Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Projects in Progress and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😎 I'm happy that you could join me today. I have a couple of new projects in progress to share with you. Nothing fancy, just fun 😀

Scrappy Improv Happiness

I had a wonderful time at the retreat last weekend. I met some really lovely ladies that I hope to keep quilting with again. I also played with scraps, my Featherweight machine and even my Kenmore! Here's what the two sides of my sewing machine cover looked like at the end of the retreat. Both are roughly 24" x 27".

Side one - created a few years ago for a tote bag that never happened

Side 2 - created last weekend

Here is the Featherweight in action.

Featherweight working well

I was very lucky that one of the ladies attending the retreat has two Featherweight machines and is very knowledgeable. She gave me some useful tips that I greatly appreciated. I sewed with it for a couple of hours before noticing that the tension was not great - it looked fine from the front, but not the back. I unstitched the seams that were much too loose. The others will be fine since I'll be densely FMQ the cover!😉

When I got home Sunday evening, I sandwiched both sides and started FMQ with InvisaFil. The first picture has small squares FMQ with hearts. This is fabric that I had used to make my mother a quilted wreath.

Hearts FMQ on the small squares

More FMQ

I've been FMQ from both sides of the fabric since the cover will be reversable. I've quilted ¾ of the cover so far. I'll be cutting it to size, binding it and then adding ties.

Slow Stitching Mémère's Placemat

When my grandmother moved into assisted living I quilted a couple of pieces for her. I thought that this would be a wall hanging but when she saw it, she decided that it was a placemat.

Original wall hanging/placemat for my grandmother

After her death, I got them back. Now that I'm doing more slow stitching, I want to stitch this up to use it. This is what it looks like so far.

Stitching the blocks with running stitches

Going around and around

Stitching it diagonally

So far I'm stitching the larger blocks with a running stitch. I may try something different in the pink background section.

What I learned

I was nervous about bringing the Featherweight to the retreat. I'm glad to report that it worked like a charm. Other than the tension, it was really great - and even better when I fixed that!
I brought my Kenmore with me just in case (like Gail suggested). I did use it Sunday afternoon since it hadn't been used in a few years. It was good to take it for a ride 😁
It was fascinating using the Featherweight, then going to the Kenmore and finally my jag (Janome) in the evening at home. The Featherweight chugged along, the Kenmore glided and the Jag purred 😊
I'm looking forward to trimming the sewing machine cover, adding a scrappy binding and then the ties.
On Sunday afternoon I worked on my orange house with my Kenmore. Since I had only brought white thread, I used the bobbins from the Kenmore to sew with. I knew that it could be done but I had never done it. Very cool and a great way to empty a bobbin if you need to.

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, quilted two lovely rose panels with a pink picture frame pattern. Both are slightly different - can you spot the difference? Gretchen used diagonal lines across both quilts.

First Rose Frame quilt by Gretchen

Second Rose Frame quilt by Gretchen

Gail, from Quilting Gail, made a gorgeous baby quilt, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The quilting is exquisite - you'll want to check it out on her post! Gail used the Silly Moon rulers, Twinkle, Rocket, Charming to quilt it.

How gorgeous is that!!!
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, made by Gail

Some of the quilting by Gail

Gail's quilt got two prizes!

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts made her sixth Villa Rosa quilt in six weeks for the challenge. For this one she used the Discovery pattern and quilted it with both rulers and FMQ.