Blue Jays Fan and I Quilted This!

Allô and welcome😎 My son and DIL went to Toronto to see a Blue Jays baseball game last weekend. As I've mentioned in a previous post, my DIL asked me to make her a Blue Jays t-shirt, so here it is. 

Blue Jays T-shirt

Here is the t-shirt on dear Sarah. 

Sarah is now ready to see the game!

I'm afraid that I forgot to take a picture of the finished appliqué, once it had been sewn on. Here is the appliqué before it got machine satin stitched.

Blue Jays appliqué ready for its satin stitch.

This is the photo that I sent Sarah before I stitched it. She asked that it be moved to the right, closer to the two flowers on her t-shirt.

Sarah asked me if I could make her this t-shirt she saw on Instagram. It's from instagram.com/studiomooi.ca/ and was posted October 25, 2025 if you want to find it. I'm afraid that it took me this long to make it but it was just in time for them to see the game last weekend. Sarah chose the fabric - it really is cute! 

Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt

I've gotten far with the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt but didn't get it finished for our friends' 40th wedding anniversary. I just can't do all nighters or quilting marathons any more. I really am getting older (and some would say wiser). In the afternoon before the party, I just sent our friends a quick picture of the quilt. Here it is.

Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt on Saturday morning

Once the pressure of finishing the quilt was gone, I even managed to FMQ a lot of the centre panel with the lake and park before leaving for the party. Three weeks ago I posted the list of things I needed to do by the end of July. It didn't all get done, but here it is. I've added the final steps in finishing the quilt and what's left is in red. 

Plans for the rest of July/August

• Finish FMQ the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt
• First row: finish grass and details in the yards and houses ✓
• Second row: finish sky ✓, pond/park and the last house
• Third row: finish night sky, yards and house details ✓
• Cut and bind the quilt
• Make the teal house for the Quilter's Cove QAL ✓
• Make the Blue Jays appliqué and attach it to the t-shirt ✓
• Continue sewing together hexie flowers ✓

I'll be linking up to the August OMG (One Monthly Goal). This quilt will get finished!!!

Playing with Watercolour on Fabric

I know that I don't want to learn to paint but I do want to learn to add watercolour to fabric for stitching. This was my first attempt and I love it!

After watching a few videos on watercolour painting, everyone said that having a good (expensive) set of paint was worth it. So, a few months ago I was in a paper shop in the Ottawa market area and bought a small set of very fine watercolour paints. Everyone was correct - the pigments are so much stronger and easier to work with. I didn't prep any of my fabric although everything is always washed when it come in. I will iron them to help set the paint. I'm not planning on using them for anything that needs to be washed, so they should be OK.

My clean up fabric, a vintage doily and white fabric

What's happening in the back yard!

I couldn't resist sharing this with you. I bought a corn feeder for the squirrels but the corn that comes with it are not available, so I dehydrated my own corn. It took the squirrels one day to eat it all up. I'm now dehydrating more!

Squirrel eating the dehydrated corn on the cob

What I learned

• The Blue Jays t-shirt appliqué went well. My satin stitch is not great but good enough. One day I'll practice some more - it's the only way that I want to raw-edge appliqué.
• When making the appliqué I ended up using the white fabric as a background and sewed every piece on that. That really helped since I just cut around the finished logo once I was done.
• I am getting older and can't handle stress well (I never could frankly!) So not finishing the quilt on time for the party was not a big surprise. I really need to pace myself.
• As I mentioned, once the pressure was off, it was fun to keep FMQ it again.
• I know that the last part of the FMQ is the fiddly parts - flowers, details on houses, etc. That means that I need to be patient and accept the thread changes required.
• I did have more tension problems and they were with one type of less expensive cotton thread. I'm now avoiding them for this project.
• I'm so happy with my watercolour painted fabric. I remember the lady on the video saying that the paint dries lighter, but I don't think that this is the case with the expensive paints. They look as vibrant as when I painted them.
• I'm hoping that this fabric will inspire me to stitch up something cool!

Related links

• Blue Jays logo on instagram.com/studiomooi.ca/ 
• Getting Things Done and I Quilted This!, July 23, 2026
• Slow Progress and I Quilted This!, July 16, 2026
• How to add Watercolor Paint to Fabric for Slow Stitching by Jo Mo

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, particularly the August OMG. You may want to check some out. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Oh Scrap!,

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. 

Gwyned Trefethen has done some thread painting but it's very time consuming. She's glad that she can now use her machine embroidery with her thread painting. She shared with us a few of her early thread painting pieces. Here is Spring Chorus.

Spring Chorus, thread painted by Gwyned

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts shared with us this very lovely quilt called Boxed In. The quilt is in the Summer 2026 issue of Quilter’s World. Unfortunately it was shipped out but never made it back. That's such a shame. Sent the quilt some good vibes so that it makes its way back to her.😍

Boxed In by Preeti

Close-up of Boxed In by Preeti

It's now your turn!😍

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Slow Progress and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 The last week has been busy so there's not much progress on my projects. We're expecting slightly cooler weather that I hope to enjoy.

Summer Hexie Sew Along

I finally decided on the fabric for my hexie wreath and made four hexie flowers to see how they look. Week one of the sew along is to make two groups of three flowers, while week two is making one group of four flowers (which I guess I made) and then one double flower.

Four hexie flowers

At the back of the photo below you can see the four main fabric that I'll be using for the wreath. Most of the scraps in front will be used for the centre of the hexie flowers, or possibly the middle ring of the double hexie flowers. This should give me enough fabric to experiment with.

Fabric pull for the hexies

The sew along suggests using 1" hexies but since my Scrappy Hexie Blanket is made with ¾" hexies, I've decided to use these for the sew along. This way if I make flowers that don't really go with the rest, I can just add them to the blanket.

with Mad About Patchwork

FMQ More Rooves

I finished FMQ the rooves of the evening houses and started on the first of the regular houses. A few people commented on how well I had FMQ the roof last week. The stars must have been aligned or it was beginner's luck because the other houses haven't been as good 😕It's all good because eventually I'll be washing the quilt and it'll all look great!

You can see in the next two photos that the top row of the shingles stick out a bit - that's because they bunched up a bit. That's why I'm hoping that washing the quilt will help.

FMA clamshells for a shingles look

Quilting the roof with slightly larger clamshells

On the other hand, I learned from my experience and stitched the horizontal lines in before FMQ the clamshells. It really helped.

FMQ the roof clamshells after quilting horizontal lines to follow

Blue Jays Appliqué

I went shopping with my DIL for some fun fabric for her Blue Jays appliqué. I'll be washing the fabric and making it this weekend. Here's the mock up and the new fabric.

Blue Jays mock up

New fun fabric

What I learned

• Choosing fabric for the hexie wreath was difficult because I had 4 fabrics that are from the same line but also have the same values. In my scrap box, I found enough coordinating fabric that are darker or just different.
• I'm not sure how they will work together but worse case scenario they'll be integrated into the scrappy blanket 😁
• As I mentioned earlier the two evening houses on which I FMQ the rooves ended up with some bunching in the top clamshell row. I solved that the next time by stitching horizontal lines before stitching the clamshells.
• Once the quilt is washed, I don't think that the bunching will show much.
• I didn't get much FMQ done this week so I'll have to push myself to keep going. I find that the heat and humidity just zap the energy out of me, even if I don't go outside.
• My son and DIL are going to a Blue Jays game in Toronto around the 25th, so I hope to have the t-shirt done in time. That would be cool.

Related links

• This and that and I Quilted This!, July 09, 2026
• Mad About Patchwork

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

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.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts quilted a lovely baby quilt using a petal template. It looks wonderful! It'll be donated to The Hope Centre.

Kat quilted this donated baby quilt top 

Kat used a template to quilt these flower petals on the baby quilt

Gail of Quilting Gail posted about the prompt "binding beauty". You can read her post about the various types of binding she uses. Here's one of her quilts with a flange binding.

Gail's quilt with a flange binding

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This and that and I Quilted This!

Allô and welcome 😊 Thanks for dropping by. My studio is much cooler than outside lately, so I'm spending more time here until things change! On the weekend though, I enjoyed some quality time outside with Poppy. She made sure that the yard was free of visitors (I stopped feeding the birds before she came so it was quiet). It was a lovely cool weekend so I played with hexies. 

Lots of Hexies

Although the Summer Hexies Sew-Along started this week, I'm still struggling with choosing fabric. It's so much easier when it's pure scrappiness but I'd like to make something different. So instead of starting the new project, I attached more hexie flowers to my already existing Scrappy Hexie Blanket. It's slowly getting bigger, one flower at a time.

Scrappy Hexie Blanket slowly getting larger

Blue Jays Appliqué

My DIL requested a Blue Jays appliqué to attach on a t-shirt. I made a mock-up. Now what I've figured out how to put it together, I'll be using some cutter fabrics of her choice to make it. 

Fist attempt - the mock-up which is only fused

I learned a few things so it was worth making this mock-up. I'm hoping to have the fabric in the next week to make the real thing!

