"Enjoying Alaska" on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. It's been a busy and very hot week here. Other than taking Poppy out for short walks, I've been staying indoors (estivating) where it's cool. When there is humidex in the middle of the night, you know that it's hot!😓😎 

"Enjoying Alaska"

I started this piece during my holidays in Alaska. It's always tricky making something other than a scrappy quilt when travelling because odds are, you don't have all of the fabrics you need. I did use a batik that I bought in Alaska that worked beautifully, but the second one, not so much. Since I'm always up to a challenge, I thought that I could make it work. Maybe you'll think that I did, but I decided that I didn't like it and changed it this morning - that's why this post is later than usual!

"Enjoying Alaska" 

Here is the photo that I used as inspiration. The water and the forested hills were simple enough to do, but those snow-covered mountains gave me a really hard time - mostly because of the fabric I used as background.

A lovely view of the mountains from the ship

Here are a few pictures of the evolution of the piece. I cut and pinned all of the fabrics onto a white background. I really hoped to transform that lovely print into a mountain. I did stitch all over it but I'm not sure that I succeeded. 

Original fabrics - starting to stitch

When I got home, I zig-zag stitched around the green fabrics.

Slowly creating the mountains

Mountains almost done

I got to this point last night and I didn't like it. It's not bad but I'm not a fan of those long embroidery stitches. I slept on it and still wasn't happy with it this morning, so I took out some of my hand-dyed gray fabric and stitched over the snow-covered mountain.

My first attempt at the snow-covered mountain

I covered the mountain with the gray fabric and then added some hand-dyed green fabric at the bottom. I FMQ the snow-covered mountain with gray thread, then used three different green thread to stitch over the green fabric. I blended the areas between the gray and the green.

Final stitching of the snow covered mountain.

It's pretty amazing how many hours it took me to stitch the original snow-covered mountain and then only about 2 hours to cover it up and FMQ it.

To finish off the piece, I added some facing. I used fabric that my girlfriend had brought me from Alaska last year to face the top and bottom. I faced the sides with strips of fabric and then placed the top and bottom fabrics to cover the back. 

Making the facing with different fabric.

I hand-stitched the top and back fabrics at the sides. I didn't stitch the two fabrics together since they are both finished and you can peak between them to see the original back of the piece.

Back of the piece with the batik fabric showing

A glamour shot against the rocks

"Enjoying Alaska" among the flowers

What I learned

• It's important to challenge myself. 
• Challenges are easier when they're made of fabric - you can always remove or cover them up if you change your mind 😊
• I like the thought that there's a secret, more primal mountain below the gray layer of the snow-covered one that we see. 
• There are several textile artists who use those large stitches, They make lovely art, but for some reason, it's just not my thing.
• I love the contrast of texture between the hand-stitching and the free motion quilting. It's great to be able to use both in a piece.

Related links

• Alaska and a Quilt Show on Free Motion Mavericks, June 14, 2024

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some of them out, after you've linked up below! Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, TGIFF, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Midweek Makers, Beauties Pageant, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Oh Scrap!, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 

Project details

"Enjoying Alaska"

based on a picture taken off the coast of Alaska

Material: commercial cotton scraps, Alaska batik and hand-dyed fabric.

Techniques: hand-stitching, machine stitching, free motion quilting

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 492 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Gretchen finished the largest of her quilts. It's a beauty called Dots & Dashes that she quilted-in-the-ditch.

Gretchen's  Dots & Dashes 

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts finished a UFO into a lovely dresser scarf. This was part of a FMQ whole cloth row by row designed by Jeanne Harrison in 2019. I checked out Jeanne's YouTube channel - there are a lot of gems there. Thank Kat for introducing me to Jeanne's work.

This whole cloth FMQ dresser scarf was designed by Jeanne Harrison and made by Kat

Details of the dresser scarf 

It's now your turn 😍

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