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.

Related links

• Scrapbook Revival 2024 registration link
• Chanel of Bitter Lemon Bindery
• Handmade Books at Home by Chanel 
• Floral Fusion and hand-stitching on Free Motion Mavericks, September 05, 2024
• Floral Fusion Sew Along

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the Floral Fusion Sew Along link. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter