Thursday, May 21, 2026

Baby Quilt, Upcoming Retreat and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😎 Spring is here 🌺! It was hot yesterday but very reasonable today. I'm sure that some people want it to stay hot but it'll get here soon enough. Today I worked outside in the yard and inside in my studio. It was both a long time coming.

Baby Quilt Coming Along

When I searched my blog, it looks like I hadn't worked on the baby quilt since January. The pattern is called Square Dance from the Modern Baby book by Martingale. I had made a rough plan but a lot of info was missing, so I redid that and I'm good to go.

This is as far as I got yesterday. Can you spot the mistake that unfortunately can't just be called a creative anything.... It was too late to fix it, so it'll be there the next time I start up.

Two full rows and an oops!

Here's a progress photo since I took it! 😀

Progress on the baby quilt

I've drawn out the entire quilt and took out the fabric as I was making decisions. It's not the way I usually do it but I needed to know what colours are in the next row to make the corresponding HST (half square triangles). At least I get to decide on the novelty fabric when I'm making the block 😊.

Getting Ready for a Retreat

On Saturday and Sunday I'll be at an intown retreat. It's with a new group to me. I've only met the leader but I'm really looking forward to it. I've become pretty isolated in my studio. Other than doing groceries and meeting a friend for coffee or a meal every once in a while, I've been avoiding almost all social interactions in groups. Hopefully this will get me back in the groove.

Several years ago I bought a Featherweight sewing machine. I was told that it worked, but I hadn't tried it out yet. So last weekend, I took it out of its case and gave it a go. It does work and using the original manual (in French!) I was able to sew a bit. However, I didn't want to do much since it needed maintenance. I found an amazing video that went through pretty much everything I needed to do.

My featherweight sewing machine - older than me!

I wasn't able to locally find the grease they recommend so I found an alternative at Canadian Tire. It was quite the job greasing and oiling it but it was less intimidating than I expected. It does work but I think that it's noisier than the one on the video. I'm going to see if anyone at the retreat uses a Featherweight and compare notes. I did take out my trusty Kenmore so I'll have no problems sewing either way.

As for projects, I don't want to bring anything too difficult, so I went through some of my scraps and cut 2.5" squares. I've also started playing with scraps to make a sewing machine cover for my Jag. I found this cute one that just has ties, so the fit will be more forgiving.

To make - a scrappy cover for my Jag

I'm also going to bring fabric for my orange house for the Quilter's Cove QAL. As well, I bought some fabric to convert my houses into a QAYG (Quilt as you go) project. That would require thinking - so we'll see how my brain is working. I did find a pattern and made notes, so I may be able to mock one up. Since the retreat is only a 10 minute ride from home, I can always come back if I'm missing anything.

I also usually bring a hand stitching project to work on if I need a break. I'll remember to pack it.

What I learned

I did learn an important lesson about making the row of HSTs for the baby quilt:

Make the blocks but only trim them once the row is done and ready to be sewn together. I obviously didn't trim them all properly, so I had a couple of blocks that were quite smaller.

I guess I should mention double checking that all of the HSTs are in the correct spot but it seems to be a recurring lesson that I have to learn over and over!
I think I've figured out how to extend my design wall for these larger quilts. Hopefully it'll work.
I hope that the Featherweight will work well but at least I'll have my other machine with me.
Two days feels like a lot of time but it usually isn't. If I can play, meet new quilters and have some fun, that would be wonderful, although a new scrappy cover for my jag would be lovely 😊

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Gretchen from Gretchen's Little Corner has started her Spring quilting. This turquoise patchwork quilt was the first one. It got some in-the-ditch quilting, diagonal lines in the white blocks, straight lines in the white border and then Baptist fans in the border. What a simple beauty. You might want to go read her post.

Gretchen's turquoise patchwork quilt

Gretchen's Baptist fans in the border

Terry of On Going Projects quilted her Beyond the Surface quilt. It started by quilting-in-the-ditch, followed by adding ghost flying geese and finally jazzing all of them up. It really looks great! To read more about Terry's process, check out her post.

Beyond the Surface quilt by Terry

Terry added more sunshine and shadows with quilting

Terry added some almost continuous curves within the geese

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts is on week 5 of her 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge. This one is a lovely colourful flannel quilt.

Kat's fifth Villa Rosa quilt

Sally from Crafts, Caves and Cooking made this amazing lone star quilt called Supernova (all lone start quilts are amazing!!!) Sally created lovely corner designs to make her lone star quilt stand out. Check out her post for more info.

Sally's Supernova quilt

Gwyned Trefethen has finished quilting her Secret Mission. Have a look at the FMQ from the back of the quilt!

Gwyned's Secret Mission quilt - FMQ from the back

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Embroidered Victorian Pin Cushion and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 Today's sun was greatly appreciated 🌞 It's still too cool to stay outside to stitch but it's getting there. I just love watching and feeding all of the neighbourhood wildlife. I finished my embroidered Victorian pin cushion, so here it is.

Victorian Pin Cushion

I wasn't sure if I would make the pin cushion but when I embroidered the pattern on a smaller scale onto lovely vintage cotton, of course I had to make it. Because the handkerchief had a lace trim that I wanted to include in the pin cushion, I didn't use the pillow case method. I just made it up as I went along.😀

Embroidered Victorian Pin Cushion

The good thing about embroidery is that it covers machine stitching lines very well. I even took out my pretty pins to put into the cushion...I'll need more of those.

This is what the sampler looked like last week

The last two stitches to add were the beaded wheat ear stitch and the half wheel buttonhole stitch. I did the buttonhole stitch on the yellow sampler without drawing it - so I learned from that and drew the half circle on my pin cushion sampler.

Drawing the half circles to get it right

What I learned

The size of the embroidery hoop you use matters! I was originally using a 6" hoop for my first sampler but since it felt small, I switched to an 8". This turned out to be larger than the fabric so it wouldn't keep the tension. So I switched back to my 6" but just adjusted the fabric when I needed to.
I don't always use an embroidery hoop but for these more "formal" stitches, especially placed in rows, it was necessary.
I don't like drawing the whole stitch because I don't usually follow the drawing anyway, but it was needed to make the half-circles roughly the same size. It worked out well.
If you've been following me for a while, you know that I don't like making things that require accuracy, so this was way out of my comfort zone. Now that I proved that I can do it - the question is do I want to do it again? Probably not 😁
It's nice to play with stitches, although I'm not a huge fan of embroidery floss. I found it really hard to thread my needle when I was using 4 strands. It's not so much the original threading as the multiple threading required when you make mistakes and have to pull the thread out - and you can only do that by taking it out of the needle.😕
To keep the lace trim on the pin cushion, I attached the back to the front at each end and sides, having two pieces meet in the centre. I then buttonhole or blanket stitched the edges so they wouldn't fray.
I channeled my mother's MacGyver talents when putting it together - the important thing is that it looks ok and won't leak filling!

I Quilted This!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts shared with us her week 3 and 4 quilts as part of the 6 Quilts in 6 Weeks Challenge.

Honey Bouquet quilt made with flannel scraps by Kat

Kat used ruler quilting to finish this lovely quilt

Deb, A Scrappy Quilter, quilted up a whole bunch of quilts that she and her grandchildren layed out. You'll want to check out her post to see all of them!

A lovely stroller quilt made by Deb with left overs

5" squares make up this cute quilt by Deb

A pretty yellow quilt with a gridded centre by Deb

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has the pattern of her Rainbow Sprouts Quilt available in her shop. It was first featured in the Make Modern Magazine's Issue #68. She also has a great Rainbow Seeds quilt made from the left-overs of the Rainbow Sprouts quilt.

Rainbow Sprouts Quilt by Preeti

Rainbow Seeds quilt by Preeti

Sandra of mmm quilts has a gorgeous quilt, Diamond Baby, in the latest Make Modern magazine. She took some amazing pictures on her trip to Eastern Canada. You'll want to check out her post!

Sandra's Diamond Baby at Fisherman's Cove

Lovely quilted details on Sandra's Diamond Baby

It's now your turn! 😍

Thursday, May 07, 2026

More Slow Stitching and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 I hope all is well with you - thanks for taking the time to visit!

Slow Stitching

This week I'm participating in an online challenge with the WNS Academy. We are stitching a Victorian sampler. It's been a change of pace to mostly follow instructions. As you may know, that's not my forte! My sampler is not great but then it is a sampler.

Victorian Sampler Challenge

Each day we get a different stitch. The top one is the sheaf stitch. The second day was the beaded chain stitch. I did this one three times. In the image below you can see my two rows of chain stitch using big beads. I made the first row with only 3 strands of embroidery cotton and the embroidery barely showed. It was better in the second attempt when I used all 6 strands.

The first two days of the challenge

For my third attempt at the row of chain stitch, I used smaller beads. Using the smaller beads was better but my line is terribly wonky.

The third day was the tacked herringbone stitch. Day four was the beaded fly stitch. I really enjoyed this one! Today we did the herringbone ladder stitch. I also enjoyed that one but I found out why it's important to make the base back stitches even!

Stitch challenge so far

We have two more stitches to do and then we're supposed to make a pin cushion. Since I've really enjoyed the stitching, I'm considering making the lines of stitching shorter so that the pin cushion will be a practical size.

Update May 8

I decided to start a new sampler to use for the pin cushion. I used a couple of hand kerchiefs given to me by a friend 😍. I put a layer of Steam-a-seam lite between the 2 fabrics. I'll just be using a corner of it to stitch on and then use part of it to make the pin cushion. I wanted to share this with you - it's so much better!

Embroidery on vintage hand kerchief to make the pin cushion

Once I erase the Frixion pen lines, it should look great. It does seem that my chain stitch is just naturally wabbly, even after making it four times! Oh well, proof that a machine did not make these. 😁

Nature's Texture - an Online Exhibition

Nature's Texture, an online exhibition of the art made by students of Fleur Woods at Take Two is now available. The exhibition is incredible and I'm so glad to have my piece, Views from Near and Far, included in it.

View the exhibition

My piece is on page 76. In case you don't have the patience to check it out, here is a screenshot of the page.

What I learned

The challenge is interesting. The instructions on the video are good but not very thorough. I appreciate being told why certain supplies such as threads are used, etc.
I'm really not very sociable in these types of events and don't use the facebook spaces.
I wasn't going to make the pin cushion but now that I'm getting into it, it would be nice to make a better version of these stitches and make something useful.
It can be difficult finding needles that are big enough for the embroidery thread but small enough for beads. I usually use tiny size 11 or 12 beads with silk thread, but these are too small. I'm glad that I found some slightly larger ones that mostly went though the needle!😁
Making a piece for the exhibition was a great experience but now I seem to be rudderless. I know that this happens after a big project is finished. I'm just hoping to get back to all of my other projects soon.