Thursday, November 20, 2025

Not much happening artistically

Bonjour and welcome 😊 I don't have much to share today except a bit of embroidery. So let's get to it!

Not so daily stitching


This week has been full of appointments and non-textile related tasks. I did get a little bit of embroidery done on my "Almost Daily Stitching 2024" project, which BTW won't be finished in 2025.

Sunset over water

Rain and more rain 

Random stitches

I did finish Desert Landscape but I want to attach it in the hoop and take good pictures. It should be next week's post (as well as some progress on the cowboy quilt....I hope!). I also started my next coiling project. Nothing to show yet. I've mostly been stitching in the evening but this night owl has been going to bed early and waking up way too early. I hope that's going to stop soon. 😁

Here's a photo of the freezing rain that we got - it was minimal, so just pretty but not dangerous!

Freezing rain on the tree

What I learned
  • I must be tired because I was not motivated to write this post - sorry for the late post again.
  • I'm glad that I've stitched on my "Almost Daily Stitching 2024" project. I tend to forget about it except when I'm inspired. I like how my Sunset over water translated to embroidery. Since I gave the piece away, this will be a great reminder.
  • There have been a lot of appointments but I'm happy to say that it's all good. 😊
  • I can't believe that it's already almost the end of the month....I'm so not ready for what's coming next!
Related posts
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You might want to check some out. Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 558 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Gail of The Cozy Quilter finished a lovely winter wall hanging that will be donated for auction. She quilted it using her walking foot. 

Winter wall hanging quilted by the Cozy Quilter

Gwyneth Trefethen is learning to use her Bernina 990. It sounds like she used the embroidery function to quilt a spiral motif. 

Gwyned learning more functions on her Bernina

It's now your turn 😊

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Friday, November 14, 2025

Desert Landscape in progress

Hi and welcome 😊 I hope that you've had a good week. I'm sorry that I'm a day late - I hope you'll link up below! This week I didn't have as much time to stitch as I thought, but I did have a wonderful week thanks to my brother and his family. There will be more about that in a future post. This week I almost have a finish! 

A desert landscape


I have been doing more landscape art with coiling. I'm on my third piece and it's still fun. 😀 That's unusual for this gal who gets bored so easily. I think because it's relatively simple, quick and so full of possibilities. I even have my next one planned!

This piece is based on a picture I took in 2016 in one of the National Parks we visited around Nevada. Maybe because hubby and I are from the forests and lakes of the Cambrian Shield, we find deserts fascinating.                                                                                              

Desert Landscape - almost finished

The original photo of a desert landscape

I remember taking this photo because the fine sand at the forefront was actually unusual in the parks we visited. It's amazing how different the landscapes are, even if they are all considered deserts.

This piece is tiny - it's in a 4" embroidery hoop. That was part of the challenge that I gave myself. I wanted to see how different it would be to work on a much smaller scale. After making the drawing of the photo within a circle, I didn't colour it but did mark instructions about the colours that I wanted in each area.

Drawing of the image with colour instructions

Marking the areas directly on the background fabric

Getting lots of stitching done. Sorry about the dark photo.

Here's a final photo of Desert Landscape in progress.

All that's left is the bright blue of the sky


What I learned
  • Working in a smaller hoop was fun! I used narrower strips of fabric - about 1". As long as all of the strips are roughly the same width, the coils look uniform. Of course, if you want something to stand out, you can used wider fabric which makes a wider coil!
  • I also used shorter coils, especially for the mountains and the sky around them.
  • Different coloured coils were used underneath the mountains to ensure a strong contrast between the desert, the trees and the mountains.  
  • I also used two different batik fabrics for the mountains to get different colours in the mountains.
  • I used a FriXion pen to mark the pattern on the background fabric. You can see on the earlier progress picture that I just cross out the lines that I don't want to use. In theory I could use any pen but I don't want to get into that habit...and then use the wrong pen by mistake!
  • My next hoop will be 5 or 6 inches. I want to add embroidery on top of some of the coils. We'll see how that goes!😊 
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out, after you've linked up below! Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Sew & Tell, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, 

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 557 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. 

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts made a gorgeous quilt, Sulaxi, for the Timeless Traditions Blog Hop. 

Sulaxi by Preeti

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts made a lovely Tossed Leaves and Pumpkin runner with 2 placemat panels. She quilted this with a diagonal around the small squares while she FMQ around the pumpkins and leaves.

