Christmas Updates and Finishes on Free Motion Mavericks

Allô and welcome🎄 I hope that you had a lovely Christmas. We had a terrific time with all of the kids and Poppy, great food, and gifts! It's now Boxing Day and very quiet. Time to get this post done and then do some more embroidery. 😊

Snow Happens wall hanging

The last time I shared this embroidery was last January in my 2024 planning post and then again in a slow stitching post a few days later. I'm afraid not much happened after that. I picked it up in December again and it's slowly coming along. Instead of giving myself another year to finish it (we know how that worked out!😁), I'm aiming for the end of January. At least it's a winter piece, so it won't have to be put away with the Christmas stuff.

The first two snow people, almost finished!

Here are the other snow people.

Some progress on the snow people

The last one hasn't been started
except for the bird house

Metal Christmas Ornament 

Do you remember the trees embroidered on metal? They have great potential but we'll call this version a sample. I did learn a lot making and putting it together. I'm not sure if I'll make more but if I do, I'll have good notes below! 

Christmas tree ornament - lots of potential

Not great but learned lots!

Kawandi style Christmas mat

For November's Table Scraps Challenge, I put together a little Kawandi style mat made of old fashion Christmas fabric. I finished it in December. I just love it and I think that my DL likes it too! As I mentioned in a previous post, I sewed the fabrics down by machine. This was so much easier than wrestling with pins and bits of fabric as I stitched it by hand. I will probably keep making them this way. My favourite part about making them is the slow running stitch.

Finished Kawandi style Christmas mat

Doesn't it go great with the Grinch card? The fabrics
are probably from the same era.

It's quiet here today. Poppy is spending a few days. I'm so happy.😍

Poppy checking out the yard!

Poppy coming in from the snow

What I learned

• The Snow Happens embroidery is coming along. It's weird to be following a commercial pattern.
• The piece is supposed to be in blue but I just can't do that - so the embroidery thread is all kinds of values of blue. It makes things more interesting to stitch!
• The metal Christmas tree ornament was a disappointment. I now know not to use fuzzy thread.
• The most frustrating part was stitching them together. I just don't like how I finished the edges. It only occurred to me a few days later that I could have backed them with felt. I think that this would be better and much easier. At least if I make these again, I'll have notes to follow!

Related links

• Making Plans on my 600th post! January 04, 2024
• So much slow stitching going on, January 09, 2024
• It's that time of the year again! December 04, 2024

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday,  Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 512 of Free Motion Mavericks! I think many quilters were busy getting ready for the holidays. Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Deb from a Scrappy Quilter quilted six Irish Chain quilts. Two have been donated while the others will hang around for the special occasion. 

Kat quilted this one with a diamond grid

Six lovely quilts finished by Kat

Quilting Gail finished her Floral Fusion, based on Denise's sew along. What a beauty. 

Gail's finished Floral Fusion

Gail outlined the flowers and FMQ swirls in the background

Brenda from Songbird Designs made this beauty for the Island Batik's It's All Up to You Challenge. You'll want to check out her post to read how she made it. She quilted it using some lovely sparkling thread. 

Check out Brenda's lovely Christmas tree!

It's now your turn.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Another Squirrel on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😎 It's a bright sunny day here and there's just enough snow on the ground to make my backyard look lovely with all kinds of tracks made by my nocturnal friends. Today I'm sharing with you a literal and figurative squirrel project!

Narrative Textile Bookmaking

I did it again - for the last month I've been attending an online course with the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. The course was taught by Teté Montero. It's been interesting but I didn't spend as much time on it as I would have liked. Among other things, it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do and how. It's now slowly coming together, after the course is finished!

Here are the first two pages that I've made for the book. They probably won't be the first two pages of the book but they are the foundation on which the book will be made.

My first page, still a work in progress

I've used free motion quilting (FMQ) to make both of these. I'll eventually be adding hand stitching and embroidery. Both of these are on hand-dyed fabric. The pink one was a corner of an old tablecloth that was gifted to me. I didn't use any fusible web - I just wanted to stitch! 

For the squirrels, I'm using some upholstery fabric that I received this fall from an artist friend. It's all polyester but feels like velour. I was able to remove the backing from them, so it's not as thick.

The second page still needs the second squirrel 

I don't know the squirrels' names yet but they'll let me know when they're ready! The story is a version of Aesop's (ancient Greek) and Jean de La Fontaine's (17th century) tale about the ant and the grasshopper. In French, La cigale et la fourmi is the only poem that I know by heart. I've always thought it rather mean so I've created a kinder version. The original versions are about planning while my version will be about cooperation.

Close-up of the playful squirrel

My story is about two squirrels who live in the same neighbourhood. The playful squirrel loves colour and has a beautiful treasure of pretty things in their nest while the busy squirrel works hard to amass what is needed for the winter.

