Finished embroidering on metal

Hi and welcome - just a quick post to share my finish. It was a great workshop by Emma Pannell. You can read more about it in my previous post.

Finished Flower 

I wanted to share this finish before next Thursday. Here is the finished project.

Flower embroidered on metal is finished

As you can see, once I finished embroidering, I embossed the rest of the metal to give it a little something special. A few of the other students from the workshop had done some amazing embossing on their pieces. As usual, I just went for it. I used my free motion quilting (FMQ) designs but embossing wasn't like drawing or FMQ. The curves were much more difficult to make. 

Close-up of the embroidered flower

I used a compass to emboss on the metal. The square end might have affected the smoothness of the embossing. I'll have to experiment with just using an old pen - which is how I originally embossed the flower. However, the end of the compass did make nice additional holes when I was stitching the leaves.

Using the end of the compass

Here is a progress photo of stitching the leaves. It was more difficult that stitching the petals since there was so much floss to deal with as well as the extra holes that I added. You can see those extra holes on the first leaf that I stitched.

Progress photo of the first leaf

What I learned

• To make the densely embroidered leaves, I should have arranged the holes more closely and evenly. You can do that when you plan your project 😁
• The compass worked really well to make the holes but wasn't great for embossing.
• For some reason, I outlined the second leaf with a backstitch before embroidering it. I knew that I shouldn't but did it anyway. I guess if my stubbornness needs to come out, it may as well be on something as innocuous as embroidery! 
• I realised that I didn't add any more French Knots in the centre of the flower. I guess that I just wanted it done.
• I hope to use this in my needle punch project. That would mean trimming the metal around the flower. Until I use it, I have a pretty piece to look at. 😊

Related links

• Embroidering on metal and Free Motion Mavericks, November 28, 2024
• Emma Pannell, website, Instagram, article in TextileArtist.org

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to Free Motion Mavericks and November's Favourite Finish as well as many other fun linking parties. Why not check them out? Off The Wall Friday, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put your foot down, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

My finished flower was featured on Put your foot down. Thanks Denise!

Project details

Flower embroidered on metal 

made in a workshop with Emma Pannell

Size: 8" x 3"

Flower size: 2½" x 3"

Materials: aluminum can, embroidery floss

Techniques: embossing, embroidery

Embroidering on metal and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! For my American readers - Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you get some time to stitch after all of that eating and visiting family 😋. I didn't have much to share (remember those very SLOW stitching projects!) so yesterday I worked on a little project so that I would have something to show.

Embroidering on metal

Yes, you read it right.... my background for this piece is the inside of an aluminum can! Years ago I played a little bit with burnished aluminum in an art quilt after a workshop with Hillary Rice, but I haven't since (see Related links). Aluminum is very pliable and easy to cut and pierce. Our latest Textileartist.org course is with Emma Pannell. She does some amazing embroidery on metal.

Embroidering on metal - so far

I wanted to make something very simple and small that I can eventually add to my punch needle piece. I settled on a flower, something that I can draw without tracing. Here is my template. 

Drawing of the flower with leaves

I cut the can open with my old scissors and then cut the edges to make sure that they were smooth. The scissors do a great job on aluminum. I taped the template onto the can and embossed it by tracing the image with an old pen. I then used my journal making awl to pierce the holes, following the embossed line. 

At first, the metal was directly on the mat when I made holes with the awl. That made holes in the mat, so I placed the piece of craft foam board between the metal and the mat. It may have made larger holes than I wanted, so I'll have to experiment with that. Our instructor uses a pottery needle to make the holes - these might be a little smaller.

Tools used to cut and pierce the metal

I used three strands of embroidery floss for the base of the petals, using a variation of the cross stitch. After all the petals were stitched, I added a lighter coloured thread of two strands to add some dimension.

Embroidering the petals with 3 strands of cotton.

Petals all embroidered using a variation on the cross stitch

Stitching with 2 strands of lighter cotton

It was only after finishing the first petal with the lighter cotton that I realised that I probably should have stitched them from the centre of the flower. I didn't want to start over, so I stitched three alternating petals in that direction, then I had the next three going the other way.

Finishing the petals and outlining them

I finished the petals by outlining them with a back stitch. After outlining the centre of the flower using 4 strands of embroidery floss, I added a hole in the centre and stitched the area. Over the middle hole, I added a French Knot.

Metal in an art piece

As I mentioned, I used metal in my Canada 150 art piece in 2017. Here is the piece and you can see below the burnished metal that has been stitched by machine and embossed. 

Canada 150 art piece

Cut, embossed and stitched burnished metal

What I learned

• It's easy to cut the aluminum can but not so easy to keep it flat. I thought that I could place it under heavy books to flatten it (like my journal pages) but that didn't really help. 
• Keeping the aluminum flat is important if you want to frame your piece. I'm hoping that it won't make a big difference when I trim the flower and stitch it onto my punch needle piece.
• Stitching on the metal is very much like stitching on cardboard or paper. The holes need to be punched from the front to get the best effect.
• My holes may be a little big, so I'll experiment with that next time. I think that using more strands of thread to outline each section might also help fill in those holes.
• It got pretty difficult to find the holes when there was a lot of stitching. Instead of trying to find the hole from the back, I placed my needle in the hole from the front, without going right through. I could then see the needle sticking out of the back and knew where to stitch from the back. 
• I like the French Knot in the middle of the centre and I think that adding many more would be very effective - hopefully I'll feel like it!😁
• I'm going to use another stitching technique on the leaves - in theory they will be and look denser. 
• In my workshop with Hillary Rice, we had used a big propane torch to burnish the aluminum. That created lovely colours, including gold. Apparently you can also use copper which already had a lovely gold colour. 
• I don't think that I'm going to work with metal a lot but it is fun to discover new techniques and material.

Related links

• Emma Pannell, website, Instagram, article in TextileArtist.org
• Today We Celebrate - Fêtons 150, July 01, 2017
• Playing and Trying New Techniques, June 11, 2017

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out, after you've linked up below? Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Off The Wall Friday, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 508 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week - thanks for linking up! Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Sandra from mmm quilts made this very lovely Goose Dance quilt. She FMQ it with her favourite fat flowers design with loops and added swirls with hooks as well. She also quilted in 3 ghost geese. It looks great! 

Sandra's FMQ Goose Dance quilt.

Preeti from Sew Preeti Quilts finished her LION quilt for the Island Batik Dresden Challenge and Blog Hop. Doesn't her signature wavy stitch quilting look great on her Grandmother's Fans quilt?

Preeti's lovely LION quilt with Grandmother's Fans

It's now your turn 😉

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Attack of the Squirrels :-)

Hi and welcome! I have lots of artsy, stitchy things to do but I got a full attach of the squirrels 😁 I have a wonderful, comfortable pair of jeans with holes in them - on purpose. I don't mind the style but my whole knee is poking out...so the hole is a little too big. I've been wanting to do something but I know that a patch won't be comfortable, so I wove a band across the hole, over the knee.

Weaving a band

I used a small embroidery hoop and #8 perle cotton to weave the band between the two edges of the hole.

Band woven between the two edges of the hole in my jeans

This is how it started.

For the warp, I stitched a few strands of 4 different colours of #8 perle cotton at both end of the hole. They were pretty taut and I figured that if I had to, I could make adjustments to the tension once the band was finished.

Weaving within the embroidery frame

I had an audio book and it took about 6 hours to finish the woven band.

Finished woven band

At the beginning of the project, I took a picture and sent it to one of the weavers in our Fibre 15 group. She suggested that I stabilize the ends and possibly use interfacing to make sure that it stays put.

The next morning, I put a piece of heavy duty Steam-A-Seam at the ends of the band, overlapping the band and the jeans. I attached a scrap piece of cotton and then sewed over the edge of the jeans to about ¼" of the band. I think that it'll hold.

Finishing the back of the band

Here is the finished project....so far.

The woven band across the hole

Squirrel!!!

What I learned

• I haven't woven anything in years, but it did come right back. 😊
• It was so relaxing and perfect to do while listening to an audio book.
• I used the Weaver's knot to attach a new colour when my thread ran out.
• I googled it and used two different techniques. Every once in a while I was able to make the weaver's knot without following the instructions but then it just wouldn't work. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong but I kept at it until I it worked. 
• I'm linking up the two techniques that worked best for me....most of the time!
• I'm going to wash my jeans in a large garment bag so that the band doesn't get pulled off.
• I also figure that if the band does come off, that it's been secured enough that I'll be able to use it somewhere else.
• I feel like the jeans could use a little something more - maybe just embroidery around the hole? I'm not sure that I want to spend another 6 hours making a second band to go with it 😁

Related links

• The Weaver's Knot - Get knotted paracord
• How To Tie A Weaver’s Knot, Four Keys Book Arts

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out! Slow Sunday Stitching, 

Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Free Motion Mavericks, 

Many Updates and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm sorry about not letting you know that I would miss last week. I needed a break and now I'm back. I hope that you're having a good week.

Slow stitching updates

In Fleur Woods' Joyful Embroidery workshop, I have been stitching away. It's very slow! I love it but have I mentioned that it's very SLOW?

Coming along....very slowly

This is where I was November 7th. 

The beginning

I've also been working a bit on the needle punch piece. I really love how it's coming along.😍 It's expanded from my round 10" hoop to a square snap-on frame. I'm going to see if I can get a slightly larger one! 

Latest work on my punch needle piece

Since my last photo, I've added a couple of fabric manipulation areas in the blue and blue-green. I used a technique taught by Mirjam Gielen through Patreon. It's called "cuir froissé" or "creased leather". Here is a quick explanation.

Start by drawing a shape on your background - round or oval works well. You then cut out a piece of fabric much larger than your shape. Stitch the outside of the fabric piece along your drawn image so that the image is covered by the fabric. Yes, you'll have lots of extra fabric flopping around the middle. Next stitch that extra fabric down. I just stitched in down in random places with simple stitches until I liked what I had. Since I didn't do a great job of stitching down the outside of the shape of the first one, I added seed beads over those stitches. 

Close-up of the fabric manipulations

This is a really great way to add texture into a piece. Next I'll do some organic embroidery over the two pieces of orangish fabric in the top right corner.

Next the orangish fabrics will be stitched organically

Quilting Floral Fusion

I've begun quilting my Floral Fusion wall hanging. I used my walking foot to stitch-in-the-ditch. 

Since I hadn't stitched down the appliqué, that was the next task. I tried using one of the appliqué stitches on my machine but it was very difficult to see what I was doing. That's the drawback when trying to blend in your stitches. After doing one of the flowers, I gave that up and just used free motion quilting (FMQ) to slowly stitch very close to the edges of the appliqué. Again, since the thread blended in, I did a couple of passes to make sure that I got everything. Here is a close-up of the quilting that I've done with the light thread.

FMQ down the appliqué

Next, FMQ down the appliqué with dark thread

What I learned

• The Fleur Woods' Joyful Embroidery has been interesting. I've learned a lot, but it is very slow going. 
• I've done quite a few small projects in the last month or so - I wanted a few finishes for all of the time that I've spent stitching and quilting! 
• I don't think that Fleur will have any competition from me. I love the slow stitching but only as a supplement to other things. 😊 I thought that it might be a little too slow for me and I was right. I am going to keep at it though. Both of these pieces will be gorgeous when they are done....eventually! 
• I've enjoyed quilting Floral Fusion. Stitching-in-the-ditch with my walking foot worked well as I took it slowly to stay in the ditch.
• The experiment with the appliqué stitch on my sewing machine reminded me why I often work with contrasting thread - it's so I can SEE IT! 
• Tonight I'm going out to find a larger frame for my punch needle and a larger, brighter lamp. My eye is healing well but I need stronger light with the option of a magnifying glass. Hopefully that will help.
• I'll be going through my thread next to see what I can use to stitch the darker appliqués. I'll probably need a few different colours. I hope to have the quilt finished by next week - wish me luck!

Related links

• Scraps, Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks, October 31, 2024
• More Joyful Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks, October 23, 2024
• Joyful Embroidery with Fleur Woods and Free Motion Mavericks, October 10, 2024
• Fibre Arts Take Two
• Fleur Woods, website, Instagram
• Mirjam Gielen Textile Artist Instagram

Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out after you've link up below? Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Tips & Tutorials on the 22nd, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 507 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thank you for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Donnalee finished her Eggplant Cat - what a cuty! The next one is Pepper Puss - I hope that she gets it done in time for the fundraiser!

Donnalee's quilted Eggplant Cat 

Deb from A Scrappy Quilting has a production line of quilts - some ready to quilt, others quilted and needing bindings. Way to go Deb!

Deb's production line

Legacy quilt

After a false start, Gail from Quilting Gail finished her amazing vase of Dresden flowers. She used two of her Silly Moon rulers to quilt the flowers. Check out her post to see close-up pictures of the quilt and her ruler quilting.

Gail's vase of Dresden flowers

Did you get a chance to see my finished Newfoundland Houses Table topper? I got it finished just in time to give it to our friend at his retirement party. He's very happy with it.

The topper and the fence!

It's now your turn 😊

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Newfoundland's colourful houses as a table topper

Hi and welcome! The table topper is finished - some free motion quilting (FMQ) and mostly walking foot quilting. Here is a quick post to celebrate!

Painted fence becomes a table topper

As I mentioned in my last post, I made a table topper based on my friend's Newfoundland (NFLD) colourful houses painted fence. 

Our friend in front of the fence!

We attended his retirement party yesterday. It was a lot of fun and it was obvious that he enjoyed every minute! I asked his daughter to take his picture in front of the fence, so here it is. 

Quilting the table topper

I used the pillowcase technique to finish it. The batting was on the bottom with the front and backing facing each other. I cut the backing very carefully to ensure that it would be stitched at ¼" along with the front. Before flipping it right-side out, I could tell that the backing wasn't taut and this could lead to puckering😲.  Re-stitching one side made everything right!

Above is the pillowcase finish with just the opening to close up. I stitched the ⅛" around the piece with different coloured threads so that it would match the quilting. 

I started quilting the yellow house with the walking foot. Each line is 4 stitches from the other. That meant that I could follow the previous line in one of the openings of my walking foot. At the windows, I would secure the thread before and after the window and pass over them. There were a lot of threads to cut once it was over. 😀

Quilting the house with a walking foot

I quilted the yellow and purple houses before attempting the roof. I marked the lines of the grid (see What I learned!) I didn't take any pictures after that 😞- but next came the orange house and then I FMQ the sky in simple wavy lines.

Using the walking foot to quilt the houses and roof.

I mentioned in my last post that I had issues with my zig-zag stitch. When I finished quilting the houses, I went over the zig-zag stitches around the windows and doors twice with straight lines. It helped to emphasize the outline. 

Our friend in front of his lovely painted fence.

Our friend and NFLD's 
colourful houses

What I learned

• There were a few learning moments in the making of this piece.
• Designing a quilt late in the evening can lead to artistic interpretations (see previous post).
• When using the pillowcase method on larger pieces, it's important to pin the back to ensure that the backing fabric is taut.
• Covering parts of the zig-zag stitches with straight stitches may have helped, when the lines actually covered the zig-zag stitches. 😁
• When marking lines on a quilt, keep the Crayola gel pens away from the FriXion pens!!!!! The pink lines within the gray roof area just added a little hint of colour but weren't so great on the edge of the sky area!😞
• No matter how much I try, my quilts will never be perfect. I should accept this by now...but it is a lovely quilt 😊and my friend loves it!
• The moment I saw the painted fence in our friend's backyard, I knew that I would make him a quilt.

Related links

• Table Topper and Playing with Weaving, November 07, 2024
• Pillowcase Quilt Finish - How To Finish Quilt, YouTube

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including Free Motion Mavericks. Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Oh Scrap!, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, 

Project details

Finish table topper

NFLD's colourful houses table topper

based on our friend's painted fence

18" x 18"

Materials: hand-dyed and commercial fabrics

Techniques: piecing, appliqué, pillowcase technique, quilting with walking foot and free motion quilting (FMQ)

Table Topper and Playing with Weaving

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm late but finally here. I can't imagine anyone is waiting impatiently for me to click on Publish, but if you are, then please accept my apologies. I had a great day out with my girlfriend. We had an amazing Thai lunch to celebrate our October birthdays and then attended a preview at the National Gallery of Canada. What a lovely, carefree afternoon.

Making a Table Topper

The friends whose pool I took care of this summer are having a party on the weekend. He is retiring and I'm making him a special table topper/placemat. He is from Newfoundland and had painted his back fence in the style of the homes there. 

