Hello and welcome. By the time you read this, I will be ready 😕 and hopefully making my way across the Pond for an amazing trip! Our first destination is London💂 and then Southampton to embark on the ship. Before I leave, I'll share my latest finish.

FMQ a Baby Quilt for the Guild

You've seen the two scrappy BB/cuddle quilts that I made this summer. I took them, as well as the quilt shown below to the Common Thread Quilt Guild (CTQG) meeting this week. They are donated through our Community Projects.

I picked up the flimsy, batting, backing and binding last year at a guild meeting. I quilted most of it months ago and just needed to finish FMQ the borders. This time I didn't bind the quilt before quilting the border since the borders are 6" wide. That's quite wide and I didn't want to take a chance that it wouldn't work out.

Finished baby quilt for Community Projects

Back of the baby quilt

I FMQ the centre blocks with straight lines converging to the middle of the triangles but extending out to the next rows/columns. With that geometric quilting, I wanted to add organic shapes to the borders. I FMQ vines of heart shaped leaves. Even though I was using an orange thread, it was still sometimes difficult to see within the colourful fabric pattern. I'm always amazed how a colour that I think should pop out, will disappear. The only reason I wanted it to pop out was so that I could see it clearly when I FMQ it. 😕

Here is the pretty backyard photo. My garden is mostly weeds but at least they're mostly alive now that we've finally gotten some rain.

Backyard glamour shot 😎

Scrappy Cuddle Quilts

Because we all love photos of quilts, here are the two scrappy cuddle quilts that I handed in this week at the guild meeting. You can read more about them in previous posts (see Related Links).

Purple Scrappy Cuddle Quilt

Teal Scrappy Cuddle Quilt

Cell Phone/Device Holder

Last Spring, my childhood friend, Sylvie, made me a cell phone or device holder. JJ (my adult child) and I have been moving it around the house and using it. JJ asked me to make more so that we could keep them handy....so I finally did. They will be very useful and I have made one to take with me and another as a gift for my niece.

Original holder made by my friend Sylvie

More cell phone/device holders

The holders only require a 9" x 12" fabric piece., a cup and a half of rice and some fluffy batting. I used batik fabrics since they are pretty and already out to use for the Bloomers blocks, Of course, the neutral batik one is for my niece - I love the leaves pattern on it. The one supporting my old cell phone is an amazing fabric that looks like cathedral windows. I've been wanting to use that fabric for years - so now I have and I'm keeping it 😍 JJ got the two other two and we'll keep my friend's one downstairs to share.

I did learn a couple of things 😊while making these. The first thing is that once the holders are filled with rice and fluff, you want to place the pins facing the top so that they can easily slide out of the way when sewing that last seam. This became very evident when I tried to remove the pins that were pointing up and difficult to remove before stitching.😉

Ensure that the pins can be easily slid out of the way!

I also added a quilting clip at the beginning of the seam. It just keeps the fabric together while you fiddle around with it but is easily removed just before you start to sew.

What I learned

I enjoyed FMQ the baby quilt that I didn't have to piece.😁
At the guild meeting in June, I picked up another quilt top to be finished. It's wonderful - the committee puts the quilt top, batting, backing, binding and a label together. It goes so much faster to finish without having to figure things out...since there's always a chance of getting it wrong!
I'm really glad to give back to the community, now that I have a little more time. Since my favourite part is the FMQ, it's a great way to get more practice without spending so much time piecing.
Making the phone/device holders went really well and it was as easy as promised!
I didn't have any fibre fill, so the first holder I made, after adding the rice, was filled with scraps of batting. I just had to try - but I removed it and then refilled it once I had bought the correct fill.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 548 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.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts finished two scrappy bargello quilts in the RSC colours. Each was simply FMQ. They are so lovely!

Kat's scrappy bargello quilt FMQ with slight waves

Kat's scrappy bargello quilt FMQ with straight lines

Sally from Crafts, Cavies and Cooking is in the process of FMQ a lovely, large quilt. In her plan of attack, she stitched all of the stars first. Now she's working on the crosses. What lovely FMQ!

Sally is now FMQ the crosses!

Sally was FMQ the stars

Deb, the Scrappy Quilter is rolling along and finishing more quilts! This latest one involved curves :-) The FMQ is lovely as it echoes the curves of those gorgeous blocks.