Friday, April 04, 2025

Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to my very quiet post. The only thing that got done this week was to wash the Small Blue Scrappy Quilt. I put it into the dryer (I don't do that often but the results give such fluffy goodness). 

Small Blue Scrappy Quilt


Finished and washed, the small blue scrappy quilt is ready to take to the guild meeting next week.

Small blue scrappy quilt washed and ready to give

April's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

I tried to have this quilt as my February OMG but it didn't happen. Maybe I'll have a little bit of time to devote to it. There is only minimal FMQ to add and the binding (which will be in the darker colours). I'm hoping that this can get done. I would love it to hang on my daughter's wall. 😊

It's the Floral Fusion wall hanging, made during the quilt a-long hosted by Denise at The Quiltery. 

My April OMG - the Floral Fusion wall hanging

What I've learned
  • It's been a turbulent week here. Hubby is back in the hospital as infection set in. It was only superficial (as in not deep into the wound) but they did need to operate to clean everything up. The nurses and doctors have been amazing. I am so thankful for our health system. It may not be perfect but it is accessible and won't eat up our savings!
  • Self-care has helped enormously. Daily reminders of what I need to keep healthy, including stretching and meditation has helped. I'm far from calm but I'm not a total mess 😉
  • I did attend the April Fibre 15 meeting and was glad for the companionship and the excuse to get out the the house to do something for myself. I did a tiny bit of embroidery, so nothing to show there.
  • I also put as a goal to read a blog post per day. It didn't happen every day but quite a few. I'm glad that I was able to do at least that!
  • Thank you so much for your comments of support. I'm not usually so obviously personal in my posts but it's been a hard time. I appreciate you all. Thanks 😍
Related links
Linking parties
I will try to link up as much as I can, including the April OMG. Remember that you can link your post below, even if you don't FMQ or machine stitch your own quilts. Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, TGIFF, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!, 

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 525 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks so much for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

The Joyful Quilter FMQ her lovely yellow March Table Scraps Challenge finish. What a cute mini! She even wrote the words of a song on it, since that was the theme. Check out her post to see what song inspired the piece!

Joyful Quilter FMQ yellow March Table Scraps Challenge mini

Brenda from Songbird Design participated in the SAHRR parade. What a great modern, geometric quilt! Brenda used rulers for some for the quilting. You'll want to check out her post to see the back of the quilt's lovely quilting!

Brenda's SAHRR 2025 Finish!

Brenda also created a gorgeous Bunnies in the Garden quilt for her March Island Batik project. She used her embroidery machine for the bunnies and flowers. I don't think that she FMQ the quilt, but she used parts of Karlee Porter's digital motifs on her quilt. I've included it here because these are great inspiration for FMQ motifs that you might appreciate. Check out Brenda's post to see close-ups of each block. It's truly worth it!

Brenda's Bunnies in the Garden quilt 

It's now your turn!



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Friday, March 28, 2025

Self-care and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. I don't have much to share with you this week so I'm just going to let you get on with the party without me 😊. Hubby is doing much better but I have no energy except for a little bit of self-care, which does include 10 minutes of doing something creative every day. That can be as simple as watching part of the latest video from the TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club or stitching up the binding on the Small Blue Scrappy Quilt.

Finch Self-Care App


I'm not promoting this, but I've been using the Finch app (the free version) for 22 days now. It's so very cute and actually useful. It encourages me to choose and do my goals, which can be as simple as getting out of bed, and more personal, like doing something creative for 10 minutes each day.

Minty is on an adventure, and her friend Scout is visiting.
Guess where they are!


Progress on the Small Blue Scrappy Quilt

I am very slowly stitching on the binding. I just need to get our quilt guild's label from my studio and attach it to a corner. It will be delivered at our next in-person guild meeting in April. This is my March One Monthly Goal. As soon as I finish the quilt (and hopefully wash it) before March 31st, I'll add the finished picture below and link it up to the OMG party.

March OMG - almost finished

Small Blue Scrappy Quilt done ✓

A close-up of the top part of the quilt

A close-up of the bottom part of the quilt

You can see the FMQ in the back

What I've learned
  • Self-care is crucial and not selfish if I'm going to survive this period of my life. I know that it sounds overly dramatic but I'm not only a sensitive person but also a nurturer, like so many of you I'm sure! It's easy to give until there is nothing left but I've had one burnout already in my life and I know that it's easier to take care of if before it happens then to try to pick up the pieces once it's done!
  • I do miss my creative outlets but these will be with me for the rest of my life, so taking some time off is not a terrible thing but a gift to myself. 😉
  • Using the app to fulfill my creativity goal, I've been reading a magazine article for a few minutes, or stitching up the binding a little at a time. I love those quilting clips. They make starting and stopping easier than using pins!
  • I'm also relying on my little lamp with the magnifier to thread the needles. With regular thread, I just can't do without it.
  • I'm afraid that I haven't made any progress on either of the SAHRR quilts. It's still a priority for whenever I can get to them.
  • I've also given myself permission to skip the review part of the linking party. I hope to get back to it in the next few weeks. My goal will be to read your posts. Thanks so much for linking up!😊
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to as many linking parties as I can this week, including the March OMG. You may want to check them out! Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, 

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 524 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up last week!

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Saturday, March 15, 2025

Reclaiming Fallen Feathers

Hi and welcome! Today is a special post for Project Quilting (PQ) 16.5, "Follow Your Arrow". This little FMQ (free motion quilted) piece recalls Icarus' flight.

Free Motion Mavericks for March 20th
Please note that I'm not able to host Free Motion Mavericks this week, so the linking party is below.  Hubby was operated but is doing quite well. Thanks!

Note: It would seem that I'm still having problems with dates and time 😒- the PQ 16.5 closed last week! So please enjoy this post. I did link up to the Project Quilting Facebook page. 

Reclaiming Fallen Feathers


The PQ challenge theme was "Follow Your Arrow" and the Table Scraps Challenge colour for March is yellow. My thought process: arrow → feathers → bird → Icarus

Reclaiming Fallen Feathers

On a very bright piece of yellow hand-dyed fabric, I used a FriXion pen to draw the bird and the fallen feathers. Then I thought of Icarus and drew in the sun. Finally I added the arrow. 

Reclaiming Fallen Feathers on my outdoor carpet

I took out the black thread and free motion embroidered the bird, filling in the area with black. Then came the feathers. I FMQ tiny feathers in the shape. I did the same with the arrow.

Switching thread, I used a lovely variegated orange to pink King Tut thread for the sun. Yellow wouldn't have shown up!

Another view of Reclaiming Fallen Feathers

It was then time to finish it off. I repurposed a scrap strip of blue backing and batting left over from my blue scrappy quilt and used the pillowcase method. Once turned right-side out, I stitched the edge with a very light yellow thread and to FMQ around the embroidered sections. I added some vertical waves to highlight the falling feathers and then an arrow head pattern to give the arrow mouvement.

Note: The prompt this month for the Table Scraps Challenge was a song. I didn't start with a song but did find one that suits and which I love. It's by Calexico - Falling from the Sky. Here is part of the lyrics: "What do you feel when you're all alone? It's a song that circles round and around like a bird lost inside the cloud, cut off from the stars and they're guided in the light, not sure which way is up or down anymore..."

What I learned
  • I wanted this piece to be as easy as possible. I had all kinds of complicated ideas and gave them a firm pass! Yay for me 😃
  • I found the yellow fabric, checked out pictures of flying birds and discarded most of them as too difficult for me to FMQ. I then settled on the image of a flying gull, something that even I can draw!
  • This was probably one of the fastest pieces that I made, mostly following my intuition. Thanks intuition! 😍
  • Once I started the piece, I was done in a couple of hours. Wow!
  • I must admit that after I finished drawing the piece, I went on Wikipedia to make sure that I had the story straight. I'm happy to say that I remembered correctly (well at least one version of it!)
  • It's funny how I usually start with complicated ideas that I often (but not often enough!) simplify.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up this post to many fun linking parties, including Project Quilting Facebook page, Free Motion Mavericks and the March Table Scraps Challenge when it opens as well as my Favorite Finish for March. You may want to check some of these out! Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts,

Project details

Reclaiming Fallen Feathers
created for Project Quilting 16.5, Follow your arrow
Size: 6½" x 5½"
Material: hand-dyed fabric, thread
Techniques: free motion embroidery and free motion quilting







Free Motion Mavericks

Next week I'll do a recap of the last two weeks. Please link up below.





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Thursday, March 13, 2025

Progress on the Small Blue Scrappy Quilt

Hi and welcome. I didn't spend much time in my studio but I did finish FMQ (free motion quilting) my child-size blue scrappy quilt. It had been a while and I had forgotten how much I love FMQ! 😍 

FMQ a scrappy quilt


I started this quilt in mid-February and it was my blue February Table Scraps Challenge quilt. Now it's my March One Monthly Goal (OMG) and it will be finished! Just the binding left to hand-stitch. I don't have a picture of the fully quilted quilt - I FMQ the scrappy columns and then the blue fabric strips at the bottom. So, you'll have something to see other than the binding on 😁

Blue scrappy quilt on the snow!

In a child's quilt, I didn't think that there should be birds without heads, so I FMQ the heads of the birds at the top of the fabric strip!

Birds with their heads stitched on!

Below you can see some of the FMQ designs. I was really trying to keep the designs flowing, so as many wavy designs as possible. In the background between the two bottom strips, I FMQ a flower, a bird (possibly a chicken!) and feathers. You can also see on the bottom edge that I FMQ circles, apples and pencils (the only non-curvy design). I drew a line with a FriXion pen an inch from the edge and then FMQ the designs. I'm happy to say that where I did that, you can see the full design even with the binding on.

The bottom FMQ background has trees, a car, a race car, more trees and a house.

FMQ fun designs in the background

In the image below, you can see the vertical stitching in the two background pieces.

Details of FMQ

I just thought that I would show you a close-up of the chicken and how the colour of the quilt changes with the inside light. The actual colour is between the outside and indoor pictures. It's a teal.

Close-up of the chicken, flower and feather


Kawandi-style mat

There is progress on my Kawandi-style mat. As I may have mentioned, I sewed the scrappy fabrics together before stitching it. I took this picture last week on the train to Toronto for my semi-annual eye exam. I'm happy to say that all is good. 😊

Kawandi-style mat,  now about 2/3 finished!

I wanted to share these gorgeous tulips that hubby bought me...well, I picked them up with the groceries but he paid for them, so he bought them!😉 Today it feels like Spring might be coming. I am always hopeful and it helps when the sun is shining and the snow is melting.

Tulips....maybe Spring will come one day?

And since I'm Poppy sitting, here she is! Of course I'm disturbing her eating for a photo and she's not amused!

Poppy - interrupted in her eating

What I learned
  • When it's been a while that I FMQ, I tend to forget which designs I can do and use. I have a FMQ journal with most of the designs that I've used. It comes in very handy. All I have to do is practice them a couple of times on paper (sometimes more!) and I'm usually ready to quilt.
  • I also looked in my PDF quilting books. I've included Lori Kennedy's book in the Related links but I didn't need to refer to her book since most of her designs are in my FMQ journal! 
  • I wanted to take an outdoor picture of the back of the quilt, but it had wet spots from the snow after I took the photos of the front! I'll try to remember that for the next time.
  • The Kawandi style mat has even kept me busy when we went back to emergency to get the results of my hubby's MRI. It's good to have something to keep busy. We're waiting to hear from a specialist but hubby is feeling a little better.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to these fun linking parties. You might want to check some out! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts,


Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 522 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive two weeks! Thanks for linking up while I was away. Here are the projects from the last two weeks that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Pat of Scrapbox Quilts finished two Bear Hug quilts. # 5 is blue and yellow and quilted using a Natalia Bonners orange peel template while #2 is pink and brown FMQ with very large swirls. They are so gorgeous😊

Pat's blue and yellow quilt with orange peel quilting
 
Kat's pink and brown quilt with large swirls

Sharon from Ms. P Designs shared with us a colourful Star Party Sampler quilt. If you go on their website, you can see how each block was FMQ. 

Sharon's Star Party Sampler quilt

Next we have Kat of Scrapbox Quilts who re-did the binding after trying a new technique that didn't quite work out. She originally FMQ her Mod Flower quilt and also used rulers.  

Kat's Mod Flower quilt 

Here is Melva's finished Hanna-land quilt for her grandchildren. It's a wonderful quilt and a mat for playing a game. That should be well loved!

Melva's Hanna-land quilt

Preeti linked up with her Miracle Fish quilt which she made as part of the Sunlit Garden Blog Hop. The quilt looks wonderful in the kids' playground!
. 
Preeti's Miracle Fish quilt in the playground

It's now your turn.

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Tuesday, March 04, 2025

Putting together the Cowboy quilt and other updates

Hi and welcome back! I couldn't wait until Thursday to post these updates since I wanted to make the Table Scraps Challenge and my March One Monthly Goal (OMG) deadlines. As well, I'll be out of town for a few days and have extended last week's Free Motion Maverick's party for a week. Please keep linking up there 😍

Planning the Cowboy panel 


This is what the Cowboy panel looks like so far. I have just one block left to make.

Cowboy panel so far

After the kite block, I knew that I wanted to make several appliqué blocks. I found this lovely free children's pattern, Home on the Range (see Related links below). It's got lovely appliqués of a cowboy hat, boot, cactus and horse shoe. Perfect! I dipped into my hand-dyed fabric and found everything I needed. Here are the three blocks I made.

Cowboy hat and boot

Two cacti

Horse shoe with horse and dog

I didn't add any borders around them - I'll wait and see how things look as I put the quilt together. I've decided to add a very narrow medium brown border around the panel and then use a slightly lighter brown around the blocks. This way I can add whatever spacer I need to make the blocks fit. 

Here's what those fabrics look like on my design wall.

Proposed narrow border
and spacer fabric


February's Blue Table Scraps Challenge
and March's One Monthly Goal

I started playing with blue scraps in early February in anticipation of the TSC. I got to a piece about 24" square before it was no longer fun (it's good to know our limits! 😁)  I had no idea what to make - I have enough placemats etc. and didn't want it to be complicated. I settled on a baby quilt (as opposed to a cuddle quilt) since I have a baby quilt to FMQ for our guild. That reasoning doesn't make as much sense to me as it did back then, but oh well....

Here it is. It's coming along well.

Blue baby quilt so far

After doing the stitch-in-the-ditch, I FMQ some wavy water lines at the top of the quilt. I also hid a few fishes in the water.

I then quilted the outside background area of the top part of the quilt. Then I FMQ between the blue scrappy line areas. It was a lot of fun 😊 I'm hoping to add a few hidden images in the FMQ, like the fish. That will make the quilt more interesting for the recipient. 

A closeup of the FMQ area

The back of the quilt - stitched-in-the-ditch and FMQ

What I learned
  • I've had a lot of fun making the blocks for the SAHRR and I don't want to stop - otherwise I'll end up with two more UFOs! 
  • I'll be working on the Cowboy panel first since it's going to a cute little boy who is growing very quickly!
  •  I have no idea how large it'll be - it will be as large as it needs to be!
  • I do want to get the Christmas panel quilt pieced by the end of March. It probably won't be quilted for the final SAHRR party....but you never know! Life could get boring again! 😂
  • I didn't think that I could get bored stitching scraps together so it must be that it was all one colour and one large piece.
  • I cut the scrappy pieces and added the strips between the turquoise background. Since it's scrappy, I was able to add small pieces to the ends of the strips to make them a little longer. 
  • I don't often worry about the size of my scrappy quilts but this is supposed to be 36" x 40" since it's for the guild. That's considered a child's quilt.
Related links
Linking parties


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Thursday, February 27, 2025

SAHRR Week 6 and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. It's a very short post today - just too many things on the go and not much stitching to share. 
Update: I'll be travelling the first week of March, so I've extended the Free Motion Mavericks linking party by a week. Please link up 😍

Week 6 - Kite block


I didn't really find any methods that I wanted to use to make the kite block so I did a stitch and flip. It mostly worked. Too bad my math wasn't quite right.

