Scraps, Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks

Allô and welcome 😎 I believe that this is the loveliest, warmest Hallowe'en day I've ever seen. Not very spooky here 👻👻 It's been another busy week but I did teach, in French, on Monday and it went really well. I was happy to see that my French and IM (Information Management) knowledge weren't too rusty after two years away from work😊 I've taken the rest of the week off to rest and read, so not much sewing except for repairs to a friend's boat cover. Now that it's no longer in my studio, I can get back to artsy things!

Light and Dark Scrappy Runner

October's colour for the Table Scraps Challenge is light or dark browns so I'm finally making my son's placemat with both dark and light brown scraps. I'll try to include a quilted cat since that's our October theme.

Dark and light brown on this side

Dark and light mostly brown on this side

During our Fall Fling, one of the artists gave me a bag of mostly cotton scraps. How fun! Many of the scraps in these two pieces come from that haul (way better than Hallowe'en candy!) It included what looks like fabrics from a Thanksgiving line of fabrics. I made sure to add more fabric because I didn't want the placemat to only be about Thanksgiving. On the second picture the three strips on the right come from pillow shams that my mother made for my grandfather (along with a quilt). I know that my son will appreciate that.

This is as far as I've gotten. The two pieces will be cut down to match the scrappy placemats that I made everyone. My son was last since he wanted neutrals. I have until November 3rd to link up to the October Table Scraps Challenge, so watch out for a post this weekend.

A bit more Embroidery

I haven't done much embroidery this week, but I did add a little bit to the Needle Punch piece that I've been working on for the Joyful Embroidery course. Since my last post, I added the brown leaf fabric at the bottom and covered it with organic blanket stitch. I decided to stitch outside of the fabric area and I love how it looks. I'll probably go back and do the same for the blue-green fabric.

Adding stitching on and around the leaf fabric

I added a row of yellow thread between both fabric areas which I'll be thread-weaving. If it looks good, I'll make it a larger area.

After looking at the YouTube videos about the different yarns to use in punch needle, I experimented with adding my lovely linen yarn which was too slippery to use alone. I paired it with a thin cotton yarn and it worked beautifully. There is also so much dimension when more than one yarn is used.

A Black Eyed Susan in my Almost Daily Stitching piece

Since Fleur Woods encouraged us to stitch more than one of our flowers for additional practice, I added a sweet Black Eyed Susan in my Almost Daily Stitching piece 2024. I drew it on with a Frixion pen and then stitched it in no time. Practice does make it better and easier. 😊

On my way from work to my car, I noticed this amazing mural. I knew that you would appreciate it also!

Mural in Hull district of Gatineau

I also saw hundreds of Canada Geese in the sky as I was coming home from Fall Fling last week.

Safe journey everyone!

What I learned

• It was so nice to get back to sewing after so long. Hand stitching is awesome but it seems that I need both in my life.
• I love going through scraps that I've been gifted. What can I say, it's better than Hallowe'en chocolate (but not quite as good as great chocolate! Thanks Lise for that amazing birthday chocolate😋)
• Now that I "discovered" fabric twining, I get to keep narrow, long pieces of fabric - or even ripping up long strips. Oh joy, I'll need another basket just for twining strips!
• It's so much fun adding "special" scraps to a project, like from my mother's pillow sham for my grandfather. 
• I'm having a great time experimenting with the punch needle project, like playing with different yarn and embroidering outside of the lines. 
• Since I'll be making a quilt sandwich for the placemat, I'm also going to take the opportunity to sandwich my Floral Fusion wall hanging and a small quilt that I got from the Community Quilts table at the last guild meeting. Hopefully there will be some fun FMQ here soon! 

Related links

• Scrap Play and Free Motion Mavericks, September 19, 2024 (September's 2024 Table Scrap Challenge)
• More Joyful Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks, October 23, 2024
• Joyful Embroidery with Fleur Woods and Free Motion Mavericks, October 10, 2024
• A bit of this and that and Free Motion Mavericks, September 26, 2024
• Fibre Arts Take Two
• Fleur Woods, website, Instagram
• YouTube video:  Yarns And Fiber That Work With The Oxford Punch Needle

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to all these fun linking parties. I hope you'll check out some of them. 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, Slow Sunday Stitching,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 505 of Free Motion Mavericks. It was a lovely and productive week for last week's party! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts finished up a lovely 18" Christmas Candle Mat. 

Kat's lovely 18" Christmas Candle Mat

Donnalee added the eyes and whiskers to her Avocado Cat. He is gorgeous! Look out for her Eggplant Cat next!

Donnalee's finished Avocado Cat.

Quilting Gail linked up her latest wonderful quilt - this time for her son's birthday. This one was all about the fabrics (a bundle of Tim Holtz fabric). Gail used her Silly Moon Kite ruler for the blocks and then swirls for the 

Gail's latest finish for her son

Here is the FMQ loveliness.

Gail's quilt as seen from the back

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has produced another beauty, Presto Mushrooms! It's got an amazing amount of colour going on! Perfect for a six year old and me! 

Presto Mushrooms by Preeti

A close up of Presto Mushrooms by Preeti

 It's now your turn

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