Tossed Leaves and Pumpkin runner 

Kat used a serpentine stitch grid for this string baby quilt that was made from donations from the quilting community. It will also be donated to a good organisation.

Baby quilt made by a community for a good cause.

Deb the Scrappy Quilter made this very lovely water coloured quilt. After struggling, she was able to FMQ a water ripple design on it. 

Deb's lovely quilt FMQ with a water ripple design

Gwyned Trefethen finished her thread painting demo, A Dance Among the Flowers. She stippled the background and will be wrapping it around an 8" x 8" canvas.

A Dance Among the Flowers by Gwyned

Brenda of Songbird Designs made Sedona Starburst for the Timeless Traditions blog hop. What a beauty! You'll want to visit her post to see more of her FMQ! Here's the quilt and a peak at the FMQ and ruler work.

Sedona Starburst made by Brenda

Brenda FMQ Sedona Starburst 

More FMQ by Brenda on Sedona Starburst 

Frédérique of Patchwork & Quilts presented BB quilts that will be donated. These were made by her friend Maribé. Here is one that was quilted with hearts!

BB quilts quilted with a heart design by Maribé

It's now your turn😍

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Thursday, November 06, 2025

Sunset over water

Hi and welcome 😊 Are you recuperating from the time changing and the days getting shorter? It's been typical fall rainy and blustery days. The trees lost most of their leaves in the last couple of days. Welcome Fall! 🍁 

Sunset over water


After making my Pink Turtlehead flower piece, I decided that I wanted to make something smaller and simpler using the same technique. This one is based on a photo of the sky and water that I took going to Antarctica. I love the colours of the sunset and thought it would translate well into stitched coils.

Sunset over water

Working in a 5" embroidery hoop really made it easier. Here's my process - from the photo, I made a coloured sketch. 

Photo taken on our way to Antarctica 

Sketch of what I wanted it to look like in the hoop

As you can see from the sketch and the finished piece, I didn't quite get the proportions right. I wanted to use the rule of ⅓ (as in the first ⅓ is water, while the rest is sunset and sky. I was happily attaching coils to the frame when I realised that I was just going to get water! I ended up un-stitching a number of the coils, and I'm happy to say that it wasn't as difficult to fix as I expected.

Water creeping up!

Water subsided and horizon added

Once the horizon was attached, it was a matter of condensing my sketch to fit the rest of the frame. Below you see what the piece finished to, before I secured the background to the embroidery hoop.

Coiling finished - now to finish the piece in the hoop

Finished Sunset over water

One Monthly Goal

I'm not sure if I'll be able to get this done, but maybe stating it as a goal will help 😊. I really want to make the fourth side of my Cowboy Quilt!

I need to add the last border

What I learned
  • I'm very happy to report that un-stitching was much easier than expected. I should have un-stitched a bit more but it still looks good.
  • I really enjoyed working on the sunset part - those colours are amazing! They really make my heart sing 😀
  • Working in a hoop for the whole project made it so much easier to handle. I'm going to try to keep doing that. I had forgotten that I have square quilting frames that would have made working on the first project (Pink Turtlehead flower) easier.
  • I've found images for two more coiling projects. One will be 6" while the other will be 4". I'm looking forward to seeing how working in a smaller hoop will affect the process. It's easy to make thinner coils, so I'll be trying that out.
Related links
Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 556 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 is still busy making lap and baby quilts to donate. They are so cute! 

Flannel quilt with outline quilting by Kat

Straight line quilting by Kat

Donnalee is making runners for her guild's quilt show boutique in January. Here is a pile of quilted runners waiting to be bound.

Quilted runners by Donnalee - ready to sew down the binding!

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts made an amazing backpack using Patterns ByAnnie. 

Preeti is modeling her amazing backpack

An inside view of Preeti's backpack

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps finished her Paper Lantern quilt. She sewed down the binding with a long running stitch. How lovely!

Melva's Paper Lantern quilt

Melva's finish for the quilt binding

Brenda of Songbird Designs is FMQ her big quilt! She's promised us previews - and here they are! You'll want to go to her post to see the photos up close!

Brenda's FMQ of swirls on her big quilt

Kathleen McMusing participated in Michelle's QAL and made this lovely ghostly runner. How cute is that! Since Kathleen created her own pantograph for this one.

Kathleen's Ghost Runner

It's now your turn!😎

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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