There's not much else to share with you right now except for my first squirrel template and pictures of the two squirrels that visit my backyard😊

Template of a squirrel in three pieces

I realised last night that I didn't have a picture of a squirrel on a fence (i.e. not eating!) so I took this one this morning. Now I'm ready to trace and then add the squirrel to my second page.

Squirrel on a fence posing for me!

I'll leave you with more squirrel photos.

Eating Squirrel 😋

Perched, eating squirrel 😋

Another eating squirrel? 😉

What I learned

• I really need to be more realistic when I decide to take another class. I knew that a course in December would be pushing it and I was right. It was still a good class and I'm not sorry that I took it since it's encouraged me to start my first narrative book.
• I guess that's where the value in taking a class for me lies. At this time, I'm comfortable with many techniques and sometimes what I need is the encouragement to believe that I can do it. 
• Courses often help me figure out how or where to start and then force help me to focus on the project.
• Most of my best pieces where created based on a class that I took - and many are from TextileArtist.org.
• When I take a class, the teachers often want us to make samples but I know that if I only make a sample, that I'll probably never make a real piece from the class. That's why I usually just jump in and make a more elaborate piece than what is requested.
• It also takes me longer and they're usually finished long after the class is done!
• I've decided that my next step in this project is to write out the narrative for the story. It might not be what will be in the book, but I want the whole story before I figure out how to add text to my pages.
• I've also realised that there are many ways of creating a narrative textile book. So once I have my story, I'll know how to continue. 

Related links

• Minnesota Center for Book Arts
• Teté Montero: website, 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, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 511 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was another productive week! Thank you so much for linking up😊. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

This week Gail of Quilting Gail used her leftovers of Peppermint Sprinkles to make a Fractured Paint Box quilt. What a happy, festive quilt! She quilted it using her rulers as well as some lovely FMQ feathers!

Gail's lovely Fractured Paint Box quilt

The back of Gail's Fractured Paintbox Quilt!

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts used some lovely scraps to make her latest quilt, "Signal Sam".  She used her walking foot to quilt squiggly lines 2" apart.

"Signal Sam" by Preeti

Donnalee has been very busy making table runners for her guild's upcoming quilt show boutique. From her scraps, she also make some zipper pouches.

Donnalee's Table Runners

Donnalee's zipper pouches

Margo Young of MY Quilts and Crafts had her "Off Kilter" quilt accepted to QuiltCon. Congrats!

Margo Young's "Off Kilter" quilt

It's now your turn 😊

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

A FM stitched portrait finish on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊. I'm so happy that you can join me today. We are experiencing snow, drizzle, rain and freezing rain. It's quite the combination but since I bought some salt and a new shovel, we are prepared! Today I am sharing a project that I seem to have forgotten to post about. Now that it's finished, it's time. 

Free Motion Stitched Portrait

It all began in August with a TextileArtist.org class with artist Rosie James. Her work is wonderfully illustrative and done with FM stitching. Since many of her portraits are of the back of people, it feels doable if you're not comfortable drawing or stitching faces (like me!). They also incorporate colour as she uses fabric for the clothing. 

Hubby photographing scenery

It took me a while to choose the photo. I have many images like this one since we are often waiting for Hubby, off somewhere taking pictures.

Original photo taken this Spring in Alaska

After printing up the photo, I drew the important parts on tracing paper. I used coloured Sharpie markers to highlight the sections that would be covered in fabric.

Template on tissue paper of the original photo

From the template, I used the lightbox to trace the patterns of the jacket, backpack and pants and then cut the fabric.

Making the pattern on the lightbox

I used a FriXion pen to draw the entire scene on a white cotton background and then used free motion stitching to outline the scene. The most difficult part was to place the cut fabric patterns onto the piece. To ensure that they were in the correct place, I stitched over the tracing paper. That's why you see me picking out the paper below with tweezers.

Using the tweezers and magnifying glass to clean up the piece

The piece was mostly finished weeks ago but it took me that long to finish mounting it on the canvas. I first used tacks to mount it but didn't really like it. Finally I untacked the piece, added a layer of cotton batting between the canvas and the fabric and then tacked it permanently with staples. That's when I used my amazing new light with the magnifying glass to remove the paper and extra thread.

Finished piece, mounted on a canvas

What I learned

• Making this project brought many learning opportunities. The first one is to check that you don't reverse the image between tracing the pattern and sewing it!
• I tried to add free motion stitched grass beside the pants but it was horrible. Thank goodness that I was able to remove the stitching without damaging the piece.
• I also learned that if you're going to mount the piece, that it would be best to be more accurate about the free motion stitched edges.
• I'm very happy with the piece, now that it has batting underneath it. Without the batting where were a lot of puckering of the fabric. This smoothed out most of it.
• I'm going to be doing a smaller piece incorporating this technique as part of a wedding present for my brother and sister-in-law. My SIL is an amazing seamstress and she kept me a piece of fabric from her wedding dress. The picture has the bride and groom from the side, so hopefully I'll be able to stitch their faces properly.
• If you check out Rosie James' work, you will see that she loves to keep dangling threads on her work. I didn't keep them because that's not the look that I was going for in this piece, but one day I will try it!
• BTW, I love my new desk lamp. It's very bright and as you can see, the magnifying glass came in handy.
• I was really worried last week as I was using the new lamp and still couldn't see my FMQ properly. It turned out that I was wearing my regular glasses and not my reading glasses! The proper glasses solved the problem!😲

