Thursday, September 12, 2024

Journals and blocks on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊. I hope that you've had a good week. It was cold, it's now hot - so it's the usual end of summer weather. I love it! I got very efficient this week, but not sewing or quilting wise. Oh well, we all have those weeks. Here are a couple of updates.

Getting Ready for Scrapbook Revival 2024

There have been many summits this summer and I have participated in both the Conquer Your Fabric Scraps Summit and the Free Motion Quilting Summit. I enjoyed both and there was at least one session a day that was relevant to me. The upcoming Scrapbook Revival is usually a lot of fun. They are open for registration and have sent out three sessions to get us started. One of these is to make a journal or scrapbook to use during the revival.

Work journal for hubby

I made this journal for my hubby - who likes blank paper and a journal that lies flat. These fit both criteria (and it was lovingly made by his wife, even better😁). It's not much to look at but that was on purpose.

The front of the journal with a pocket

The journal front and back are made of scrapbooking heavy paper (card stock). These pages are attached to the front and back. I added an pocket to contain papers but if you don't want to have it open, you can glue these pages together.

This journal lies flat so it's great for art, or note taking.

The other thing that is different about this journal is that the spine is glued so that there are no gaps between the signatures when it's open. It's a great idea, but easier said than done. I managed to get glue on the edges of the front and back covers - and that's nearly impossible to get rid of. Apparently it gets easier with practice - like everything else!

New journal from the front

I made a second smaller journal that contains only one signature - a 5 hole pamphlet stitch journal. I managed to forget to add the back and front covers when I stitched the journal but it turns out that you can add the cover after, it just makes for two sets of stitches that is only noticeable in the middle of the journal.

5 hole pamphlet stitch journal with two sets of stitches

5 hole pamphlet stitch journal

Finally, the best part of this session is the teacher. I love finding a new teacher - her name is Chanel of Bitter Lemon Bindery. I love Chanel's calm way of explaining things. I actually bought her book, "Handmade Books at Home" - it's really excellent! I've included all of her info, including how to register for the Revival, in the Related links below.

Floral Fusion

I haven't had much time to stitch, but I did finish the next two blocks of the Floral Fusion Sew Along and found more fabric to add for the other flowers. I'm sure that these fabrics will play well with the others.

Floral Fusion blocks made so far
and fabric to use on the other blocks

Floral Fusion Sew Along

What I learned

I'm not used to being too busy to stitch but that may happen a bit more in the next few months since I've signed a part time contract with my old employer. What can I say, I really can use the money and it will be nice to reconnect with colleagues.
I join a lot of the free summits - some don't have as much to offer as I would like but I realise that I'm more advanced than their target markets. When it's free, even one or two relevant sessions is worth watching when I have the time.
One good thing about the summits is getting to know the teachers. I often sign up for their newsletter and some of them are really good! I'll write a post about some of the FMQ sites that I've found.
It turns out that I still enjoy making journals. If I can get my studio better organized and cleaned up, I would love to have a space to use just for making books and journals. Hopefully it will happen soon.
Now that I've found more fabric from my stash, I'm ready to make some wonderful flower blocks. I'm thinking of stitching the flower appliqués down as I quilt.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 498 of Free Motion Mavericks! It's been another busy week for the linking party - and I'm reading the posts as I write this one. Maybe one day I'll be better organised...but don't put any money on it😁. It's great to see all of your posts. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Deb, the Scrappy Quilter had two log cabin finished quilts to share! The first is a two-colour quilt while the other is very scrappy.

Deb's red and white log cabin quilt

Deb's multi-coloured log cabin quilt

Sandra of mmm quilts has finished her fourth Postcard from Sweden quilt. Do you think that she'll actually get to keep this one? I sure hope so for her sake 😍. She has images of her four FMQ quilts in the post. Check them out!

Sandra's Postcard from Sweden with
dot-to-dot and swirls FMQ

Sandra's fourth Postcard from Sweden quilt

Denise has shared with us her finished Floral Fusion quilt. What a beauty! I love the swirly FMQ that gives it additional mouvement.

Denise's Floral Fusion quilt

A close up of Denise's Floral Fusion quilt

It's now your turn.

Thursday, September 05, 2024

Floral Fusion and hand-stitching on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! The daylight is getting shorter, the nights are cooler and I'm a very happy stitcher. I've been spending lots of time in my backyard - a little bit of gardening but mostly enjoying the wildlife and stitching quietly. This is what I envisioned retirement to be. 😎 Let's see what I've been up to.

Floral Fusion

This is a sew along with Denise of The Quiltery. I try to participate in Denise's events whenever I can. Floral Fusion is perfect for me - appliqué, simple and scrappy. I've made the first set of blocks and am in the process of getting the second set done.

