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!

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