Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi! I'm back 😊 after an amazing trip to another side of the world! 😊 (Argentina and Antarctica). The travelling was safe, the sights were outstanding, everyone was so lovely and the food was scrumptious 😋. I even got some sun 😎! I'll be writing up a post soon with a little bit of art and lots of photos of nature 🐧

Embroidery on the Ocean

Since we are so tightly squeezed on airplanes, I didn't bother trying to stitch during those long flights. They were good for reading and listening to audio books. Once onboard the Norwegian Star, I took out my embroidery in the evenings and during our days at sea. 

Progress so far on Glimpses of Antarctica

I started the trip with the two bottom pieces but then attached the top two. I'll trim then up eventually.

At first I was just doing some abstract stitching, using the stitches that I know from memory. At some point, I decided to add stitches that represented my trip. Here are some birds and fish.

Birds in a line

Fish swimming in the ocean 

I then got ambitious and drew a little penguin on another piece of the painted cloth. I stitched it up, cut it and then appliquéd it to the piece.

Penguin appliquéd to the piece

After a fellow traveler suggested a whale, I added it into the piece, with a few of his/her friends blowing water. At one point, they estimated that we could see over eighty fin whales from the ship, blowing water and swimming about. I used a few strands of Mouliné étoile embroidery thread from DMC to show the water sprouting up.

Fin whales blowing water

Here is a closer look at both sides of  the embroidery.

Left side of the piece

Right side of the piece

I've decided to make this piece as representative of Antarctica as possible, so I'll be stitching in some of the islands that we visited. That's why it's called Glimpses of Antarctica - like an abstract map with real things in it. See Related links below to the previous post.

What I learned

• When I was first looking for spots on the ship to embroider, I was looking for comfort and ambiance. It didn't take long to figure out that the most important element was light! It's difficult to thread a needle in dim light!

Great view and light!

• I didn't have access to the internet a lot, so I relied on my memory of embroidery stitches. I may have made up a few, but it's all good.😊
• It was nice to have something to stitch. I also worked on a hexie diamond at the beginning of the trip. It's about half stitched together.
  
  

  

  Hexie diamond

  
  

Related links

• So many projects on the go!, February 14, 2023

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties this week. Why not check them out? Put your foot down, Finished (or Not) Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Peacock Party, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 422 of Free Motion Mavericks. Thanks to everyone who linked up while I was gone. 

Donnalee shared with us a wall quilt that she FMQ with a serpentine pattern. Isn't is lovely for someone who says that she doesn't FMQ?

Wall quilt by Donnalee

We have two quilts by Gail, of Quilting Gail. The first involved some ruler quilting while Gail FMQ the Baby Stars.

Made for the Sweet on you blog hop by Quilting Gail

Baby Stars by Quilting Gail for the Island Batik catalogue

Frédérique, of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué FMQ her lovely quilt for the Dust Off A Quilt Book blog hop. She added trapunto to the musical note based on the book she dusted off! Here is her Modern Bargello, Huahine.  

Modern Bargello, Huahine by Frédérique

It's now your turn 😊

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter