Showing posts with label Amanda McCavour. Show all posts

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Confused on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 565 of Free Motion Mavericks. I managed to totally forget about having to post last night or even this morning! I hope that you got to see my Project Quilting 15.1 - Bird House. If not, you can check it out in Related links below.

Playing with scraps

Last week I played with green scraps. I managed to piece together a green placemat for hubby. I think that it'll look good! This is for the Table Scraps Challenge, hosted by the Joyful Quilter. It's only due at the end of the month so that's when the free motion quilting (FMQ) will get done.

Green placemat for hubby

The placemat will be roughly the same size as the blue (mine) and the yellow (my daughter), which are about 16" x 11". There are many variations of green in there, including a pop of other colours. I'm looking forward to FMQ it.

Meditation block

After watching the first season of the Great Pottery Throw Down this week, I was so inspired that I had to create a meditation block.

Mediation block inspired by the Great Pottery Throw Down

You might be thinking that this doesn't look like pottery....and you'd be correct 😁 The inspiration came from the finalists making a bone china chandelier. They were so lovely, translucent and flowing. That reminded me about the pieces that I'll be making for this spring and summer outdoor exhibition. I want my piece to be translucent, shimmering and flowing.

I'll start with three suns, one in the morning, a bright yellow noon sun and then a sunset sun. Then I'll add blue for the sky, possibly with clouds and birds. The next level will be flowing green leaves in cascading greens while finishing with bright bold flowers.

Sun in the morning, at noon and at sunset

The sky, possibly with clouds and birds in flight

Green flowing leaves in various greens

Colourful flowers

I'll be making these using Solvy water soluble stabilizer. I found an article in a 2016 Stitch Magazine called Dressed for Dinner. In the article, Carol Coleman used water soluble stabilizer as well as pieces from silk or other types of scarves to make napkin rings. This technique sounds perfect for making an outdoor sculptured hanging piece.

Other than the nest last week, I have made a few items with the Solvy. The flower shaped sculpture is the last piece that I made in the second course that I took with Amanda McCavour.

Flower shaped sculpture made with thread and Solvy

I have a number for gorgeous scarves that I bought at great prices that would be perfect for this.

What I learned

I love being inspired by other types of art. I didn't know much about pottery before watching this series. It was a real eye opener.
As I was looking for a link to the Great Pottery Throw Down, which is produced by the BBC, I found out that there is going to be a Canadian version of this coming this year. I hope that it is as respectful and enjoyable as the BBC series.
I loved making the meditation block and thinking about both the show and the piece that I'd like to make.
I've been hand-stitching a lot lately with my daily stitching on my tablecloth. I realise that some of the stitches that I've been doing are better done with a stabbing stitch, especially the leaf stitch. I'm going to try to pay attention to see if this applies to other stitches that I'm not so good at.
I'm looking forward to doing the FMQ on the green runner. Somewhere, I want to add a snowflake since that's the theme this month. I might use designs of the 4 seasons.

Related links

Project Quilting 15.1 - Bird House Challenge 1, January 14, 2024
Working on Project Quilting 15.1 at Free Motion Mavericks, January 11, 2024
Scrappy Yellow Placemat on Free Motion Mavericks, September 06, 2023
Little Library and Table Scraps Challenges, July 01, 2023
The Great Pottery Throw Down
Embroidered Botany Workshop at Free Motion Mavericks, July 07, 2021
Amanda McCavour
So much slow stitching going on, January 09, 2024
Stitch Magazine

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check them out, after you've link up below? Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Sew & Tell, Off The Wall Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching,

Free Motion Mavericks

We have some wonderful FMQ to showcase this week. Thank you to everyone who linked up 😊!

Donnalee quilted 3 small quilts for her guild's charity group. She uses a serpentine stitch to quilt them. They look lovely!

Donnalee quilted these small quilts with a serpentine stitch

Melva made this gorgeous t-shirt quilt using a reverse tie dyed fabric for the sashing and backing. She quilted it in a grid on point.

Melva's finished t-shirt quilt quilted in a grid on point

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts had a wonderful finish with her Prismatic quilt. If you're interested, you can purchase the pattern in her Etsy shop. This quilt is made with Island Batik solids.

Preeti's Prismatic quilt

Sandra Walker of mmm quilts hosted last week's TGIFF. Her finish was another amazing Postcard for Sweden quilt (her third one!) She FMQ "flowing lines interspersed with various FMQ flowing motifs". It's very effective.

Sandra's third Postcard for Sweden quilt

It's now your turn!

Thursday, August 24, 2023

More Hexie Fun on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 444 of the Free Motion Mavericks link up. Thanks for visiting and linking up last time. I went on a short family vacation but I did bring my hexies with me since it's #100hexies100days2023 challenge. This all takes place on Instagram with weekly themes. Usually I make one hexie flower per week but my Scrappy Hexie Blanket is getting big and I would love to finish it this year, so I'm making more than one hexie flower per week.

Week 3: Notions and a Safari

The theme for week 3 was notions. I took out the few fabrics that I have with a sewing theme and found one with a knitting theme. They made for great hexies.

Notions among the wildlife

A ladybug on my notion 😊

Driving through the African Lion Safari in Cambridge, we saw lots of wildlife. Are we observing the animals or are we the strange beings in the moving cages being observed?

Posing for us?

Majestic giraffes

Hippo taking a refreshing mud bath

Week 4: Flower Power

Flowers are easy to find in my stash. I got a little carried away making many hexie flowers.

Hexies, a poster and lovely tats!

Flower Power on a bench in Stratford ON

Hexie flowers back at home

I believe that flowers are music for our other senses. That's why I included the music hexie in the centre.

Flowers - music for our other senses

So many flowers 😊

Amanda McCavour's Wanderings and Traces!

While in Cambridge, we took the opportunity to visit one location of Amanda McCavour's exhibition, Wanderings and Traces. I love her work and have taken two workshops with her. She creates mostly with free motion quilting (FMQ) on water soluble textile (like Solvy) to make two and three dimensional art.

This is an amazing installation. I can't imagine making that many of anything!

Pink Field Blue Bog

Details of Sample Wall

Amanda's Sample Wall

Cloud of Colour hanging from the rafters

What I learned

Bringing an easy and versatile English paper piecing (EPP) project is great for travelling. I'm lucky that I can stitch in the car. I really got lots done on my hexies.
I often want to visit an art exhibition when I travel, but end up not doing it because it's difficult to find or I'm too tired. My daughter helped me plan this so that we visited the exhibit first, then had lunch and onto the African Lion Safari, all around Cambridge ON.
I've been enjoying the cooler weather and stitching outside as much as possible. I finally mowed what passes for the lawn in my back yard - it's a little less wild, but it'll grow back 😎
Great news - I've added about half of the fusible interfacing to the back of the t-shirts for my niece's quilt. By the end of the weekend, I should be planning the layout of the t-shirt quilt. Finally!

Related links

An Exhibition and Hexie Love on Free Motion Mavericks, August 09, 2023
#100hexies100days2023 challenge
Amanda McCavour website
Embroidered Botany Workshop at Free Motion Mavericks, July 07, 2021

Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Let's see what's going on out there! Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (or Not) Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap!, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2023,

Free Motion Mavericks

Thank you so much for linking up while I was gone. You are working on some wonderful projects!

For Island Batik's Challenge, It's All Up To You, Gail made herself a housecoat. Wow! She deconstructed a silk robe and made the housecoat using her stash of Island Batik fabric and silk batting.

The front of Gail's housecoat

The back of Gail's housecoat

I'm sorry, I missed DonnaLee's lovely toppers. What a great way to use up Christmas and other scraps!

One of DonnaLee's table toppers

It's now your turn.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

More Embroidered Mixed-media Botany at Free Motion Mavericks

This is the second post about my Embroidered Botany Workshop with Amanda McCavour. You can find the first post in Related links below.

Mixed-media flowers

This was actually the first day of the weekend virtual workshop. We used an assortment of mixed-media to fill in our embroidered botany piece. During the workshop I made a flower and that evening, since I was so inspired, I made a second piece - an Allium flower.

On that first day, we made our sample using FMQ on both the Sulky Solvy and Fabri-Solvy. The Sulky Solvy sticks to itself when ironed, so it's really great at trapping bits of yarn, thread and roving between its layers. The Fabri-Solvy is much stronger and so will handle a lot of free motion quilting (FMQ) or thread painting.

Flowers made of thread and yarn on Sulky Solvy

My second piece is an Allium, one of my all time favourite flowers - I have of lot of these planted in my garden.

Allium made of thread and yarn

I'm not going to go through the whole process but in these pictures you'll see that it's not difficult and lots of fun.

Start covering your flower with threads and yarn

Draw the image on the Sulky Solvy

Keep adding to fill in the space

Cover your filled flower with another layer of Sulky Solvy
then cover with a protective cloth and iron

Free motion thread paint your flower

Ensure that all of the parts of your design
are well connected by thread

Dissolve the Sulky Solvy in warm to hot water and let dry

Translucent project in the making

Ever since I played with organza and other transparent /translucent fabrics, I've been planning a garden curtain for my studio. The first two pieces are now ready for the rest of it to be made one day. 😊

First two pieces pinned on the curtain

What I learned

There is so much potential in this technique. Flowers could be made with the mixed-media or just thread, like the sculptured flower. The thread-only flowers don't have to be sculptured and I'm looking forward to trying them out.
I've been thinking about this project for over a year, so I think that it's going to be a medium term project over the next few years.

Related links

Embroidered Botany Workshop at Free Motion Mavericks, July 07, 2021
Amanda McCavour
Translucent meanderings, November 01, 2020
Sulky Solvy water soluble stabilizer

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties this week. Check them out if you have a chance! Midweek Makers, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, Peacock Party, TGIFF,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 341 of Free Motion Mavericks. It was a very quiet party - I think that many people are enjoying the summer and holidays. So here are two lovely quilts from our regular partiers - I'm glad to be featuring both of them this week. If you didn't see their posts last week, go check them out!

At Chrisknits, another Quilts Plus BOM top was quilted for her neighbor’s little boy - lucky guy!

Quilts Plus BOM top quilted at Chrisknits

Our second lovely quilt is part of Quilting Gail's Christmas in July party with Island Batiks, Never to Early. What a lovely wall hanging!

Quilting Gail's Never Too Early project

It's now your turn!

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Slow Stitching and Updates

I'm taking a short pause from my playing to make Easter supper (it's in the oven) and write a post on my many ongoing projects. There's lots to show, so here it is!

Community Stitch Challenge Redo

So far I've participated in two stitching challenges with TextileArtist.org. You may remember my challenge piece from Cas Holmes' week. I liked my piece but I knew that it didn't have the layers that Cas Holmes adds to her pieces.

Stitched piece for Cas Holmes stitching challenge

After thinking about it for a week, I remembered the fabric in my basement cupboard of clothes that I've kept for just this kind of project. I'm now going through these to see what I can add as layers to this little piece. It's far from finished but the project is now percolating in my creative brain. I'm looking forward to seeing what I come up with 😊

Some ideas for adding layers

As you may be able to see, I want to make this piece as a reminder of this period in our lives. Do you see the little mask in the middle panel?

Mandala Update

In my last post I showed you the BIG Mandala that I created for Project Quilting Quarantine (PQQ) 2020. It wasn't finished - and still isn't but it's getting there! I had no idea what to do for the edge since I didn't have anything that I could just add like lace or some other finish. Finally I thought about adding a border of ruffled batik. With the addition of the twisted couched yarn, I think that it will do. I now need to add beads and one thin strip of free motion quilting in the last circle (if I can). I'm hoping to finish it this week.

The BIG Mandala now has a border ruffle and yarn.

Making lace-type fabric with water soluble products

Last June, during Quilt Canada, I took a full day class with Amanda McCavour. She introduced us to 2 different Sulky Solvy products. I worked a little bit on my project after the class but never finished it. While making the BIG Mandala, I thought that I might make my own lace with these products as an edging to my piece. Well, I had fun experimenting with these products but quickly decided against using this as an edging because I would have needed 50 inches of it!

Here is my experiment. I used what I learned from Amanda McCavour as well as from the beautiful book I bought by Meredith Woolnough, Organic Embroidery. On a strip of about 3" wide, I FMQ a very dense circle (using tiny circular motions, sort of like mini pebbles stuck together), and then added lines in between, to a circle in the middle. I made two of those. Then I made one piece of very fine scribbling. Finally I make a couple of arches and since I had room, I added a couple of fine strips.

This is what it looked like after I had FMQ and before dissolving the Sulky product.

Different experiments

Two circles with webbing

My notes

Finished product

I left the corner of my hexie runner in the picture to give you an idea of size. Those are ¾" hexies! It would have taken forever to make 50" of lace fabric to go around the edge of my Mandala!
I will, however, add these to the Cas Holmes' Community Stitch Challenge Re-do 😊 and I'm looking forward to experimenting some more with these water soluble products.

Cutting Tumbler Scraps

I picked up a Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine a few months ago because it came with some tumbler templates that I couldn't resist. It's a lovely quilting magazine but I don't generally buy traditional quilting magazines because I make so few traditional quilts. However, this caught my eye and last week I didn't want to think so I just grabbed some scraps of fabric (anything bigger than 3"x 3") and started cutting out tumblers.

My tumbler template with cut out scraps.

It's going to be very scrappy but instead of the white background of the magazine quilt, I'm just going to use solids of any colour to break it up. Once I cut another gazillion tumblers, I'll start looking at how to place my fabric. Until then, no thinking, just mindless cutting!

Making Masks

Like every other person who can sew, I made a few masks. As you can imagine, they are not my favourite thing to do but I did want to help keep my sister-in-law healthy since she's an x-ray technician in the local hospitals. The first one was a prototype but with her comments I made 4 more that are definitely better. My son wanted to make his own mask, so now, if I get sick, he can make some for the family 😊

Masks for my sister-in-law

My son learning to make his own mask.

Sewing fabric strips

The day before my local quilt shop had to close to customers in the store, I went in and bought some fabric. I didn't need anything but I wanted to encourage them since I know that times might get rough in the next few weeks (or months). I bought a few fat quarters but also a package of fabric strips called Bubble Up. There is enough to make a lap quilt to protect one of our love seats from Chevy's hair and nails.

I sewed it together that weekend and finally sandwiched it this week. I'd like to quilt it this week. I've been watching courses on BluPrint and am considering using my walking foot, or FMQ in rows. The fabric is quite bright so I'm not sure that FMQ would show up. I hope to feature this on the next Free Motion Mavericks on Thursday - as long as I start it!

Isn't this going to make a wild and fun lap quilt?

What I learned

As you can imagine from all of these projects, I am like a butterfly flitting from one project to another (or like a squirrel)!
I actually have more on the go, but this is enough for today's post!
I just checked and the challenge for Project Quilting Quarantine this week is Floral. I'm sure that I can add something more to my list - it's either that or read many books (or both!) Although if the weather gets nice (above 10C, I will go outside to clean up the yard - this would be the first year in a long, long time!)
I could work on my many UFOs but they all require some concentration, which is just not there right now. I do hope that it will come back some day.

What's on this week

Community Stitch Challenge - Week 4 with Richard McVetis. We find out what the challenge is on Monday.
Project Quilting Quarantine challenge - Floral (due Sunday, April 19, 2020)
Make buffalo plaid curtains for my niece.
Finish FMQ and beading the BIG Mandala
Keep cutting tumbler pieces from scraps.
FMQ or quilt with a walking foot, my Bubble Up lap quilt.