Thursday, January 30, 2025

Lots of Updates and Free Motion Mavericks

Hello and welcome 😊. I've had another busy week keeping up with SAHRR (Stay at Home Round Robin), January's OMG (One Monthly Goal) and TSC (Table Scraps Challenge) - so many acronyms, I feel like I'm back at work....oh yes, I have been putting some hours in my very part-time contract. Phew - that does sound busy 😁!

Getting caught up with making blocks

Last week I made 4 lovely Art Square blocks for week 1 of SAHRR, for the Christmas panel. On the weekend, I made 2 Art Square blocks for the Cowboy panel. In the first block, I used a print of wild horses galloping in the mountains. I'm going to be using a lot of that one!

Art Block for the Cowboy panel

The next block has two of the same fabrics but with denim squares for a totally different look.

Cowboy panel with the 2 Art Square blocks

For week 2 of the SAHRR, we are making blocks with half-square triangles (HST). This time, before tacking any blocks, I looked online and found the make-2 and make-8 HST at a time. I used the make-8 HST and made a Friendship Star block from the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt book by Pam Lintott and Nicky Lintott. In the image below, it's the block on the left with the lamas.

I also made another block with fabric that I wanted to showcase. The bison is perfect, so I just added borders to make it 6½". Speaking of borders, I did the same thing with the Friendship Star block. In a moment of inattention, I trimmed the block to 6" and then realised that I had no seam allowance - thus the addition of a border. Necessity is the mother of invention! 😉

Cowboy panel with 4 blocks

The Christmas panel got two more blocks with HST except that I made them using the stitch and flip technique - where you pin a square onto your base, sew diagonally across the square and Voilà! a triangle made in another technique.

Two week 2 blocks with one of the Art Square blocks

For the Christmas panel, I found a block called Fairy Floss block (#755 designed by Helen Stubbings in the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, vol. 8.) The original block is 12" with embroidery around the hexies. I reduced it to 6½" and had a great time playing with hexies. For the second block, I just used a lovely fabric and made the same type of border using the stitch and flip method to add the triangles.

Hexies in the middle of my block

"Snow Happens" - January's OMG

I finished the border on "Snow Happens" last week and today I started quilting it. I used a white cotton fabric for the back since it's a wall hanging that won't get dirty. I used my walking foot with a slightly larger stitch than my machine's default. I stitched on both sides of the blue border and then on the white background where the diamond border starts. I stitched around the bottom row of the diamonds in the border. It went well. It won't take me long to finish the quilting. I will probably FMQ around the snow people. I'm not sure if I'll have to do more. Less might be better in this instance (I can't believe that I just said that!)

Quilting around the borders and diamonds with a walking foot

From the back - walking foot quilting in progress

Table Scraps Challenge - January

The colour for January's TSC is pink. I've been wanting to make another Kawandi style mat for a while since I gave away the three that I've done so far. This one is very special to me and will remain in my home. The base is made from a placemat that my mother made when she first started quilting.

I forgot to take pictures before I cut up the placemat. It was much larger than I needed so I cut it and used a QAYG (quilt as you go) technique to put it back together. I had binding left from the part that I cut off, so I attached it to both pieces.

If you're wondering about the piece of pinwheel fabric at the back, well, when I was sewing the fabric down (on the other side), I managed to sew a strip of fabric that got stuck to the back. It was very difficult to remove, so I added a bit of the fabric to the back, since it obviously wanted to be there. 😁

The back of my Kawandi style mat - a repurposed placemat made by my mother.

I used mostly pink, purple and blue fabric scraps. Like the last Kawandi style piece I last made, I stitched the pieces by machine to the back. It's just so much easier to handle while stitching. This time I decided to leave the binding showing on the sides.

Scraps stitched down, ready to quilt.

This is the progress that I've done. It's slow going but so pleasant and peaceful to stitch. Isn't it amazing how the look of the fabric changes after it's been stitched?

Kawandi Style mat - in progress

Kawandi Style mat - progress from the back

What I learned

I haven't made quilt blocks in a long time but I'm pretty happy with my results. When I concentrate, I seem to be doing well. I do pull seams apart if they are too wonky but for the most part, they are presentable.
It really does show that practice makes better. My blocks are better this week than last week's.
I've had fun looking in the few magazines and books of blocks that I have. I'm always looking for very simple blocks 😊.
Making blocks for two panels is a lot but as long as I make at least one block for each panel each week, I'm happy. When I get closer to the end, I'll probably repeat a few blocks to give it cohesion.
After getting some good suggestions on my "Snow Happens" diamonds, I briefly considered fixing the two sides but when I thought about it, it was just too complicated and really not worth the frustration. Besides the recipient of the wall hanging is quite OK with it as it is.
I changed the photo of "Snow Happens" above since it was really bad in the evening light.
I really love working on the Kawandi Style mat and I've taken out scraps to make another one - this time for my niece. It'll be in more neutral pallet....just because I love her!😍

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 517 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.

Melva linked up her finished flimsy of Red Skies as well as her finish! What a gorgeous quilt.😊

Melva's Red Skies - a real scrappy beauty!

Melva even dreamt about how to finish quilting it! Read more about it here.

Melva's Red Skies - lovely FMQ

Donnalee bought fabric and made two winter runners. They are really lovely.

Donnalee's new winter runner

Another winter runner by Donnalee

It's now your turn!

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Project Quilting 16-2 Ombre Challenge

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm up late Sunday morning to finish my Project Quilting (PQ) challenge - creating something with ombre fabric. Here is a short post on what I made.

Ombre fabric

I had no idea what to make with ombre fabric. I have a few fat quarters of the Snippets collection by Chelsea DesignWorks for StudioE fabrics. A year ago I made a student agenda cover for my niece in the black fabric. This time I decided to use the bright to dark blue but I didn't know what to make.

Finally on Friday I realised that I've been wanting to make something to carry my reading glasses and phone around the house. I started searching bags, cellphone bags and finally found what I wanted under small pouch patterns. I wanted it easy to make with no zipper. I also needed it to expand. I thought that I would have to box the bottom but finally the tutorial I found had pleats - even better!

Ombre pouch to carry my glasses and phone

If you read my post in early January, you'll know that I cut up a favourite pair of PJ bottoms and used the lovely fabric to line my agenda/journal. I had some left (the other leg 😁) and used it as lining for this pouch. When I see that fabric, it makes me smile.

Ombre pouch with pleats

I didn't take any process pictures but it was simple enough to make and I'm really happy that it came out because I had no idea what size to make it. I was hoping to put the glasses and phone at the bottom of the pouch, one on top of the other, but it's not quite wide enough. It does hold them well side by side.

Phone and glasses in the ombre case

Ombre case ready to go!

It's not really obvious that the fabric on the case is ombre, but you can see it underneath the case. It's quite lovely.

What I learned

The most difficult part of this challenge was figuring out what I wanted to make, and then finding the correct words to search.
I found a great tutorial by sewingtimes (see link below)
I'm really happy that it worked out because I had difficulty figuring out what size to make it.
Adding the pleat on the sides of the bottom part of the pouch is very useful, but I should have made it just a little larger.
Now that I know what I'm doing, I might make more of these. They might also be cool to FMQ.
Did you notice my new Oliso iron and wool pad? I got them for Christmas. They are really great.

Thursday, January 23, 2025

SAHRR and Snow Happens on Free Motion Mavericks

Allô and welcome 😊. It's a lovely snowy day which started with a guided tour of the Woven Histories exhibition at the National Art Gallery of Canada and some quality time with sweet Poppy! I saw the exhibition when it first opened - it's really amazing, but it's even better when someone is telling you a story about some of the artists and pieces.

First round of blocks for SAHRR

Monday was the first day of instructions for making the blocks for our quilt. We got to choose a block that started with the first letter of our name. I chose the Art Square Block that I found online. There were instructions but just the very old fashion way of making blocks, i.e. attach one triangle to another. You do know that I'm accuracy challenged, so this was very challenging. After making four Art Square Blocks, I took the time to find alternate ways of making it, such as the stitch and flip, or making 4 flying geese at a time.

Four Art Square Blocks for the Christmas panel

You may notice that I changed the order of my blue and gray fabrics in the flying geese block part. I originally wanted the gray to be in the centre but I didn't cut my fabric properly for the first block, so blue in the centre it was. Since I only cut my fabric one block at a time, I decided to try both ways. I like them both, but I do prefer the gray surrounding the block's centre.

I've had to take almost everything off my design board - I don't make many large projects. Since the panel is quite long, I'll probably only do one border but with different blocks. We'll see. I do love these blocks in the corners.

Christmas panel with the four Art Square blocks

I've looked at other blocks starting with "A" for my cowboy panel, although now that I know how I could make these blocks more easily, I may stay with this block. I've washed, trimmed and ironed the panel, so I'm ready to go. I'm slowly picking fabric to go with the panel. I love the muted colours and am looking for some denim colours, browns and the cactus green. I may even have some plaids that would go well 😊.

Next, making blocks for the Cowboy panel

"Snow Happens" wall hanging

I finished the border around "Snow Happens". It's not as bad as it could have been. 😁 My points are still mostly there but the diamonds got cut off on the side borders. That was because I didn't follow the instructions - I just don't cut things at ⅛". Since I'm not very accurate anyway, that ⅛" will not make much difference (OK it would but this is my excuse!) Anyway, some of those diamonds got cut but it still looks pretty darn cute!

"Snow Happens" wall hanging

I had some lovely blue Christmas fabric but wasn't sure about using them since they have a little bit of other colours, like the little snowman with a red scarf! I don't think that these little pops of colour distract from the blue.

What I learned

I know that my piecing skills are not great. Before I started the Art Square blocks, I should have researched how to make it using more modern tricks. I didn't realise that I was making a flying geese within the block and that I could easily make 4 at once!
Using these faster methods don't guarantee more accuracy but at least it's a bit easier!
I go so long without making quilting blocks that I forget how frustrating they can be.
For the other blocks in the SAHRR, I'll try to find easy alternatives if I have to.
I did go through my many magazines and books of blocks and found a few alternatives, as well as a few tricks, so I hope that I'll be OK for the next ones.
As I mentioned already, rounding up the measurements to not use ⅛" wasn't brilliant, but I suspect that my blocks would not have fit anyway. I think that the best way to make sure that such a border works is to make the pieced border first and then work from there to add inner borders that will be large enough to fit them. It's a little late, but if there is a next time, I've written it here!
I'm actually looking forward to making the blocks for my cowboy panel. So we'll see how that goes!
Update: I just figured out that my lovely Art Square blocks are the same as version 2 of Kathleen's King Crown block...and I thought they looked too complicated to make!😂

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 516 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts has made a beautiful quilt (22" x 29") for this cute bear. This is for the Bear Hugs mission. Kat used the blanket to practice her FMQ swirl designs from Angela Walters' swirl challenge.

A pink Bear Hugs mini quilt by Kat

Quilting Gail's first finish (that she can show us) for 2025 is this lovely Christmas Tree made by watching "Helen Godden’s Christmas Countdown" with her sister on Zoom. What a great way to spend time together while quilting! It was also a great way of playing with FMQ.

Christmas Tree hanging by Quilting Gail

It's now your turn!

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Plans for 2025 and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊. The deadline for linking up to #202QuiltingPlanningParty is approaching so I had better get myself in gear! I'll use the same categories as my Best of 2024 post (quilts, challenges, art quilts, mindful stitching/embroidery, journal making and miscellaneous projects). Once again, I really hope to keep this year simple. Ideally all of my projects would be chosen mindfully but I'm a night owl and at 2am, every new project sounds great!

Quilts for 2025

As you know, there are many steps involved in making a quilt. The first part, after deciding what pattern and fabric to use, is the actual making of the quilt top. After this comes the quilting - with the sandwiching and the free motion quilting (FMQ). You may have heard that piecing a quilt is not my favourite part, but sandwiching is even worse. That's why many of my UFOs (Un Finished Objects) have stalled at the sandwiching phase. I have a number of quilt tops to quilt - so I'm going to arbitrarily choose to finish 2 of them this year.

For instance, in 2023 I participated in the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL but haven't quilted it yet. The quilt, pictured in the top left, is a large quilt, and is at the top of my list! I also participated in the 2023 SAHRR (Stay At Home Round Robin) and made that cute quilt in the bottom centre. That could be another one that would be simple and fun to FMQ.

Quilts made in 2023 with 2 flimsies that haven't been FMQ yet.

I am also participating in this year's SAHRR since I have a cute panel that needs to be made into a quilt before the baby becomes a teen! He's almost two, so it's not that bad😁.

Christmas panel

Baby Cowboy panel

As I was looking for Christmas fabric for my "Snow Happens" embroidery (see below), I remembered that I also have a Christmas panel to make. Am I being overly ambitious by trying to do both of these during SAHRR? Probably but whatever happens, it's better than what I have now, which is 2 panels😁

I can't get to my stash to pick fabrics for the cowboy panel yet since I'm in the middle of cleaning my studio. My computer desk area, the closet and my cutting table are mostly done. Now I have to tackle the fabric stash area and my journal supplies. It's a big job!

I also hope to make a few small cuddle quilts since I owe my guild a few.

