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🏠
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the August One Monthly Goal (OMG). You may want to check some of these out!


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. 

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.

Geishas Folding Panel made by Frédérique in 2007

It's now your turn 😍

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Thursday, August 20, 2026

Some Procrastination and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm happy that I Quilted This! happens every week, otherwise I would be hiding somewhere with a book and ignoring the world! I did get a few things done, but mostly procrastinating - anything but finishing the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt. I pushed encouraged myself and trimmed the quilt, picked the binding and cut it. At least there was progress. Let's check it out!

Trimming the Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt


It's been trimmed and the binding has been picked and cut. Here's the proof.

Trimming the large lap quilt 62" x 64"

I even did the binding math because I didn't have much of my first choice of fabric. After doing the math, I knew that there wouldn't be enough but since I had lots of my second choice, that's what I'll be using. I'll be sewing it by machine and practicing my skills 😁.

The quilt isn't totally FMQ but there's not much left - mostly fixing uncooperative thread and adding little details. I just wasn't in the mood to FMQ, so it was nice to keep going on the quilt. It won't be long now.

Summer Hexie Sew Along

I was shopping online for fabric (it was on sale!) and I found fabric that matches my original fabric pick. I'm not sure if it's the same line but it looks great. Here's what I have so far. I sent the first photo to my brother on August 12. The second photo was taken tonight, August 19.

In total there will be 18 single and 5 double-ring flowers. So far, I've made 6 single and 3 double-ring flowers - that's one third of the single and half of the double flowers😍 

Results on August 12

August 18 - the new fabric is in the inner flower at the bottom

I now have 12 single flowers to make while using some of the secondary fabric. There are two more double-ring flowers to make. I also have to figure out the leaves. The sew along finishes this week but I'll keep going. I'm really enjoying it.


Potato Chip Blocks

Everyone seems to be making potato chip blocks, so I looked into it and got hooked! My blocks are 12" with the middle and outside pieces in a colour (so far orange/yellow and the other two green) while the inner square is white/beige. As I took the photos, I realised that some need more contrast. Next time I'll take a quick picture before sewing everything together so that I'll know that the contrast is there.

Here are the four blocks that I've made.

Four 12" potato chip blocks so far

I have lots of side scrappy projects. There's no timelines or pressure to get them done and that's perfect. When I feel like playing with scraps, they are great therapy. I'll be playing with purple (or yellow) scraps soon for the Quilter's Cove SAL at the end of August 😊 

What I learned
  • I often trim and sew the binding to quilts that are not completely FMQ. As long as most of it is done, it really makes no difference. This helps me feel like I'm getting close to the end. I enjoy FMQ but sometimes I've tired of the project so this is a great way to keep going while taking a break from the FMQ.
  • I was very impressed with myself for doing the binding math. When it's something that I can visualise, I can usually figure it out.😁
  • I'm looking forward to sewing the binding by machine and practicing those skills.
  • My hexie crown is coming along but I still have lots to do. I don't need to rush this - it's enjoyable and there's no urgency to finish it. I'm looking forward to having it all sewn together.
  • Potato chip blocks are fun to make. I do have to keep an eye on my contrast between the sections. Taking photos will tell me if the contrast is fine or not. 
  • I've been going through my scrappy strips. I think that blue will be next.
  • I need to think about my next Quilter's Cove house. I'll check my fabric to see if I can get inspired. I know that I'll need at least one or two more fairy houses. I have the houses on the canal so it might be cool to make a cottage by the lake. I guess you'll just have to come back and see what happens! 😍
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out after you link up below.


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. 

Gwyned Trefethen made one more small quilt, Quiet Wonder, for her solo show in September. It's so cute. She embroidered it by machine and FMQ the rest. 

Quiet Wonder by Gwyned

Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made many table runners and a topper. Here are a couple. You'll want to check them all out as well as Vicki's cool quilting!

Vicki's Halloween runner

Vicki's Starburst table topper

Viridian has quilted up her Potato Chip project that was started in October 2024. She quilted it with straight lines in the ditch. 

Viridian's Potato Chip quilt

Close up of Viridian's Potato Chip Quilt

It's now your turn😍

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Thursday, August 13, 2026

A Finish and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 I hope you're enjoying (or tolerating) the August weather. Thanks for dropping by. Today I have a finished baby quilt. It's been in the works for a while and I finally stopped agonizing about the binding and just got it done!  