Block 10, the first two

Four of the first block (10) that was released

Join in the fun - there are many blocks left to go!

Floral Fusion

There's not much to say about the process except that I dug into my "floral bin" of fat quarters and choose some older fabric that plays well together. I'm hoping to have enough but I may have to raid other bins. I have floral fabric in pretty much every bin but the "floral bin" contains mostly the fabrics that have multiple colours, so don't really fit in my bins by colour.

I have had to re-do a few of the fusible webbing since I sometimes forget to place it on the back of the fabric! When I get lucky, I notice before I've ironed it on!!!

Hand-stitching/Embroidery

I hesitate to call some of my hand-stitching embroidery because I kind of make it up as I go - so some of the stitches are not recognizable as specific stitches - and I'm totally OK with that!

Stitching on paper

A few weeks ago I eco-printed on paper. Since the eco-printing is pretty good, but not as a composition, I've cut out some of the prints to stitch on. This is the first one.

Stitching on my eco-printed paper

Almost Daily Stitching 2024

This started as a Daily Stitching project in January but it didn't take me long to realise that when it comes to my art, daily is not in my vocabulary. I do what I want, when I want and I am all over the place - that's me and I've stopped fighting it.

So, I did a post in January and then mentioned the project in my First Quarter Check-in. There hasn't been an update since my first post, so here are some of the blocks. I am now more than a quarter (25%) done.

This is what the tablecloth looks like now

I took a few pictures on my swing.

The left side of the tablecloth

The right side of the tablecloth

The pictures below were taken as I was stitching outside this week. For inspiration I looked on the web and found Kitty Wilkin's (aka Night Quilter) #1yearofstitches from 2017. I absolutely love the work that she did and have used some of her stitches as inspiration. The top block is inspired by her while the block underneath are stitches that I've done with extra thread. I'm having difficulty threading a needle, so I try to use it all up before changing colours. This worked out really well.

Learning the Hungarian
Chain Stitch

Two completed blocks

Here is a close-up of some of my stitching.

Close-up of my Almost Daily Stitching 2024

What I learned

I've really enjoyed making the first block of the Floral Fusion pattern. I do have to remember to iron the fusible web to the back of the fabric!
When stitching on eco-printed paper, I mostly follow the lines, but I realised that I am free to stitch anything, anywhere. That is very liberating!
You may notice that I'm all over the place when it comes to projects and techniques. What can I say....I get bored and distracted easily 😁 I have decided though that I want to keep working on and learning more about hand-stitching and embroidery. Before committing to an expensive course (that sounds amazing!) I want to spend time to see if my interest will last longer than a few days - so far so good.
As I mentioned above, I don't try to do anything "daily" anymore. I do what I want, when I want and I am all over the place - that's me and I've stopped fighting it.
I hope that you'll check out Kitty Wilkin's (aka Night Quilter) #1yearofstitches from 2017. Her work is colourful, all over the place and gorgeous! The links to her website and Instagram are below.
For stitching on my tablecloth, I now use a hoop. It's not for the tension - it's to help me find where I am on the piece!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 497 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a lovely 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 is now an affiliate with Silly Moon Quilting rulers. She highlighted some of the quilts that she's done with the various Silly Moon rulers. What not check them out and see if you'd like to use Silly Moon Rulers too!

Row by Row quilted with the "Beanie" rulers to make
a Baptist Fan design without marking!

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made this really lovely Pumpkin Mini. She stippled the background and then did lovely dot-to-dot FMQ in the stars and pumpkin. I love what she FMQ in the leaves!

Vicki's Pumpkin Mini

Vicki FMQ some lovely flowing lines in the leaves

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has her Diva quilt pattern available in her Etsy Store. This is a lovely, colourful quilt that was in the Make Modern magazine. She finished it using her signature squiggly stitch.

Preeti's Diva quilt

Melva from Melva Loves Scraps finished a customer's Baby's First Year quilt. It's so lovely - what a great memory quilt.

Baby's First Year Quilt by Melva

It's now your turn

Thursday, August 29, 2024

International Dog Day and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! Monday was International Dog Day and Susan is holding her annual party. I've been making scrappy mats and since I'm addicted, I thought that I'd make a mat to fit under Poppy's water bowl so that she could appreciate it when she visits. 😁

Scrappy Mat for Poppy

I was out of town (more about that in a special post) so I didn't have time to free motion quilt (FMQ) the mat yet. Since I watched many of the videos last week from the FMQ Summit, I want my scrappy mats to be quilting in designs that I learned during the summit. I've been practicing one of the designs by drawing it but it's taken quite a few pages to get it right! Hopefully I'll have my scrappy mats quilted for you soon!

Front of the scrappy Poppy mat 🐕

Back of the scrappy Poppy mat 🐶

Poppy hasn't visited since I made the mat, so there's no picture of Poppy with the mat, but I do have lots of Poppy pictures! If you're wondering, Poppy is my son and his fiancé's dog.

Poppy really wanting a treat 😀

Poppy chilling in the sun in my back yard

Poppy's coy look 😍

Poppy with her Rocky Raccoon toy!

Poppy's water bowl (made by my daughter) on her new mat

Poppy's water bowl on the back side of the mat

Here is the other scrappy improv mat that I made last week. Once more I used an orphan block and just added fun fabric to finish it off. It's finished off pillowcase style and is now ready to FMQ.

A second scrappy improv mat ready for FMQ

What I learned

I checked to see if Canada was also celebrating National Dog Day and it turns out that it's an international celebration, so Happy International Dog Day (on August 26!) Hope you had a chance to hug your/a dog!😊
I've had a great time making scrappy improv mats. I used the lovely fat quarter paw print fabric as well as other scraps, including the centre piece which is from a panel. I know that I have many other doggy fabric scraps....but I'm not sure where they are! When I stumble upon them, I'll put them where they now belong. 🐕
I used the pillowcase method to finish both mats. It's such an easy finish and once it's stitched ⅛" from the edge and the opening is closed, there's nothing left to do but FMQ.
I'm thrilled to say that I remembered my lesson learned for doing a pillowcase finish - what ever is facing the front will be the back!
I also learned a valuable lesson when I made my first half-square triangle block! I thought that I was doing so well not having to look up how to make them....well, if you check out the front of Poppy's mat, you'll see at there are two half-square triangle blocks. The one on top was made first, and it has a half-square triangle block made up of the same fabric 😁! The second block, with two different fabrics, was made after I remembered to use two different fabrics!
So the lesson is: use two different fabrics facing each other to make half-square triangle blocks. I'm sure that you don't need the reminder so this is for me!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 496 of Free Motion Mavericks! Wow! What a productive week! It's a long featured section but well worth it! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué made another of her lovely baby quilts - Baby Quilt Floralies - to donate. I really love this pattern and just might have to make one too! Frédérique quilted-in-the-ditch around the blocks and border and then quilted straight lines in the outside border. She also made her quilt gender-neutral by using both blue and pink for her binding.


Frédérique's Baby Quilt Floralies

Frédérique quilted the outside border - very effective!

I think that Gail of Quilting Gail had lots of fun making these two Elephant quilts for the It's a Jungle Blog Hop! They are so cute. All the quilting was FMQ with echoing the elephant shapes and stippling the elephants themselves.

Gail's two elephant quilts

Margo Young of MY Quilts and Crafts made a really striking wall hanging using a new alphabet pattern. You'll have to check out her post to learn more! Margo used straight line quilting to finish it off.

Margo's alphabet quilt

Deb the Scrappy Quilter had a very productive week finishing up quilts and picking cherries! The string quilt is the twin of the peak that we had last week of her finished quilt. The blocks were quilting with a large zig-zag design.

Deb's string blocks quilted with a large zig-zag design

Deb's string quilt looks like jewels set in the quilt!

Deb's yellow Irish Chain scrappy quilt

Preeti of Sew Preeti has shared her Blush Quilt which she made in the 2024 Pantone Colour. Preeti loves to play with colour values and it shows! What lovely gradation of peach!

Preeti's lovely Blush Quilt

Last week Melva was able to reveal her 50th Anniversary Quilt. It's lovely and was obviously greatly appreciated. What a great idea to have messages on the quilt of the couple's siblings.

Melva's message and signature 50th Anniversary Quilt

Anne-Marie of Stories from the Quilting Room custom quilted a customer's Looper Quilt. Since it was to enter in a show, Anne-Marie went all out! It's another Wow quilt! She used individual FMQ motifs for the coloured strip sections and then went all out in the background!

Anne-Marie's custom quilted client quilt

Anne-Marie's custom quilted graffiti-style FMQ

Carla of Hawk Studios is working hard to get those deadlines done, and it includes lots of FMQ! She's been FMQ this quilt to enter it into the fall show. I know that she had lots of fun FMQ among the flowers 😊

Carla FMQ among the flowers

Carla FMQ in the sashing

Sally of Crafts, Cavies and Cooking has just finished a lovely quilted jacket that she made using a sweatshirt. Sally will be entering it into her local fair. She used two different sets of fabric and it looks great!