Take Two. The course is taught by Karen Olson. It's a mindful eco-art program. Our first project was a teabag paper journal. I used inks for a few of the pages and then used a branch from my yard to put into the spine. The book is tied with sari yarn.

Teabag paper journal

It was a windy day - the pages wanted to dance

If you're wondering. teabag paper is a translucent paper that feels a lot like tissue paper. It's very durable and takes paint quite well. Apparently if you want to work with Japanese papers, this is an inexpensive way to get used to them.

What I learned

I made the teabag paper journal a while back and have finally returned to the course. I've missed making books so it's great to be back into it. This is definitely from an arts perspective.
Playing with hexies outside for most of the day was very relaxing. I'm motivated to finish the wreath since it's more than half done.
Choosing fabric that plays well with the initial fabrics I bought has been fun. A little variety is a very good thing!
FMQ the Square Dance quilt has been fun, from figuring out the designs to practicing them and then drawing them on the fabric. As I've said before, it's a good thing that I'm pretty good at following lines 😀

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts made another lovely Lil Bear Hug quilt. This one is yellow and purple - the August and September colours.

Kat's yellow and purple Lil Bear Hug quilt

Terry from On Going Projects has been quilting her Butterfly collage project. Here's a peak.

Terry is FMQ her Butterfly collage project.

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts has finished her lovely Patchwork Hearts quilt. She quilted-as-you-go. If you're curious, read about the process on her post!

Diann's Patchwork Hearts quilt

Preeti at Sew Preeti Quilts quilted a lovely quilt that she called Jeni's Colorado. You'll want to read all about it.

Preeti's latest quilt, Jeni's Colorado

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting has been busy. You'll want to check out her post. Here are a couple of fall quilts that she finished.

Vicki's fall wall hanging - check it out!

Vicki's sunflower table runner

Gail of Quilting Gail made the cutest baby quilt. You'll want to read the story behind it. She quilted it with the Rocket Ruler by Silly Moon.

There's a dog on my quilt by Gail

Details of the ruler quilting by Gail

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, September 03, 2026

FMQ a Baby Quilt and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 I hope that September finds you well. I'm so grateful that the back-to-school rush is no longer a thing in my family - I don't miss those very stressful days! I've been quilting the first baby quilt of three for JJ's friends. Let's see how I'm doing.

Square Dance is getting quilted

This week I quilted-in-the-ditch the first baby quilt. The title of the pattern is Square Dance, so I'm sticking with that! I used a light grey for the top and a light blue thread for the bobbin. I'll be using a light blue in the bobbin when the top thread is pale, and a darker blue to match darker thread. That's the plan since my tension will cooperate 😀

First block quilted - ruler and FMQ

I started by using a ruler to quilt the top triangle of the block. I gave up after that section was done. It was easier, faster and more accurate to draw the lines and FMQ them. That's because I have a generic ruler foot that is not very good. One day I will buy the proper Janome ruler foot - hopefully that will help.

Here's Square Dance with all of the blocks stitched-in-the-ditch. The top light green block has been quilted, except for the rainbow centre block. I'll probably be FMQ it with rainbow shapes that I learned at the Free Motion Quilting Summit 2026.

Square Dance stitched-in-the-ditch

Back of the quilt with extra novelty squares

September's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

I would love to have Square Dance all quilted by the end of the month, but that may be too ambitious, so I'll aim to have half of it quilted 😉. Wish me luck!

What I learned

I enjoy sandwiching small quilts - it's just so much easier!
The back of the quilt came together easily. The pattern called for one extra row but I was done, so I added the 6" blocks to the back. It worked out perfectly 😊
I was disappointed with the ruler quilting. I guess I had forgotten had bad the generic ruler foot can be. I was not in a patient mood, so out came my FMQ foot. All was good 😍

I Quilted This!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts FMQ this stunning panel following Angela Walter's challenge, Arcs, Curves and Points. This is the challenge I was going to use to do ruler quilting on the Square Dance quilt, but the rulers have been put away. Kat isn't a fan of the dark panel but it is a stunning finish. You'll want to expand her photo to get a better look at the FMQ.

Kat's FMQ on Angela Walter's Arcs, Curves and Points panel

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts quilted her last block and is now putting together her Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) colourful Patchwork Hearts quilt.

Diann quilting her last colourful patchwork heart

Diann is ready to put the whole Patchwork Hearts quilt together!

Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting has finished many quilts this week. Here are a couple of them. You can check them all out on her post. The first one below is a lovely disappearing 9 patch. Those blues really play well together! My favourite is this colourful table topper. I just love the pieced border!

Vicki's blue disappearing 9 patch

Vicki's colourful fall topper

Margo Yang of MY Quilts and Crafts got her gorgeous denim quilt finished. It's called She's A Star. Let's hope it'll be hanging in the Quilt National 27!