This is the first kite block that I made since it was the closest fabric at hand 😁. I made each quarter using the stitch and flip method, starting the stitching line at 1" at the wide part, going down to ¼" from the end. It worked out really well.

Kite block - starting the stitching at 1"

This is the second block I made - starting the stitching at 1½" from the edge. It made it wider. It does waste a lot of fabric but I'm working with scraps so I really don't care. You have to stop clinging to those scraps eventually! 😂


The only issue that I had is my math - my calculations made a 6" block instead of 6½" . I forgot to take into account that each quarter has to have an extra ½" . Darn. I was so proud - but it's not a problem. When I put all the blocks together, I'll just add a border or something. As you can imagine, my blocks are not all 6½" so there will be a lot of setting borders happening. 😉

Kawandi style neutral mat

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm making a Kawandi style mat with neutral colours for my niece. I'm probably about a quarter done. There was stitching done during the hockey game and then as I listened to some training.  I love it!

Kawandi style neutral mat

I'm writing this post at my son's place, while Poppy sitting. Here's our girl!

Poppy 😍

What I learned and updates
  • When I don't have much to share on the learning front, I'll add "updates" to this section.
  • As  I mentioned above, I'm really happy with my stitch and flip version of the kite block. I just wasn't in the mood for foundation paper piecing so this was a great compromise. I figured that if it didn't work out, that it could be a wonky version, but I didn't even have to do that!
  • I've decided to make only one kite block for each panel.
  • Now I'm working on finishing my blocks for both panels. I figure that I have 4 more blocks to make for the Cowboy panel and 6 more blocks for the Christmas panel.
  • I've started making appliqué blocks for the Cowboy panel. I found a free baby quilt pattern that had cool cowboy related appliqué blocks and I'll be using those. I'll link up to the pattern when I'm done.
  • Two of the blocks will include the shape appliqué as well as fussy cut appliqués of animals. That will be very cute!
  • I haven't really thought about the extra blocks for the Christmas panel but it will include at least one bird appliqué block.
  • I started quilting-in-the-ditch the blue scrappy baby quilt that I'm making for the February Table Scraps Challenge. I'm assuming that the linking up party will start on Friday but I'm hoping to have the weekend to finish most of it. I'm really looking forward to FMQ it.
    Sneak peek at
    Blue Scraps
  • I also want to FMQ Poppy's mat but she's probably not visiting for a couple of weeks, so I have time (right, like she'd even notice!)🐶
  • Thanks for your kind words and wishes for hubby and me - we're probably off to the emergency this afternoon since it looks like it's a disk problem.😔
Related links
Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 521 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks so much for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Quilting Gail took part in the Runner Up Blog Hop. This featured a runner made using one of the rulers that they received, as well as Island Batik fabric. I couldn't resist the picture with her grand dog.  Gail quilted the runner using the Silly Moon Rocket ruler and meandering.

Gail's grand-dog guarding the bench...or runner?

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts created a runner called Crystal Pendants. It's also reversable!

Preeti's Crystal Pendants runner

Preeti's Crystal Pendants runner - the other side!

Kat of Scrapbox quilts made a Little Blu Bear Hug - her 4th bear hug quilts. It's so sweet. Kat used her walking foot to quilt it!

Kat's Little Blu Bear Hug

Here is the mini quilt - Little Blu Bear Hug by Kat

Donnalee quilted a very cute placemat, the first of four - fabric chosen by her husband. 

Donnalee's first of 4 placemats

Gwyned quilted this amazing piece, Pond Life, for Project Quilting 16.4. Her densely FMQ is so fun! You'll want to read the post for her inspiration.

Pond Life by Gwyned

It's now your turn! The linking party is open for two weeks. Enjoy!

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