Thursday, April 02, 2026

A Orange Scrappy FMQ Finish

Allô and welcome 😊 Another week has flown by! It's now April and still pretty cold but above freezing during the day. My backyard is a mess but the birds and critters are finding all kinds of goodies under the melting snow. There is a lot of nesting activities - I love it!

FMQ the orange scrappy quilt

The free motion quilting (FMQ) is finished! I did end up doing a lot of dot-to-dot as taught by Angela Walters.

FMQ orange scrappy quilt

I think that the FMQ went so well because I used a FriXion pen and ruler to mark the lines before FMQ it. The whole point of dot-to-dot is that you can look from one point to another and FMQ straight lines between them. Unfortunately my unmarked lines are often very wobbly. Another advantage of marking is that it gives me time to think about what I'll be FMQ. When I don't mark the lines, I just tend to wing it...and that's not always the best solution.

Marked lines before FMQ

Marked lines and FMQ

The top border of the quilt is wider than the other borders. I used a real stencil to mark the lines. For the other borders, I just FMQ large loops. You can see these on the back of the quilt in the photo below.

FMQ the borders

Now I just have to trim the quilt and bind it. I'm not sure where it's going but I'm glad that it's almost done.

A full back view - before all the borders were FMQ

Another look at the quilt, on a windy day

April's One Monthly Goal

I didn't realise that the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL was held in 2023! It's been finished almost 3 years ago. I would like to give it my friends this year. The quilt measures 68" x 65" and will require a lot of FMQ!

Rainbow Neighbourhood flimsy

For April, my goal is to sandwich it and start on the quilting-in-the-ditch. I think that this is doable if life cooperates 😁

What I learned

Marking the lines of FMQ designs helps me by letting me know where I'm going. Although they are far from perfect, by following a marked line they tend to turn out straighter.
As I mentioned, marking the lines means that I've planned what I want to quilt, so my FMQ is more deliberate.
Also, when I'm too tired to FMQ, I can still mark the lines so that I know what to do the next day.
I will definitely be doing this when I can. Using this type of FMQ means that the quilt is less densely quilted - a good thing for baby quilts.
I hope that I'll be able to take some nice outdoor photos when the quilt is bound and finished. Right now everything outside is filthy - not a place for a baby quilt!

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 feel free to grab the button.

Kate from Life in Pieces finished quilting-as-you-go her Kate's Choice quilt. It started as Grandmother's Choice - a quilt along about women's rights. When it became a UFO, Kate decided to choose her own blocks and called it Kate's Choice. It's so lovely. You'll want to read her post for more info. I've been looking forward to her finish since Grandmother's Choice is also one of my UFOs.

Kate's finished Kate's Choice quilt

Details of Kate's quilt-as-you-go and her border

Gail from Quilting Gail finished her SAHRR 2026 for the parade. It's so colourful. Have a look at some of the FMQ details. She did some ruler quilting and FMQ.

Gail's finished SAHRR 2026

Details of Gail's FMQ and ruler work quilting

Janine of Rainbow Hare was able to finish her SAHRR 2026 on time for the parade, even if she wasn't able to join in much. After deciding that the quilt would be a playmat for the children, the quilt came together nicely!

Janine's SAHRR 2026 finish

Janine's quilt - a colourful playmat

Brenda of Songbird Designs custom quilted her SAHRR 2026 finish. She used ruler work and FMQ. You'll want to check out her post and look at this quilt in detail!

Brenda's custom quilted SAHRR 2026

It's now your turn! 😍

Saturday, March 28, 2026

A Fun Red House for A Quilter's Cove QAL

Hi and welcome 😀 I hope that Spring has arrived in your cove! We've had snow and cold evening temperatures and some warmer days, perfect for maple syrup, so it's hard to complain (even if I do!) Welcome to March's parade of red houses for A Quilter's Cove QAL.

If you're looking for the I Quilted This! linking party, it's here.

Fun Red House

As usual, I realised that this weekend was the link up for the Quilter's Cove QAL and all I had done was figure out this month's colour - RED. I know that it's a start, but it does not make a house!

Since I wasn't in love with my last month's green houses, I decided to be whimsical. After seeing my red house, you might agree with me that this might be my strength! So I didn't bother with pictures, inspiration or reality - I just made a house with a bunch of fabric that I quickly found!

Fun red house for March

I started with hand-dyed fabric strips to make the sky. From there, I started cutting fabric for the roof, house, side yards and tree. The bottom of the block is a great funky piece that I bought recently. You can see most of it pinned down and taking a break for the night.

Pinning down the elements of the block

When I came back to it the next day, I changed the shapes of the windows and door. As I was stitching the windows, I remembered seeing windows with diamond grids. I really like that effect on them. You can click on the image to enlarge them.

Red house with diamond grid windows

Quilter's Cove so far

Three houses so far!