Challenges

This is the hardest category to predict. I do know that I will participate in a few Project Quilting (PQ) season 16 Challenges. It will depend on what else I have to do and if the theme strikes my fancy. At the same time, I have workshops through TextileArtist.org every two weeks. I don't always participate for the same reasons but I review and often watch the workshop video to see what it's about. Sometimes I feel like doing something months later - and I know where to find it.

This first piece was both for Project Quilting 16.1 and a workshop by Woo Jin Joo for TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club. Both happened to be on the subject of mythical creatures. I'm so happy that I participated in both.

The Rabbit's Adventure is based on the Korean folktale
"The Rabbit's Liver"

The rabbit and the mythical turtle

I will also be participating in the Joyful Quilter's Table Scraps Challenge. Although I usually start a few days before the monthly deadline, I really enjoy playing with scraps. To me this is total play since my pieces are small and easy to sandwich and quilt! Some of the participants have started with orphan blocks (blocks that never made it into anything) and made them into something fun and/or useful. Unless I get an idea like my placemats last year (believe me, I don't need any more!) I'll just do random things, like December's corner book marks.

Corner bookmarks - easy to make and fun to give away!

Art Quilts

Many of my art quilts come from workshops or challenges. Sometimes though, I have an idea or a technique that I want to explore. These are usually a lot of fun but much more challenging. This was the case with my Spring Tulips - a 3D art piece made with water soluble machine embroidery.

Spring Tulips - a vase of free standing textile tulips

Although this piece was finished in April, after I took it home, the drooping tulips were bugging me. This week, I finally took a pair of scissors to them and inserted bamboo skewers. I still have to stitch them back up, but they are finally staying in place. Yay!

So, I don't know what will pop up this year but I sure hope I remember to KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Mindful stitching/embroidery

At this time, I have two major embroidery projects to finish. They came about through the Joyful Embroidery class with Fleur Woods. I will get these finished this year.

Punch needle project

This will be a major embroidery project for 2025

A more realistic view of what's left to stitch on my
Almost Daily Stitching project (2024-25)

I do hope to experiment with Kawandi style stitching again this year. If I can get them started, they are a wonderful hand-stitching project to take anywhere.

Christmas Kawandi style mat
started by machine and then hand-stitched

Journal making

I'm not sure exactly what I'll be making except for at least one more work journal for my hubby. Next week I have a playdate through Out of the Box (OOTB) to make an altered book. I'm sure that I'll find occasions to make at least a few journals this year!

I did start the new year making a Upcycled Traveller's Journal with a fabric cover, instead of my usual agenda. The first month of the year may not be over but I am using it! 😃

The inside of my Up-cycled Traveller's Journal and Agenda

Up-cycled Traveller's Journal with fabric cover

My narrative textile squirrel book is another project that spans a few categories. I will be working on my lovely squirrels story.

Narrative Textile Bookmaking course with squirrels!

Miscellaneous projects

Now that my "Snow Happens" embroidery is finished, it's now become a quilting project 😁. There is a lot of intermingling going around here! It needs to become a wall hanging by the end of the month! Anne-Marie told me that I could link up my One Monthly Goal (OMG) at the end of the month, even if I missed the initial posting's deadline. Thanks! Now I'd really like to get this done.

"Snow Happens" embroidery needs to become a wall hanging by the end of January

Possible fabrics to use

Pattern by Bird Brain Designs

If you've followed me for a while, you may have noticed that I didn't mention a couple of UFO's that have barely been started. My daughter's Paddington Bear quilt, and my husband's panel wall hanging. It would be nice if this was the year that one or both of them got done! I'm not saying anything else. 😔

What I learned

I wasn't going to include this part in my planning post but after seeing the huge list of projects that I want to accomplish, I think that I need to.
I think that the biggest part about "keeping it simple" this year is to avoid deadlines that will cause me to stress out!
Deadlines are not all the same. An OMG is there to encourage. I'm hoping to participate every month and that this will help keep me focused. Deadlines like shows and exhibits are the worse. There will be one or two shows for OOTB - and I already have something to add to the show (The Rabbit's Adventure), so anything else I make is extra!
I do have to avoid taking extra workshops that involve a lot of time. Joyful Embroidery was great but requires a lot of work. One of these courses every couple of years is enough for me!
I do have to remember that I'm retired! I have a lot more time to spend on making and playing than ever before.
Something that I take as a given is the continuation of my blogging and the weekly Free Motion Mavericks linking party. Thanks so much for being a part of this. It means a lot to me 😍
For 2024, my intention was to learn by playing, with mindfulness and gratitude. My intention for 2025 is the same. Hopefully this will deepen with attention.

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, particularly the #202QuiltingPlanningParty hosted by Quilting Jetgirl. SARHH week 1, Centre Block, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 515 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.

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps finally finished her Camping Journal Quilt and it will go into the camper, as soon as the camper is ready. Good luck Melva!

Melva's Camping Journal Quilt

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has finished another quilt and pattern - Garden City!

Preeti's new Garden City quilt and pattern

Dawn of Quilted by Dawn didn't get much blogging done last year, so we'll be seeing her finishes this year. She made this lovely improv quilt, Mix It Up, based on a class. It's quilted with straight lines.

Dawn's Mix It Up!

And here are a couple of Project Quilting Challenge 16.1 pieces!

Sally from Craft, Cavies, and Cooking created a Djinn Postcard. We don't need to see the Djinn to know what's coming out of the lamp!

Sally's Djinn Postcard for PQ 16.1

Andrée from Quilting & Learning - What a Combo! (that's me 😊) created a Korean Folklore inspired piece, "The Rabbit's Adventure".

Andrée's "The Rabbit's Adventure"

It's now your turn!

Friday, January 10, 2025

PQ 16 - 1 Mythical Creatures - A Korean Folktale

Hi and welcome. This piece is in response to Project Quilting's first challenge of 2025. When PQ's first challenge was announced, I had just checked out TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club's latest class about Korean folktale art. What serendipity! From the workshop I made a piece that I call "The Rabbit's Adventure". Let me tell you about it😊

The Rabbit's Liver - A Korean Folktale

Using a series of images of Korean folktales as examples, I drew different elements of the images to make this art quilt.

The Rabbit's Adventure

The story begins when a Dragon King in his underwater kingdom is sick and is told that he needs the liver from a rabbit to get better. The Dragon King ask's his subjects to go to the land kingdom to find a rabbit. Turtle volunteers to swim far away to find a rabbit. Finally, approaching land, Turtle sees a creature and asks if it's a rabbit. Sure enough, it was Rabbit. So Turtle offers to take Rabbit on an adventure under the sea to visit the Dragon King's kingdom. Rabbit says that he can't swim but Turtle tells him that he'll be able to take him without Rabbit needing to swim because the kingdom is magical.

Rabbit on Turtle's back, ready for his adventure

So Rabbit says yes and he travels on Turtle's back where, sure enough, Rabbit can breathe under water! Once in the magical kingdom, Rabbit is introduced to the Dragon King. It doesn't take Rabbit long to figure out that the Dragon King needs his liver! Quick on his feet, Rabbit replies that of course he would like to help the Dragon King by giving him his liver. But since his liver is very precious, Rabbit has left it in the forest for safe keeping. He is happy to go back to the forest and give it to the Dragon King. The Dragon King is very happy to agree and Turtle takes Rabbit back to fetch the liver from its hiding place.

Back to the forest in the land kingdom

Turtle takes Rabbit back to the land kingdom where Rabbit says good bye. Turtle is surprised that Rabbit has lied but I guess we're all happy that Rabbit survived. 😁

Here is the one process image I took.

After FMQ the piece

Woo Jin Joo: Mythical folklore embroidery

Woo Jin Joo, a textile artist, supplied us with a number of beautiful Korean folk paintings from the Joseon Dynasty period (1392-1910). I fell in love with the tree below. It's so beautifully painted with a trunk and then needles shaped around it. I figured out how to flip the image so that the tree would face the direction I wanted.

Korean folktale painting

I drew the background mountains and water in the style of the paintings. In our images, we had a few turtles and rabbits, so I chose my favourites. Turtle is from a magical kingdom and looks quite different from his cousins on the land kingdom.

Once I had drawn the piece with the various elements, I made templates of the rabbit and turtle to cut out the fabric and the fusible web. Having drawn them once I didn't think that I could do it again - tracing the template from my drawing was the safest solution.

Drawing of the piece with the various elements

I clipped the drawing over one of my pieces on the wall near my machine so that I could refer to it as needed.

Clipped and in place so that I can refer to it

I used the facing method to finish the piece (see Related links below).

I found the tale of the Rabbit's Liver on the Internet if you want to read about it (see Related links).

What I learned

It was really interesting to see the Korean folk paintings and translate them into stitching.
I was blown away by the tree and will probably use that technique again.
I'm definitely going to look more carefully at paintings to see what I can learn from them. I have done that with respect to composition but not as inspiration for stitching or FMQ.
It was weird working with all of those muted colours and I love the calm feeling that they give me. I'm going to have to explore that further 😊