Slow stitching Update

To try to minimize the evenings when I go home and do absolutely nothing quilty,  I joined The 100 Day Project (#the100dayproject) on Instagram. Will it work? I guess we'll find out...

The 100 Day Project on Instagram

Herringbone stitch added to the mix

Why would I want to add this to my plate? Well, it's on Instagram, so it takes about 2 minutes to post, which is a plus. Also, even if I'm wiped, it would be nice to do something that is productive but simple and stress free. My answer to that is to follow #the100dayproject and at the very least do 10 minutes of hand-stitching (embroidery or English paper piecing, etc) a day. It's a goal and no one will care if I do it or not - but it would be nice!

I won't be posting everything on the blog, but I'm sure that I can manage an occasional update. 😊

While I was practicing the herringbone stitch and playing with hexies, I created a fabric page dedicated to the Herringbone stitch.

I got the idea from Janine at Rainbow Hare, who is also participating in the Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST). I get bored easily and love the embroidery work that she is doing. One of her ideas is to create a page of the different stitches. You can check it out in the Related links below.

This is my Herringbone page so far. I've been experimenting with the size and angles of the stitches, and of course the more colour the better. And, just for something different, I added hexies to the mix. I'm starting to think that everything is better with hexies (and chocolate)!

Herringbone page

I started the chain stitch page a while back. This week, I did a little bit of embroidery in the car on my way to work. It was a really great way to start the day. I'm going to try to keep that up!

Chain Stitch page

I've also working on the final hexie flowers for my Kingfisher Stitch Along. The Stitch Along started last May and finished in July, so I'm not a year late....yet. Hopefully the sewing of the diamonds will go well. My objective is to finish it by the end of July, so that it's only one year late!

Last two diamonds coming along

Love that blue-black batik!

What I learned

• I need a variety of small projects to keep me going. If I have a few easy ones started, I'm more likely to pick one up in the evening. That's the theory anyways.
• I'm still following TAST but getting pretty far behind. When I feel ambitious I can work on new embroidery stitches, and when I'm not, I'll just do more chain stitch or practice other stitches that I'm getting better at.
• I also want to experiment with the size of the stitches as well as the size of the embroidery thread and perle cotton I use.
• I have a colleague at work who is learning to embroider - so next week we are going to embroider during our lunch.

Related links

• Janine at Rainbow Hare, A Little Stitching 
• Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) with Pintangle
• Kingfisher Stitch Along
• Embroidery, Hexies and Art in Florence, December 26, 2018

Linking parties

I have posted all of these on Instagram, as well as many others. If you're on Instagram, you can follow me at https://www.instagram.com/quiltinglearningcombo/

I will also be linking up to many fun parties. Let's see what's up in quilty blogland! Slow Sunday Stitching, Moving it Forward, Design Wall Monday, Monday Making, What I Made Monday, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday,

Adding Color and Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks (week 224) link-up.

Free Motion Mavericks

Lotus flower

A month ago, I foolishly thought that spring had finally arrived in Ottawa. During yesterday's small snow storm, I heard some not-so-funny guy mention that we had spring two weeks ago and that next week would be summer. That's not very funny because it's happened before. Since my favourite seasons are spring and fall, this would not be good news.

So, spring or not, I decided to add some colour to the free motion quilting (FMQ) that I created to celebrate the coming of spring.

Although this image is not great, you can click on it for a better look.

Spring is in the air FMQ

Adding a little bit of colour
was not very impressive

I had started FMQ with grey thread but originally I was going to use a variety of coloured thread. Since the piece was very dull, I wondered if I could add different colours over the grey thread to create some interest.

At first, going over the grey just added colour over the grey. It was not impressive. You can see the results in the image. Since it looked better in the flowers that were densely quilted, I just kept on FMQ.

After going over the grey many, many times, it started to look pretty good.

Adding colour to the original FMQ with grey thread

Here are some details.

The flowers are brighter after a lot of FMQ

Even the pond gets a make-over.

More colour over the grey

What do you think? Adding the coloured thread over the original grey certainly makes the FMQ stand out. I don't think that I would do this on purpose, but this did let me keep practicing and I now have a piece that is fun. Of course now I'm going to have to embellish it 😊

What I learned

• The finished grey piece was a good practice piece but nothing else. Adding colour to it now gives it some potential to be a fun mini quilt.
• FMQ over something that is already quilted is different than FMQ on a blank fabric. Because I had to follow the original stitching, I ended up FMQ the flowers from the top down so that I could see what I was doing.
• Did you notice the blue flowers that I added behind the snow drops? I did go over the FMQ a few times to make the stitching denser but they are pretty dull compared to the other flowers around them.
• In the original piece, I was pretty disappointed with the lotus flowers in the pond. After adding some variegated pink thread, I really like them. I was even able to change the original shape of a couple of them. 
• I think that the water in the pond adds a lot to the piece. Now I need to find a frog!

Related links

• Spring is in the air with Free Motion Mavericks, March 13, 2019

Linking parties
I will be linking up this post to other linky parties since we need to get the word out and see what else is going on in the FMQ world! Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Midweek Makers, Off the Wall Fridays, Finished or Not Friday, Foto Fun Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, TGIFF, Design Wall Monday, Monday Making, Moving it Forward, What I Made Monday,

Wonderful news! This post was featured on Midweek Makers. Thanks so much Susan!

Thank you to everyone who linked up two weeks ago. The FMQ was wonderful and it was really difficult to choose only one project to highlight. If you didn't see it, you really should check out Alycia's string quilt with its matchstick quilting and Greek keys in the border!

If you keep forgetting to link up, you can always follow this blog by email. Then you will see when the Free Motion Mavericks link up is on. You can also do the same at Muv's blog, Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Moose Cubicle Mini Quilt

It's a cubicle mini - a little late because I didn't finish on time for the March One Monthly Goal (OMG) but not too late since my son is still working in his cubicle 😊

Moose Cubicle Mini

I've made a few foundation paper pieced minis using Made by Marney's patterns. This is the latest.

A Moose for you

Since I added a border to the mini, I actually remembered to used the Extended-border binding technique. It really worked out well. I stitched in the ditch around the border and then free motion quilted (FMQ) the mini, up to the border. I then flipped the border towards the mini and cut the batting and backing about one inch from the sewn edge of the border.

Cutting the batting and backing

I had ironed the binding so that I knew where to trim the batting and backing. At the bottom of the image below, you can see that the batting reaches to the border (if it's laid flat). Once the batting and backing were trimmed, I flipped the mini over and hand-stitched the border to the back, as if it was a binding. For more details see the link to the tutorial in the Related links below.

The border will cover the back, as if it was a binding.

Here is the mini from the back. The backing and batting have been cut and it's now time to fold the borders over them.

Getting ready to sew down the border

A moose for you

What I learned

• I used a different fabric for the bottom of the mini since I wanted it to look like vegetation. Next time, I think that I'll just add an extra piece between the sky and the bottom so that the vegetation doesn't go all the way up to the antlers.
• After trimming the batting and backing, I realised that the moose's antlers were not very visible, so I added some FMQ.
• Preparing the extended-border was much easier this time than the last.
• I used a quilting marking pencil that turned out to not be erasable! I got rid of it, but not before making a mark that won't go away!
• I could have made it on time for the March OMG (barely) except that I didn't have two small matching buttons in all of my button stash!
• As much as I love linking up to OMG, I'm going to give myself a break this month - I really need to just go with the flow for a while :-)

Related links

• Extended-border binding technique
• A loon, a bear and a binding tutorial, November 25, 2018
• Made by Marney website and her patterns on Craftsy and Etsy

Linking parties
I am linking up with Muv at Free Motion Mavericks as well as many of the fun link-up parties in the neighbourhood. Let's go see what's on! Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, TGIFF, Finished or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Brag About Your Beauties, Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward, What I Made Monday, Tuesday Color Linky Party,

Project details

A Moose for you
8¾ " x 9"
Materials: cotton and buttons
Techniques: Foundation paper pieced, free motion quilting, extended-border binding technique

My first baby quilt on Throwback Thursday

Welcome to Throwback Thursday. I'm co-hosting with Sandra from mmm! quilts. We will take turns hosting on alternate months.

My first baby quilt

My son was looking for something in his closet last weekend and took out his first baby quilt. I made it with my mother in 1991! We picked out a cute dinosaur wallpaper border and made the quilt from the design.

My first baby quilt - made with my mother (1991)

I don't really remember making the quilt but I do remember making the matching skirt and bumper pads for the crib - so it's possible that my mom made most of the quilt - but I did draw the design using the projector that she borrowed. We'll just call it a collaboration 😊

My son in his crib. You can see the dinosaur
wallpaper at the top of the image.

At Grand-maman's house with the quilt

 So that cute baby turned into this amazing young man.

My son with his first quilt

Related links

• Here is the link to the Throwback Thursday page and the schedule.

Linky parties
I will be linking up to some great link-ups. Let's see what's going on in Virtual Quilt Land! Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward, What I Made Monday, Tuesday Color Linky Party,

Thowback Thursday Link-up

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

All About Strings Blog Hop and Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to the All About Strings Blog Hop and the Free Motion Mavericks (Week 222) link-up.

All About Strings Blog Hop

I challenged myself to make this string quilt into an art quilt. Here is the journey and result.

I thought that I was making a spiderweb string quilt but the instructions I found on the Internet were not correct and by the time I figured it out, I decided to just keep going.

"Tries to play nice with others" 

The background is a Kona cotton solid. I used two layers of cotton batting for the first time. I really wanted the quilting to show and I figured that this was the perfect mini quilt to test it on.

My favourite part of making this piece was the free motion quilting (FMQ). It was such a great opportunity to find designs and keep practicing. I separated each triangle into 7 sections, leaving a 1" section empty between each FMQ section (sort of).

I searched my FMQ journal for ideas as well as a few of my go-to books. I then practiced some of the designs before starting to FMQ.

Drawing out various designs 

 Here are some of the sections:

FMQ flowers, wavy lines, circles and triangles

Trying out all kinds of FMQ variations

Had to include some feathers!

As I was quilting, I kept thinking of what to do for the "special block" that would illustrate "Tries to play nice with others".

All is quilted except for the "special block"

In the last year, I've fallen in love with hexies. I try to incorporate them into my pieces in all kinds of fun ways. 😊 The "special block" just had to include hexies!

Adding hexies whenever I can!

So, have you figured out why this piece is called "Tries to play nice with others"? It's about being the same, but different; about trying to fit in, without ever really being able to. It's also about celebrating what makes us unique or special!

What I learned

• Not all quilting instructions one the web are correct!
• Turns out that a bunch of 45 degree angles make a square!!! 
• It didn't take me long to decide to go with the flow and create with what I had.
• It was an piecing oops that determined the title and final look of the quilt. I just had to embrace the design opportunity!
• Quilting with 2 cotton batting was terrific. I will certainly do that again.

Related links

• Here is the link to the participants of the blog hop. I hope that you'll take the time to see the great work that everyone has done! 

Linking Parties

I'll be linking this post to many fun linky parties. Come and see what's going on! Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, What I Made Monday, Wandering Camera, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, TGIFF, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

Project details

"Tries to play nice with others"

Tries to play nice with others

22½" x 22½"

Materials: Kona cotton and cotton scraps

Techniques: String piecing, free motion quilting, English Paper Piecing

Free Motion Mavericks
Welcome to my week to host Free Motion Mavericks (week 222). I hope that as you read this post as part of the All About Strings blog hop, that you'll take the time to link-up your strings project!

Thank you to everyone who linked up two weeks ago. A special thank you to Gail for linking up her gorgeous runner. Congrats on a great finish! If you didn't see it, you really should check it out!

Gail's lovely FMQ runner

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Discovering Project Quilting - Chocolate Cravings

Do you know about Project Quilting? I just found out about it through Sherry of Powered by Quilting's post. It's 8:30 pm here and the project needs to be finished and posted by noon Central Time. According to the little countdown clock, I have 16 hours to create a project that is related to "Craving Chocolate".

Project Quilting - Craving Chocolate

As I'm writing this, I'm frantically thinking of what I could finish for this challenge. I don't know if you remember but in the Instagram event, 100 hexies in 100 days, there was a week for "Something Sweet". Here's the picture that I posted and what I wrote about it.

"It was the brown fabric with caramel coloured dots that gave me the idea for this. Doesn't it look good enough to eat?"

Week 12 - Something Sweet
#100hexies100days2018

With this in mind, I am going to attempt to make a completed mini art quilt for Project Quilting. See you soon! (This was at 8:30 pm, just before taking Chevy for her walk)

At 2:30 am, I was quite happy with my results. I had done everything that I could since my sewing machine is in the bedroom and hubby was asleep! It's not a pretty picture since my good light is next to my sewing machine.