FMQ Another House 

This is the party house of the quilt. It's decorated with music and dancing so I tried to show that in the quilting. The house is quilted with squiggly lines to add movement. I also researched FMQ rooves and decided on the tile look which is essentially clamshells. On this house the clamshells are small but I'll be trying slightly larger clamshells for the next house

The eighth house is quilted 😃

Squiggly lines to go with the dancing

FMQ clamshells for the roof

What I learned

• It was fun playing with hexies again. I've figured out that when I'm restless, I want to baste the individual hexies. Then, when I'm calmer, I enjoy sewing them together. This weekend it was about sewing them together.
• I don't see the end of the Scrappy Hexies Blanket in sight so I'm just trying to add to it and keep it as straight as possible. Eventually I hope to add a hexie border to make it straighter 😊
• I traced the Blue Jays pattern and then transferred it onto freezer paper. I learned that with my eyesight being what it is, I need to use small sharp scissors to stay on the line. I don't notice when I'm cutting, but I seem to be consistently cutting about an ⅛" to the right of the line. 
• I ended up transferring the design to Steam-a-Seam, so I won't need to use freezer paper. The less steps the better.
• I really enjoyed FMQ the party house. I even surprised myself by doing a good job on the tile roof. It's quite small but when you get into the flow, it goes so well. I'm looking forward to doing the other rooves and varying the size of the clamshells to see how that goes.

Poppy, guarding the yard

Related links

• Another Week Already? and I Quilted This!, June 24, 2026

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out! 

Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put Your Foot Down, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

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. 

Diann @ Little Penguin Quilts kept playing with her scraps and made this cute table topper. It's perfect for her chest displaying seasonal quilts. Check out her post to see the lovely backing she used!

Diann's cute scrappy table topper

Diann's table topper on her decorated chest

Terry of On Going Projects made the loveliest wall hanging to celebrate a book that she read with her book club. This is a two part post. The first one was about the construction of the piece and this one is all about the quilting. You'll want to read both posts!

Terry's finished Read wall hanging

Check out the FMQ details of Terry's wall hanging

Gail of Quilting Gail is participating in a Lazy Summer Quilt Camp photo challenge. The prompt for day 3 was texture. Here is a lovely mini art quilt that Gail made based on an Island Batik challenge using “Pompeii Red.” To learn more about the Lazy Summer Quilt Camp photo challenge, read Gail's post. It also has a link to her original post.

Gail's very textured art quilt,  “Mt. Vesuvius Eruption.”

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Three Finished Bloomers Blocks

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm so happy that you made it! I've been playing and have many projects in progress. Here is one of my favourites! I appliquéd a third block from Bloomers' SAL It's been a lot of fun, especially since I was able to add some embroidery. 

Bloomers Blocks - so far

Three blocks from the Bloomers SAL

The blocks are part of the Sew Along created by Denise @Quiltery. The Bloomers quilt will be amazing! I'm not sure how large I'll make the quilt - we have lots of time, so we'll see. 

quiltery.com

Here's what I've made so far.

First block

I appliquéd the flowers, used the chain stitch to embroider the stems and the back stitch for the lines in the flowers.

My first block - appliqué and embroidered

Second block

This is my favourite block so far. Since the block has a butterfly, I decided to use the butterfly and flower shapes that were in my batik fabrics. It was all appliquéd. I only embroidered the stem. I reserve the right to add embroidery at any time 😀

My second block - using the fabric as pattern

Third block

I've skipped one of the pattern's blocks - I may come back to it. It depends on how large I'll end up making the quilt. I loved adding the French knots 

My third block - dark to light

I've used most of my interesting fabrics to make these first three blocks. I'm trying not to buy more batik...but I think that "resistance is futile"😄

What I learned

• I've enjoyed making the blocks. It helps that I'm using batik fabric which is the same on both sides of the fabric. That means that I haven't put the adhesive for the appliqué on the wrong side!
• I was so happy to make that second block using the pattern of the flowers and butterfly from the fabric. I do have a couple more fabrics that I could use, so I'll try to make more so that they'll fit in.
• I love that I can add embroidery to these blocks. It adds so much (besides, who wants to appliqué a stem!)

Related links

• Bloomers SAL and Hexies, July 28, 2025
• Bloomers Sew Along with Denise @Quiltery

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You might want to check some out, after you've linked up! below Bloomers' Progress on Quiltery, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put your foot down, 

Here they are again 😍

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 547 of Free Motion Mavericks! What an amazing week everyone has had! Thanks so much for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Gail from Quilting Gail finished making Bloomers - the Sew Along quilt that Denise @Quiltery designed. Gail used the embroidery option to make hers - what a sweet quilt! You'll want to check out her post for details of the FMQ!

Bloomers - made, embroidered and FMQ by Gail
based on Denise's SAL

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts released her Westfield pattern - the quilt was originally published in Make Modern. What a lovely quilt!

Preeti's Westfield quilt

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts has been very busy. First we have a lovely aqua table topper. As you might imagine, it was rough to bind but looks great! Kat FMQ it using various designs. You'll want to enlarge the picture and check out her post!

 Aqua table topper made and FMQ by Kat

Kat also quilted three donation children's quilts - they are so fun. Here's one of them - you'll want to check out the others!