Orange Scrappy Baby Quilt Finished


The quilt is made of scraps that I got from my DIL's mother. She made a lovely quilt for her granddaughter but didn't want the scraps (can you believe that? 😲)  I was quite happy to oblige - there were some nice big pieces in there, enough for another baby quilt. You've seen me make it and FMQ quilt it and now it's done.

Finished and washed - Orange Scrappy Baby Quilt

I made some very simple blocks, mostly the wonky snowball variety. My first post about this quilt was from July 2025, so it took a little longer than a year. Way to go me!😍
 
Glamour shot with the phlox

It was nice this week so I took some glamour pictures in my backyard. You can see some of the good parts of the yard 😁. 

The very yellow scrappy backing of the quilt 

The quilt in my favourite part of the yard

As I mentioned above, I've been thinking about the binding for this quilt since I finished FMQ it in April of this year. Should I got with a yellow or another colour? I didn't have enough scraps from the quilt for a scrappy binding and the yellow backing is just too bright. Finally I decided on a brown and found the perfect one in my stash. It was the brown/orangish porcupine in the fabric that decided it. Let's face it, the binding needs to match something - so a cute porcupine will do.

Note - technical details that can be skipped! 
Since I was in a learning mood (patient and curious), I decided to push myself to do a good machine binding. I've done them before but they weren't very good, so this was a learning moment. I used a 2¼" side binding (I'm adding this for my records.) I realised that I believed that the binding needed to be flush with the quilt fabric underneath it, with no extra space inside the binding. That's why the back of my binding was always wider than the front and couldn't be neatly stitched by machine. I'm not sure how clear this is, but I ended up lining the back of the binding just beyond the original front stitch line. This mostly worked. I did fix a few spots where I missed the edge of the binding but it was much better than I usually do.

Binding needs to slightly cover the stitch line

The corners are not always easy to stitch, so when re-stitching it, I used a glue stick to keep the corner in place to stitch it. It worked wonderfully!

Gluing down the corner to stitch it well

What I learned
  • When in doubt about the colour of the fabric to use for the binding, match an element of the quilt - it should work.
  • Taking the time to think about how I was putting on the binding and what was going wrong helped me get better at sewing the binding by machine. It was time well spent. Hopefully I'll be able to practice and get better!
  • The tip to myself for future machine bindings is to take my time and concentrate on each step.
  • I'm hoping to spend some quality time in my studio this weekend and finishing the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt. Then I'll be able to practice on another binding 😀
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out after linking below. Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, TGIFF, Beauties Pageant, Monday Musings,


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. 

Terry from Ongoing Projects quilted her Stars and Stripes Guild Challenge. She shared pictures of the quilting, but we'll have to wait until October for the reveal! 

Terry using a combination of thread to
quilt straight and curved lines

Terry quilting straight lines on her Stars and Stripes

Diann of Little Penguin Quilts finished this sweet Christmas in July table topper. Here it is. You'll want to go and read the post for more details.

Diann's Christmas in July table topper 

Gail of Quilting Gail made a test quilt based on Brenda's new pattern Tilt-a-Whirl. You'll see Brenda's quilt below. Gail made her quilt in low volume colours. Gail used Silly Moon rulers Turkey and Charming to quilt it.

Gail's test version of Brenda's new quilt pattern, Tilt-a-whirl

Details of Gail's quilting of Tilt-a-whirl

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting quilted and finished two quilts! The first is a pineapple quilt with large stippling while the other was made using a jelly roll and quilted with large freehand feathers. Check out these two beauties!

Vicki's pineapple quilt with large stipling

Vicki's jelly roll quilt with freehand feathers

Brenda of Songbird Designs has a new pattern out for a new fabric collection. The quilt pattern is Tilt-a-whirl which you saw earlier.

Tilt-a-whirl by Brenda

Brenda also made this great Funky Tulip runner which she quilted using FMQ and rulers. Brenda used the new fabric line. You may want to check out her post for more details.

Brenda's Funky Tulip runner

It's now your turn 😍

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Thursday, August 06, 2026

Blue Jays Fan and I Quilted This!

Allô and welcome😎 My son and DIL went to Toronto to see a Blue Jays baseball game last weekend. As I've mentioned in a previous post, my DIL asked me to make her a Blue Jays t-shirt, so here it is. 

Blue Jays T-shirt


Here is the t-shirt on dear Sarah. 

Sarah is now ready to see the game!

I'm afraid that I forgot to take a picture of the finished appliqué, once it had been sewn on. Here is the appliqué before it got machine satin stitched.

Blue Jays appliqué ready for its satin stitch.

This is the photo that I sent Sarah before I stitched it. She asked that it be moved to the right, closer to the two flowers on her t-shirt.

Sarah asked me if I could make her this t-shirt she saw on Instagram. It's from instagram.com/studiomooi.ca/ and was posted October 25, 2025 if you want to find it. I'm afraid that it took me this long to make it but it was just in time for them to see the game last weekend. Sarah chose the fabric - it really is cute! 


Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt

I've gotten far with the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt but didn't get it finished for our friends' 40th wedding anniversary. I just can't do all nighters or quilting marathons any more. I really am getting older (and some would say wiser). In the afternoon before the party, I just sent our friends a quick picture of the quilt. Here it is.

Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt on Saturday morning

Once the pressure of finishing the quilt was gone, I even managed to FMQ a lot of the centre panel with the lake and park before leaving for the party. Three weeks ago I posted the list of things I needed to do by the end of July. It didn't all get done, but here it is. I've added the final steps in finishing the quilt and what's left is in red. 

Plans for the rest of July/August
  • Finish FMQ the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt
    • First row: finish grass and details in the yards and houses ✓
    • Second row: finish sky ✓, pond/park and the last house
    • Third row: finish night sky, yards and house details ✓
    • Cut and bind the quilt
  • Make the teal house for the Quilter's Cove QAL ✓
  • Make the Blue Jays appliqué and attach it to the t-shirt ✓
  • Continue sewing together hexie flowers ✓








I'll be linking up to the August OMG (One Monthly Goal). This quilt will get finished!!!

Playing with Watercolour on Fabric

I know that I don't want to learn to paint but I do want to learn to add watercolour to fabric for stitching. This was my first attempt and I love it!

After watching a few videos on watercolour painting, everyone said that having a good (expensive) set of paint was worth it. So, a few months ago I was in a paper shop in the Ottawa market area and bought a small set of very fine watercolour paints. Everyone was correct - the pigments are so much stronger and easier to work with. I didn't prep any of my fabric although everything is always washed when it come in. I will iron them to help set the paint. I'm not planning on using them for anything that needs to be washed, so they should be OK.

My clean up fabric, a vintage doily and white fabric

What's happening in the back yard!

I couldn't resist sharing this with you. I bought a corn feeder for the squirrels but the corn that comes with it are not available, so I dehydrated my own corn. It took the squirrels one day to eat it all up. I'm now dehydrating more!

Squirrel eating the dehydrated corn on the cob


What I learned
  • The Blue Jays t-shirt appliqué went well. My satin stitch is not great but good enough. One day I'll practice some more - it's the only way that I want to raw-edge appliqué.
  • When making the appliqué I ended up using the white fabric as a background and sewed every piece on that. That really helped since I just cut around the finished logo once I was done.
  • I am getting older and can't handle stress well (I never could frankly!) So not finishing the quilt on time for the party was not a big surprise. I really need to pace myself.
  • As I mentioned, once the pressure was off, it was fun to keep FMQ it again.
  • I know that the last part of the FMQ is the fiddly parts - flowers, details on houses, etc. That means that I need to be patient and accept the thread changes required.
  • I did have more tension problems and they were with one type of less expensive cotton thread. I'm now avoiding them for this project.
  • I'm so happy with my watercolour painted fabric. I remember the lady on the video saying that the paint dries lighter, but I don't think that this is the case with the expensive paints. They look as vibrant as when I painted them.
  • I'm hoping that this fabric will inspire me to stitch up something cool!
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, particularly the August OMG. You may want to check some out. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Oh Scrap!,


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. 

Gwyned Trefethen has done some thread painting but it's very time consuming. She's glad that she can now use her machine embroidery with her thread painting. She shared with us a few of her early thread painting pieces. Here is Spring Chorus.

Spring Chorus, thread painted by Gwyned

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts shared with us this very lovely quilt called Boxed In. The quilt is in the Summer 2026 issue of Quilter’s World. Unfortunately it was shipped out but never made it back. That's such a shame. Sent the quilt some good vibes so that it makes its way back to her.😍

Boxed In by Preeti

Close-up of Boxed In by Preeti

It's now your turn!😍

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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