Margo's She's A Star

Sandra of mmm quilts finished a quilt for her daughter, Holiday Star. It was quilted very simply but I love the little extra Sandra quilted in the secondary blocks.

Sandra's dramatic Holiday Star

Debbie of A Quilter's Table made this great improv quilt - Plethora. Debbie quilted this in an uneven grid with a number of coloured thread, for a plethora of fabric and thread. Check out her post for more details.

Debbie's Plethora of fabric and thread

It's now your turn 😍

Saturday, August 29, 2026

Burano House Transported to Quilter's Cove

Hi and welcome to our monthly link-up of A Quilter's Cove QAL. We've been following the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colours for our houses. Since it's the end of August, this is our eighth house. I've been enjoying our monthly house making even, or maybe because, I make them at the last minute. This one was no exception. So here we go! If you're looking for the I Quilted This! link up, please click here.

Burano Houses on the Canal

I've been wondering how to make a cohesive quilt out of my blocks. Since there is a block of green houses in Nyhavn (New Harbor), along the canal in Copenhagen, I decided to make another block of canal houses. These are from Burano, an island near Venice, Italy. It's renown for it's colourful houses and making the most amazing lace.

Here are my Burano houses.

August's yellow house - from Burano

One of the reason that I chose Burano was to make those curtains in front of the doors. It was late fall when I visited so there were only a couple of houses that had them. They are used to give privacy when it's hot and the door needs to be opened to let the air circulate in the home. Locals call them "tende pal sol" or curtains for the sun.

For the smaller green house, I made the door like the one I had taken a photo of in Burano. It's so lovely, but unlike the one in my block, it's not crooked.😁

Photo taken in 2018 of a lovely Burano door

Process

After deciding on making a Burano house block, I looked at many images online. I then made a sketch of my own rendition of the houses. I just had to add the door curtain and match them with the window blinds. The image below was taken after it was mostly finished but before the sashing was added and the FMQ was done.

The house block before the sashing and FMQ

I was able to FMQ the house block but didn't do any quilting on the sashing (the window border). I'd love to make something interesting for all of the houses, so I'll have to wait and figure it out. I also want to give myself space to put together the QAYG.

For this block, I used a bright red backing fabric - the same that I used in Sarah's Blue Jays T-shirt. The backings will be different but will all have fabric of houses or of home. I didn't have anything obviously Italian, so Ontario novelty fabric will do.

Very bright Ontario novelty fabric

What I learned

I'm so happy that I had time to quilt my first quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) house block. What a difference it makes to add all of those details.
Did you notice the small white round shape at the top of the block? It's a piece of vintage lace to commemorate Burano's lace making.
It's not going to happen quite yet, but I am looking forward to quilting all of the house blocks.
This was the fastest that I've done a house block yet. Maybe it's because it was more realistic but it came together quite nicely. It probably helps that this is our 8th house.
I thought that this block was all nice and straight, until I took a picture and noticed the slightly crooked door. Oh well, it seems to be a signature thing for me😉
Next month is purple. I wonder what that will bring? I may have been researching elves' homes on Iceland...

Related links

A Quilter's Cove QAL, main page on Kat's blog
Linking party for I Quilted This! and A Quilter's Cove QAL, July 30, 2026
Converting House Blocks to Quilt-As-You-Go and I Quilted This! July 02, 2026
A Pastel House in Quilter's Cove QAL, June 27, 2026
An Orange House in Quilter's Cove QAL, May 30, 2026
A Pink House in Quilter's Cove QAL, April 27, 2026
A Fun Red House for A Quilter's Cove QAL, March 28, 2026
A Quilter's Cove QAL for February, February 28, 2026
A Quilter's Cove QAL Link-up and SAHRR, January 31, 2026

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the latest I Quilted This! You may want to check some of them out! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell,

Here is the link to the I Quilted This linking party.

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, August 27, 2026

Rainbow Neighbourhood Finish and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome😎. It's difficult to start my post without mentioning the local weather, so I'll stop trying! I feel like I'm finally having my almost perfect summer. Yes, there is the possibility of rain every couple of days but it doesn't last more than 2 days. The weather is cool and perfect at night while the days are not as hot, except for a little bit of humidex - which means that I can do my all-time favourite thing - have my first and second cups of coffee outside. Yay! Now for the quilting part😀

A Rainbow Neighbourhood Finish

It's 99% done at the time of publishing this post. It will be completely done by the end of August, but probably before. Today (Wednesday) since I write my post and then publish it on Thursday at midnight, I have to get the quilt mostly done so that I can take those important outside pictures. There are now only minor teal, blue and green FMQ left to do. Not much but you know that even a few inches of FMQ can take a long time.

Photo of finished Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt

Here are close-up photos of the top and bottom rows of the houses.