One of the three children's quilts quilted by Kat

Gwyned Trefethen is FMQ her very large quilt. Here is a glimpse at her FMQ process. You'll want to read her post to learn more!

Gwyned needs a lot of preparation to quilt this one!

Sandra Walker of mmm quilts finished this lovely USO (check out her post to figure this one out!) called Suburbia. Someone is going to be very happy this Christmas! 

What a great shot of the water...and the quilt!
Suburbia by Sandra

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Many Updates and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm sorry about not letting you know that I would miss last week. I needed a break and now I'm back. I hope that you're having a good week.

Slow stitching updates

In Fleur Woods' Joyful Embroidery workshop, I have been stitching away. It's very slow! I love it but have I mentioned that it's very SLOW?

Coming along....very slowly

This is where I was November 7th. 

The beginning

I've also been working a bit on the needle punch piece. I really love how it's coming along.😍 It's expanded from my round 10" hoop to a square snap-on frame. I'm going to see if I can get a slightly larger one! 

Latest work on my punch needle piece

Since my last photo, I've added a couple of fabric manipulation areas in the blue and blue-green. I used a technique taught by Mirjam Gielen through Patreon. It's called "cuir froissé" or "creased leather". Here is a quick explanation.

Start by drawing a shape on your background - round or oval works well. You then cut out a piece of fabric much larger than your shape. Stitch the outside of the fabric piece along your drawn image so that the image is covered by the fabric. Yes, you'll have lots of extra fabric flopping around the middle. Next stitch that extra fabric down. I just stitched in down in random places with simple stitches until I liked what I had. Since I didn't do a great job of stitching down the outside of the shape of the first one, I added seed beads over those stitches. 

Close-up of the fabric manipulations

This is a really great way to add texture into a piece. Next I'll do some organic embroidery over the two pieces of orangish fabric in the top right corner.

Next the orangish fabrics will be stitched organically

Quilting Floral Fusion

I've begun quilting my Floral Fusion wall hanging. I used my walking foot to stitch-in-the-ditch. 

Since I hadn't stitched down the appliqué, that was the next task. I tried using one of the appliqué stitches on my machine but it was very difficult to see what I was doing. That's the drawback when trying to blend in your stitches. After doing one of the flowers, I gave that up and just used free motion quilting (FMQ) to slowly stitch very close to the edges of the appliqué. Again, since the thread blended in, I did a couple of passes to make sure that I got everything. Here is a close-up of the quilting that I've done with the light thread.

FMQ down the appliqué

Next, FMQ down the appliqué with dark thread

What I learned

• The Fleur Woods' Joyful Embroidery has been interesting. I've learned a lot, but it is very slow going. 
• I've done quite a few small projects in the last month or so - I wanted a few finishes for all of the time that I've spent stitching and quilting! 
• I don't think that Fleur will have any competition from me. I love the slow stitching but only as a supplement to other things. 😊 I thought that it might be a little too slow for me and I was right. I am going to keep at it though. Both of these pieces will be gorgeous when they are done....eventually! 
• I've enjoyed quilting Floral Fusion. Stitching-in-the-ditch with my walking foot worked well as I took it slowly to stay in the ditch.
• The experiment with the appliqué stitch on my sewing machine reminded me why I often work with contrasting thread - it's so I can SEE IT! 
• Tonight I'm going out to find a larger frame for my punch needle and a larger, brighter lamp. My eye is healing well but I need stronger light with the option of a magnifying glass. Hopefully that will help.
• I'll be going through my thread next to see what I can use to stitch the darker appliqués. I'll probably need a few different colours. I hope to have the quilt finished by next week - wish me luck!

Related links

• Scraps, Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks, October 31, 2024
• More Joyful Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks, October 23, 2024
• Joyful Embroidery with Fleur Woods and Free Motion Mavericks, October 10, 2024
• Fibre Arts Take Two
• Fleur Woods, website, Instagram
• Mirjam Gielen Textile Artist Instagram

Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out after you've link up below? Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Tips & Tutorials on the 22nd, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 507 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thank you for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Donnalee finished her Eggplant Cat - what a cuty! The next one is Pepper Puss - I hope that she gets it done in time for the fundraiser!

Donnalee's quilted Eggplant Cat 

Deb from A Scrappy Quilting has a production line of quilts - some ready to quilt, others quilted and needing bindings. Way to go Deb!

Deb's production line

Legacy quilt

After a false start, Gail from Quilting Gail finished her amazing vase of Dresden flowers. She used two of her Silly Moon rulers to quilt the flowers. Check out her post to see close-up pictures of the quilt and her ruler quilting.

Gail's vase of Dresden flowers

Did you get a chance to see my finished Newfoundland Houses Table topper? I got it finished just in time to give it to our friend at his retirement party. He's very happy with it.

The topper and the fence!

It's now your turn 😊

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