Related links

• Rosie James: Website and Instagram
• Rosie James article: Dangling Delights

Linking parties 

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some of them out...after you link up below! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024,

This post was my December's Favorite Finish! 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 510 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Melva has two quilts that she's been FMQ. Her first is a finish of Sticks and Stones 2. Check out her post to see how she decided to quilt it.

Melva's Sticks and Stones 2

Melva has finished her Pieces of my Life, a quilt-as-you-go quilt. 

Melva's finished Pieces of My Life

One of the section of Melva's quilt-as-you-go quilt

Here is Brenda, of Songbird Design's quilt from the Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange. This year it's a gorgeous table topper.

Brenda's gorgeous Christmas table topper

It's now your turn.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

It's that time of the year again!

Hi and welcome! Ottawa has finally gotten some snow. Is it here to stay? Who knows, but it should last at least a few days. Just enough to get us thinking about snow tires, shovels and winter boots!⛄❄ 

Seasonal Stuff!

I'm not sure what's happening to my brain, but I seem to be on Squirrel alert! I think about something and oops, there I go! All that to say that I have new projects to share with you.

More embroidery on metal

After making the flower last week, I thought that it would be fun to make a little Christmas tree ornament. I made a template of a Christmas tree and embossed the pattern on two pieces of metal. I made the holes around the tree using what I had learned previously 😊. 

First tree - my favourite

Second tree

Both embroidered trees, ready to be stitched together

The next step will be to add a star at the top of the first tree so that its shape will match the second one. I'll then very carefully cut about a ¼" from the embroidery. I was considering adding lace between the layers on the edges. I'm not sure if that will work. Eventually I have to stitch each treer, wrong sides together and add a little something to hang them.

Kawandi style stitching

I've been wanting to make another Kawandi style piece for a while. I got an attack of the Squirrel today and thought that I could make one for Christmas for my son and his fiancé. There is not way that I can do it all by hand before Christmas, so I've attached all of the pieces with the sewing machine. This made it so much easier. Now I'll start stitching it with various colours of perle cotton. There is nothing as relaxing as embroidering a running stitch. 

A lovely Christmas Kawandi style mat ready to stitch

Back of the piece

An assortment of perle cotton for stitching 

This is also my November Table Scraps Challenge. The colours were anything goes and the theme was a tree. There are some trees in there.

What I learned

• I have to stop playing with squirrels! It's becoming almost obsessive!
• I have so many projects that I want to work on. I thought that being retired would give me all this extra time, but somehow it's never enough.
• I'm going to keep this short since I want lo link up to the November Table Scraps Challenge and I only have minutes to link up! It's OK, I came back to finish the post.
• I did learn a few things while making the Christmas tree on metal. It turns out that fancy embroidery thread doesn't appreciate going through holes in metal! I wanted to use a red mouliné thread to decorate the tree. There was no way to get them through the holes! Instead, I used a red metallic rayon thread. I ended up putting the thread through the hole at the beginning, then going around the back stitches of the embroidered tree instead of the holes in the metal. It did let me go through the hole at the end to be secured! 

Related links

• Finished embroidering on metal, November 29, 2024
• Embroidering on metal and Free Motion Mavericks, November 28, 2024
• Kawandi style quilting
• Stitching and FMQ on Free Motion Mavericks, July 25, 2024
• Alaska and a Quilt Show on Free Motion Mavericks, June 14, 2024

Linking parties

I have linked up to the November Table Scraps Challenge, with minutes to spare 😁. I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out? Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put your foot down, 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 509 of Free Motion Mavericks. Thanks so much for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Gail had two wonderful finishes this month. Here is her Jelly Roll Mystery Quilt, done with a strip set and background fabrics from Island Batik. 

Gail's Jelly Roll Mystery Quilt

Gail quilted it on her domestic machine and used Silly Moon's Rocket and Beanie rulers. 

Close-up of Gail's quilted Jelly Roll Mystery Quilt

Preeti, of Sew Preeti Quilts published a new pattern, Fireworks. It really is lovely!

Preeti's Fireworks pattern is now available

Close up of Preeti's Fireworks quilt

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts finished quilting her Calico Gold 3 Yd quilt. What lovely colours. Kat quilted it using free motion / ruler quilting with overlapping circles. 

Kat's Calico Gold 3 Yd quilt

Close-up of the quilting of Calico Gold 3 Yd quilt

It's your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter