Thursday, September 17, 2026

Slow Stitching and an extended I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊I didn't get any FMQ done this week but I played with thread, fabric, and slow stitching. I think I needed the calm that it brings. Please note that I'll be going away on a personal art retreat next week. Since I won't have access to the internet for my computer, I'm going to extend the linking party for an extra week. Also, the linking party for September's A Quilter's Cove QAL will take place on Saturday, October 3rd.

Mini Stitch Block

I have been reading a lot about art lately. On the Take Two blog, I read this very interesting article, "How to bring a sense of place into your art." Debbie Lyddon suggests that you sit quietly and observe a place, rather than reach for your camera. Here is an exercise that she suggests. In a place that you already know, spend 10 minutes and write down three sounds, two textures and one memory that the place brings up.

These are the notes I took on my phone (without taking pictures).

3 sounds: the leaves singing in the wind, bird chirping and crickets.

2 textures: long grass and cement blocks

1 memory: feeding the animals.

Here's what I came up with. A little piece that finishes at 5" x 5".

Backyard Senses - an impressionist fibre art collage

The piece started off with a white flannel back to which I attached the hand-dyed scraps. I used a variety of thread - shiny green rayon floss for the flower stems, shiny gold rayon for the leaves in the tree, and hand-dyed perle cotton. To illustrate the cement, I needle wove a little block.

After the embroidery and the bird appliqué, I used sewing thread to stitch the background with running stitch. I also added wool roving for the cloud.

I found a 5" x 7" canvas that I've attaching it to. It was probably the most difficult part since I looked online and they don't recommend using watercolour paints directly on canvas. I looked into my paint and ink supplies and found some Liquitex Acrylic ink that could work. That's what I worked on tonight - I was just too impatient to wait. I added Prussian blue ink to the front, sides and back edge of the canvas and then mounted the piece onto it.

Backyard Senses - attached to the painted canvas

What I learned

I'm sure that I could take this sense of space further but it was interesting to think about including sound and texture into the work.
I wanted to get the feel of the wind blowing in the leaves and the texture of grass and cement.
It was the first time that I used my rayon thread. They were at hand and I didn't want to hunt down anything specific. I'm glad that I took the time to play with them.
I'm hoping to work on this concept on little pieces like the one I did. They are fun, forgiving and take just an investment in thinking and a few hours of stitching.
After all of the quilting that I've done this summer, I'm going to give myself permission to play and experiment with art. 😍
I enjoyed working with the Liquitex Acrylic ink and it dries very quickly. When I painted the sides, it made a mess on the back edge of the canvas, so I carefully painted that. Next time I'll make sure to paint everything before attaching my piece.
As I mentioned, this linking party will be on for two weeks while the Quilter's Cove QAL linking party will start on Saturday, October 3rd.

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 of Gretchen's Little Corner is busy quilting baby quilts. What a lovely Berenstein Bears Baby Quilt with Framed Squares. Check out her simple but effective quilting. She started by stitching-in-the-ditch and then quilted around the insides of the squares and then added half orange peels.

Gretchen's Berenstein Bears Baby Quilt

Details of the quilting on the back of Gretchen's baby quilt

Sally from Crafts, Cavies and Cooking made a very lovely string backpack to replace an old one. She backed the blocks with fabric and stitched some wavy lines to keep it all together.

A lovely new string backpack by Sally

Sandra from mmm quilts made another lovely quilt. This one, Biblioasis, has some great book themed fabric in it. You'll want to check out her blog for more information on her FMQ and her quilt!

Biblioasis by Sandra

Yummy details of Sandra's FMQ on Biblioasis

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps finished her Little Lala quilt that she made for her QAL. It's so lovely! She used the same quilting motif as her grandmother, except that it was machine quilted. Check out her post for more details.