Chocolate Cravings - progress at 2:30 am

It was difficult to sleep last night because I was so excited.... so it was even harder to get up at 8:30 this morning.

After feeding the dog, (I still haven't had my coffee yet!!!) upstairs I went to my sewing machine. I have to admit that my brain was rather fuzzy so instead of finishing the edges envelope style, I improvised and finished them with a zigzag stitch. I actually saw some great textile art pieces yesterday that were finished this way. Of course, they were mounted on canvas, but still, it worked 😊

Chocolate Cravings

The proof is in the eating....it was great chocolate!

 What I learned

• This was too much fun. I know what I'm doing next January - participating in all of the Project Quilting challenges!
• It would be so cool if I could figure out how to finish a piece before I actually start it so that I could get it right....I'm not sure that this is going to happen, except on major pieces (which I avoid because planning just adds to the pressure!)
• I really, really need a coffee but it's amazing what I can do without coffee...when motivated!

Related links

• Project Quilting's main page
• EPP or English Paper Piecing Fun, December 1, 2018
• Thank you Sherry at Powered by Quilting for introducing me to Project Quilting!

Linking parties

This post will be linked to the Project Quilting, Season 10, Challenge 6 link-up. I did it!!!

Off the Wall, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Show Off Saturday, Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scraps!, Brag About Your Beauties, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward, What I Made Monday, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Friday,   

I linked up to Sandra's DrEAMi! link because if this isn't a squirrel project, nothing is!

Check out what everyone has made, and make sure to VOTE for your favourite.

Project Details

Chocolate Cravings
Size: 8 ½" x 9 ½"
Materials: Cotton, embroidery floss
Techniques: English Paper Piecing, appliqué, embroidery, free motion quilting

All About Strings preview

I haven't been doing many quilty things this week but now that the weekend is here and that I slept in a bit, I finally have some energy to blog and quilt. Thank goodness for weekend!!!

All About Strings Blog Hop

It begins on Monday! I hope that you'll be joining us for this great blog hop hosted by Carla at Creatin' in the Sticks. I can't wait to see everyone's work. I'm sure that they will all be amazing 😊

I've had so much fun playing with my pretty scraps. I'm glad that at some point I decided to clean up my scraps and make strips and squares with them. My box isn't that big but it holds many strips and blocks, more than enough to create this lovely!

I will be posting my strings project on Thursday - so please come back to see the final piece. I challenged myself to create an art quilt that, if finished on time, I could show at Fibre Fling 2019. There is no doubt that it will be finished by Thursday and that it will be in the show on April 5 & 6.

A preview of  my All About Strings Blog Hop piece

The piece is called "Tries to play well with others." Come back and see why!

This week I have to finish my String piece and then add labels and make packing containers for my Fibre Fling pieces. It's going to be a busy weekend and week.


Paint Pouring Fun

Two weeks ago, my artist friend Lyne came to visit. We had a great time talking, eating and of course, making art. This time, I hosted a paint pouring party for my daughter and her friends.

We all chose 3 or 4 colours and then did some paint pouring magic with Lyne's expert guidance. It was a lot of fun. Here are some of the results!

This one is mine - I seem to be in
a purple-pink mood these days!

My daughter used grey, gold, red and blue
I love the way that she didn't cover all of the canvas
It reminds me of an under-sea world.

Doesn't it have an ocean vibe?

Isn't it lovely? I love the yellow peaking through.

These two minis were made
from the leftover paint!

Free Motion Mavericks

If you've been busy free motion quilting, don't forget to link up to Free Motion Mavericks. It's Muv's turn and the link-up is open until Sunday midnight.

After that, come and link-up with me on Thursday. It's going to be a very busy post since it will include both the All About Strings blog hop and Free Motion Mavericks!

Related links

• Here is the schedule with links for the All About Strings Blog Hop!
• Fibre Fling 2019 with Out of the Box Fibre Artists 
• Free Motion Mavericks with Muv

Linking parties

I am linking up to Muv's Free Motion Mavericks as well as several other cool linkies. Let's go see what's going on! Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Friday Foto Fun, Oh Scraps!,