Top left of the first two rows of the quilt

Top right of the first two rows of the quilt

Bottom left of the second and third rows of the quilt

Bottom right of the second and third rows of the quilt

I want to thank Sandra Walker of mmm quilts for hosting the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL in 2023. I went through all of my posts to track my progress and added them below to the Related links. It's been a lot of work and overall, a lot of fun.😃

FM Embroidered Label

If you've been following me lately, you know that I've been procrastinating a bit but it all got done in the end. Last week I watched the Free Motion Quilting Summit 2026 and made my first FM embroidered label. It mostly came out well, until I messed it up 😒

I started by cutting fabric, folding it into a triangle and inserting a sheet of interfacing between the two triangles. I then used a FriXion pen to mark lines to write on, and a centre line to help keep it centered.

Preparing a FM embroidered label for the back corner

I wrote out the message with the heat erasable pen and copied it, going over each letter three times. It's in French and I may have made spelling mistakes but it's from the heart!

FM embroidered the message

I attached it to the quilt before putting on the binding, but unfortunately, not before finishing the FMQ.

Oops!

Here's the culprit.

And I thought that I was doing so well!

I'll be stitching down the bottom of the label and adjusting the binding - attaching a little bit of the label that didn't make it under the binding and fixing the corner binding. Except for this and one other tiny section, the binding went on great. Practice does help!

One final detail

As I was marking the last roof to be FMQ, I realised that I would be having an issue with bunching. So I'm thrilled to say that I remembered what I had learned when that last happened. I sewed down all of the horizontal lines before FMQ the clam shell shapes for the roof tiles. It worked beautifully.

I also had an oops moment stitching one of the horizontal lines and had a bit of a hiccup. So once I was FMQ the actual clam shells I remembered another class that I watched on the Free Motion Quilting Summit 2026. The teacher was showing us how to FMQ all kinds of rainbows and variations. Since the clam shells are the beginning of the rainbow, I remembered that she FMQ a heart within the centre. So, I did that, and then realised that I could backtrack and add a little heart where I had my hiccup! Can you see them in the image below?

A couple of hearts FMQ within the roof tiles.

What I learned (or remembered)

As I just mentioned, I was thrilled to remember to sew horizontal lines before stitching the roof with clam shells. It really stabilized the fabric - no bunching.
I mostly FMQ by thread colour. That means that I'll do everything in one thread colour before switching out the colour. I often find another something that I should have quilted but it's less of a hassle than always switching thread colours. That's why I have a little bit of teal, blue and green details left to FMQ.
The binding went on by machine very well. I only have a few minor sections to fix. It was worth practicing last week.
I'm going to get as much as I can finished tonight (since it's still early and this post is almost done). I want to finish it to give to our friends but also to keep working on other projects.
I'll be posting on Saturday for the Quilter's Cove SAL - this month's colour is yellow. I've gone through my scraps and found many interesting things. I guess you'll find out on Satureday which type of house I'm making🏠

I Quilted This!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Janine of Rainbow Hare quilted her Grannies without borders quilt. What a happy gorgeous quilt. You'll want to check out her post for some lovely pictures. I promise you it's worth it!

Janine's Grannies without borders

Terry of On Going Projects quilted up a fun mug rug. Terry wanted to practice her partial braid. She quilted the straight lines with a ruler and then continuous curves in the squares.

Terry's partial braid mug rug

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts made a scrappy yellow placemat for August. Yellow really is a happy colour! Her straight line quilting really emphasizes the sunflower star.

Diann's lovely yellow sunflower star placemat

Sandra of mmm quilts has been using up her layer cakes to make quilts. After Sandra's FMQ with dot-to-dot ruler work, it's a real beauty called Kitty Karma. This lovely is going to her neighbour and friend who is Sandra's own Bella cat sitter. The recipient will be comfortable with her own cat on her lap. The back is a lovely fleece. You'll want to check out Sandra's post for more info and pictures.

Sandra's Kitty Karma quilted with ruler work dot-to-dot

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made two great wall hangings from panels. They are both fall themed and well designed with blocks and parts of various panels. Vicki quilted the first fall quilt with ruler work as well as some lovely FMQ in the small blocks and flying geese.

Fall wall hanging made from panel - designed and quilted by Vicki

The Welcome Harvest wall hanging was also made using several different panels. Vicki quilted it with ruler work. You can check out her post for lovely quilty close-ups.

Welcome Harvest wall hanging by Vicki

Gail of Quilting Gail made a version on Dancing Shadows, designed by Brenda of Songbird Quilts. It's a lovely version FMQ with what Gail called "all over 3 finger open loop with echoing." You can see some FMQ close-ups on Gail's post.

Gail's version of Dancing Shadows

Frédérique of Quilting Patch Appliqué visited her sister-in-law and got to see the Geishas folding screen that she made for her in 2007. If you go to her post, you can check out her original posts on how she made and quilted it.