What I learned

Sometimes planning doesn't pay off, at least when it comes to my house blocks.
I usually take much more time agonizing about the yard but I like the simplicity of this in both my first and third house.
The FMQ in the yards will make the elements, like the rabbits, stand out more. That's going to be lots of fun!
The good thing about these blocks is that I can always change things when I put everything together. It's very easy to just cover a part that you don't like 😀
I kept this fun and I'm happy with the results.
I've looked into attic window blocks - I think that it could be done as a quilt-as-you-go.
So far the three blocks are different sizes but the attic windows could have rows of different sizes, so that could work.
I forgot to mention that the end of March is my blog's anniversary - it's been 14 years, since 2012!

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

It's a SAHRR 2026 Finish and I Quilted This!

Bonjour et bienvenue 😊 I'm so glad that you dropped by. For the first time EVER I have a flimsy finish that is on time for a Sew-Along (SAL), Quilt-Along (QAL) or Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) schedule. Most of them become UFO's although a few were finished a short time after.

SAHRR 2026 Finish

I'm so happy to present my finished flimsy. I don't want to keep calling this quilt the SAHRR 2026 quilt, so after some deliberation, it's now the All Grown Up quilt. If you'll remember, the four centre blocks came from the Growing Up QAL with Alida in 2017. So now the quilt is All Grown Up. See, that was another QAL that became a UFO 😉

All Grown Up is now a finished flimsy

What a difference taking a photo in the sun makes! The photo above was taken on a very cloudy day while the one below was taken in the afternoon sunlight. You can even see the shadow of tree branches on the quilt top! The "real" colours are the top photo, more maroon than pink. Once upon a time, these were my favourite colours. I still love them, they're just not my favourite anymore.

Have you noticed the difference between the flimsies, other than the colour? I though that I was finished but I decided to add a narrow maroon strip at the bottom of the quilt. I find that it looks more finished. It's narrower than the other borders because the quilt is long enough!

All Grown Up - almost finished.

Piecing the bottom row

Bottom row photo from my previous post

After my last post, I just had the bottom row to piece together...but I was getting bored 😕 What can I say, I don't like doing things the same way more than once, which is why I don't make big quilts with one block anymore.

I decided to add a horizontally pieced line between the first and second blocks. I had found a gray fabric so I used a small square, as well as some pinks to help pull all of the colours together. After the pineapple block, I used vertical strips of some of those same colours. I couldn't use them all though because the bottom row got too large!😁

Bottom row of All Grown Up - shacking things up!

I'm really happy with my All Grown Up quilt. I'm going to put it aside (but not too far so that I can find it easily again!) and then FMQ it. I'm really hoping to FMQ it this summer or fall because I'm looking forward to cuddling up in it. I also have some great ideas for quilting it!

I have two beautiful appliqué design books, Beautiful Botanicals by Deborah Kemball and Jacobean Rhapsodies by Patricia B Campbell & Mimi Ayars that I love but will not likely use for appliqué, however, what if I used the motifs to FMQ? Doesn't that sound like a great idea? The shapes are fairly simple and they really look amazing together. I'm adding this information in my post so that when I do start quilting it, I'll have written it down and can find it if I forget.😊

Jacobean Rhapsodies

Beautiful Botanicals

March One Monthly Goal

I almost forgot - finishing the flimsy of my SAHRR is my March One Monthly Goal (OMG). Thanks so much Anne-Marie for the added motivation!

What I learned

I can finish a SAHRR quilt top on time if I only make one, and it's not too complicated.
Although the flimsy is finished, I was pretty tired of it - which is why I got creative in the third row!
I'm looking forward to FMQ those nice negative spaces. They are not huge, but big enough to FMQ something interesting!
I did find those three missing blocks. I'll be adding them to the back of the quilt, when I've found the perfect backing fabric and I'm ready!
I added a new picture of the quilt in the Project details section because when I linked up, it kept cropping part of the quilt. I really need to remember to post some of the photos with space around them so that they can fit when cropped! Thanks JJ for your help with the photos 😀
I'm so happy that the flimsy part of this is finished - I have all kinds of projects to get to.
Spring Fling with Out Of The Box is coming soon, on April 24 - 25. I'll have one new hand-stitched piece for the show and I have a few ideas for pieces that are mostly finished but were never exhibited. Stay tuned for more information!

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 feel free to grab the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts finished up quilting a Heartstrings donation quilt as well as making a Lil bear hug quilt. They are so cute.

Kat's quilted Heartstring quilt

Kat's latest Lil bear hug quilt

Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué finished her two lovely play mats (tapis d'éveil) for her two brand new grand-nieces. They are so cute. If you're intrigued about how she made them, be sure to read her posts!

Frédérique's first play mat

Frédérique's second play mat

Sandra from mmm quilts made this amazing quilt for Project Quilting 17.5 It's called Circadian Rhythm. She deliberated a lot about each aspect of the quilt - it really is stunning!

Circadian Rhythm created by Sandra

Sandra's custom quilted piece

Sally from Crafts, Cavies and Cooking made this lovely Guinea Pig for Project Quilting 17.6. Here Handful of Guinea Pig is so cute!

Sally's Handful of Guinea Pig

Gwyned Trefethen also participated in Project Quilting 17.6 She made this gorgeous quilted gift bag.

Gwyned's quilted gift bag for Project Quilting 17.6

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, March 19, 2026

SAHRR , FMQ, and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 There are so many acronyms in this blog title - I feel like I could be back at work! So my Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) is almost a flimsy (quilt top) and this week I found calm by doing some free motion quilting (FMQ) on my orange scrappy baby quilt. It was a busy and productive week, and I'm glad that you're visiting!

Almost a SAHRR flimsy

Here is the top border added to the SAHRR piece. It went relatively well until I added the last piece. I was shocked when I discovered that it was about 2½" short since I was so sure that it would fit. At least it was easy to add extra fabric. You can see in the photo below that I gave it an extra inch or so for good measures. Everything will get trimmed before adding the final side borders.

SAHRR quilt with pieced side and top borders

I now have 3 blocks to add to the bottom and will do roughly what I did for the top border.

I had originally made this small block by sewing the smaller hour-glass blocks together. Unfortunately it didn't really look like hour-glass blocks.

Original small hour-glass blocks
sewn together

So I researched hour-glass quilts and found that they are usually made with a couple of colours and are set in different directions. Then I pulled apart my little block and made four more small hour-glass blocks with a purple background. I placed it within a block - so now I have the two larger blocks to set and then add the bottom border.

Three last blocks for the bottom

Next steps: The parade starts next week, so I'll have the flimsy done by then.

Sew the last three blocks into a bottom border and

Add the 4" final border.

Add the outer side borders. I don't trust my estimated measurements, so I'll see if it's the size I want once the side outer borders are on. 😕

FMQ a Scrappy Baby Quilt

I really needed a break from the SAHRR, so I got back to the scrappy baby quilt. I finished stitching it in-the-ditch, and then started FMQ. I remembered that I wanted a dot-to-dot quilting (à la Angela Walters) but somehow forgot about the dot-to-dot part and just started with Angela's Shape by Shape designs.

FMQ the scrappy quilt

The FMQ is really difficult to see because I used 100 wt. white Bottom Line thread. It worked well and I could see most of the quilting as I was doing it.

FMQ using mostly straight lines which I drew before quilting

FMQ details

Backing where you can see the stitch-in-the-ditch and some FMQ

When I realised that I wasn't actually doing dot-to-dot quilting, I took out my FMQ journal - I have attached all of Angela Walter's diagrams in it. I really want the FMQ to be light. This will be perfect.

Project Quilting 17.6 - a Happy Handful

I remembered to check on Project Quilting (PQ) and since it was a quick make, I got out some scraps and made this. The theme is to make something small enough to hold in one hand.

A handful of cuteness for Project Quilting 😍

The first block I made was the centre wonky snowball in the middle. I added pink squares around it, pieced some batting and used a cute Winnie-the-Poo fabric underneath. I put my top fabric wrong side up for the pillow case finish (it's supposed to be right side up!) but since I didn't have any specific size in mind for the piece, I just cut around the stitching, turned it right side up and re-sewed the pillow case finish.

I used my walking foot to quilt it with straight lines. A quick and fun finish!

A quick finish that I can hold in one hand!

What I learned

I was tired of working on putting the SAHRR quilt together. It felt like work, not fun, so I knew that I had to do something else.
I'm confident that I'll be able to finish the flimsy by the parade (which I'm sure will run for longer than a day!)
It was calming to do some FMQ on the baby quilt. I'm trying to keep the FMQ light. I'm also doing a lot of marking of straight lines - it's worth the effort if it means keeping my lines straight!
Making the PQ mini was nice, especially using those light spring fabrics instead of the dark ones in my SAHRR.
Not having a plan meant that I could wing it, including just making the mat smaller instead of un-stitching it to redo the pillow case finish.
You may have noticed the snow underneath my Handful of Cuteness project. Yes, it's back....Happy Spring Equinox!
The mat is very cute and I'm using it already in the living room under my stitching supplies. Thanks to Kim and Trish for another fun season of Project Quilting!

I Quilted This!

Here are the posts from last week that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and feel free to grab the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts is also an Angela Walter's fan. She FMQ her large open spaces panel with all kinds of wonderful FMQ designs. You'll want to head over there and look at all of her detailed photos by clicking on them to enlarge them. Wow!

Kat's FMQ Open Spaces Challenge quilt

Details of Open Spaces FMQ by Kat

Sally of Crafts, Caves and Cooking made this insulated pizza box for last week's Project Quilting Challenge - My Compliments. Those colours really are complementary and what a practical project!

Sally's very practical pizza box

Gail from Quilting Gail made a lovely red and white baby quilt to donate for March's Red Rainbow Scraps Challenge. It's so cute! It was quilted using straight lines.