Here is the quilt, ready to be FMQ (free motion quilted).

Newfoundland Houses Table Topper ready to be quilted

Here is the backyard fence, painted in the style of houses found in Newfoundland. The picture is slightly fuzzy because I took it from inside the gazebo. 

Fence in the backyard

I didn't take process pictures. I drew the three houses on graph paper, cut and pieced the fabric for the houses. I then used Steam-a-Seam light to appliqué the windows and doors. On the fence, the white doors are outlined in black and the black doors are outlined in white so I used black and white zig-zag stitches around the windows and doors. I made two passes at them since some of the stitches were missed. It might have been a tension issue because there was no issue stitching on the thicker purple fabric.

I'll be finishing this piece before Saturday, so I'll try to write a post on the weekend.

Playing with Weaving

This afternoon was the preview of Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. What a great exhibition. The premise of the exhibition is that modern tapestry has influenced abstraction in modern art. A lot of the work was done in the sixties and was very ahead of its time. The majority was also made by women 😍

I'm just going to share a couple of pieces with you and hope that if you can, come see the exhibition (see Related links below). 

Liz Collins Heartbeat 2019

silk and linen textile, Jacquard woven and cut

Liz Collins' Heartbeat 2019

Here is Olga de Amaral's art piece, Cintas entrelazadas c. 1969 made of wool and cotton. The colours and the construction are so interesting.

Olga de Amaral, Cintas entrelazadas c. 1969
wool and cotton

Close-up of Olga de Amaral's, Cintas entrelazadas

After viewing the art, my friend and I stopped in at the creation area of the exhibit. There were materials and information on how to weave. Here are our creations!

Woven on cardboard with strips of printed paper and raffia. 

My woven piece after visiting the exhibit

Lise says she's not creative
but her piece begs to differ!

If you can't make it to Ottawa to view the exhibit, there are many articles in the Related links below. The exhibition, Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction will be at MOMA - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, April 20–September 13, 2025.

End Notes

Here are a couple of photos taken today.

Poppy and some street art in Ottawa's
Byward Market

Louise Bourgeois' outdoor sculpture, Maman,
outside of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

What I learned

• The table topper is coming along. My proportions are off compared to the fence. We'll call it artistic interpretation (aka accuracy challenged).
• The zig-zag stitch was a challenge. I changed my needle but I'm not sure that my machine likes to stitch over Steam-a-Seam. In the end, if I stitched very, very slowly, the zig-zag stitch was better. It also worked fine when I stitched over a section in reverse! Next time I need to appliqué, I'll try to do it when I'm fresher and more patient. That will surely help to trouble shoot.
• You probably noticed that the table topper is the mirror image of the fence. I must have sewn the fabric upside down, but didn't notice until it was too late. Oh well, another artistic interpretation 😁
• I have already cut out the backing and will sew it up using the pillow case method. This means that I won't have to deal with binding. Yay!
• It turns out that the Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction exhibit has been around for a while. This was great in finding the links below. I took quite a few pictures of the text since I'd like to research a few of the artists.
• I really wanted to include other art pieces here but sometimes textile art just doesn't photograph well, at least without great equipment. I'm going to change my phone soon and I can't wait to get a much better camera.

Related links

• Abstraction and Textile Through the Lens of Present Practice, article about the exhibit
• Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction - about the exhibition
• ArtSeen Dec/Jan 2023–24 article by Suzanne Hudson
• Liz Collins weaves a promised land with colorful textiles, (video) National Gallery of Art
• Liz Collin's work
• Who is Anni Albers? 8 Things to Know
• Louise Bourgeois' outdoor sculpture, Maman, article

Linking parties

I'll be linking to many fun linking parties. Why not check them out after linking up below? Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 506 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was another productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Gail of Quilting Gail made this cute Dresden Plate mini that is at the Hobb's Batting booth at the Houston Quilt Market! Very cool and colourful.

Gail's Dresden Plate mini

Deb the Scrappy Quilted quilted and bound three legacy quilts. Here is one of them.

Deb's quilted charity quilt

Did you see my finished scrappy placemat? This one is for my son. Now we all have one 😊

My scrappy brown placemat

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter