Showing posts with label Exit Strategy. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 09, 2025

Imagine and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. There isn't much happening here but today I changed up the quilts on the one wall of the house that I can re-organise. I wanted to share my Imagine quilt - it's as good a time as any.

Imagine - 2015 Music Challenge

I can't believe that it's already been 10 years since this quilt was created for our guild's Music Challenge. I had a lot of fun putting it together and even more fun FMQ it. You can read the blog posts (see Related links below) if you're interested.

Imagine - created 10 years ago!

We woke up two days ago to snow! I had noticed that my phone said that there would be snow/rain but there was a good foot of snow in the back yard, and it kept snowing most of the day. It's partly melted and with luck will be gone by tomorrow ❄ I know...it is just April.

Our April snow - showers to come eventually

A very brave bird...
I'm glad that I put food out the day before!

Fun Scrappy Runner

When I'm stressed, I reach for whimsical - so I bought these two stuffed doggies, in their bunny ears, to put at the back of my car. I'm hoping that it might help me identify my car from the back - because it's a white car, like every second car in the parking lot!

I brought down my scrappy bin that is mostly filled with strips and a few orphan blocks. I grabbed two orphan blocks from my Exit Strategy piece and started attaching strips. I want to make a runner to place under these two cuties so that I can Velcro them into place on the back - otherwise they keep wondering off!

Cuties on top of the new scrappy runner

Tomorrow I'll go measure the back of the car since the dogs will be on each side of the middle head rest. I haven't driven my car since the snow storm. I'm hoping that by then, the snow will be completely melted off it!

Scrappy bin of mostly strips and a few orphan blocks

What I learned and updates

Taking some time off for self-care was a great idea. I was too tired to get excited about anything quilty - I know...scary!
Hubby is back home with an IV of antibiotics. It's really amazing what they can do - the IV is replaced once a day and then is pumped out every 8 hours. We go to the clinic once a day to get it changed.
I'm still having fun with my Finch bird Minty - I'm achieving many goals so that she can go on adventures around the world. Right now she's in Vancouver discovering Nanaimo bars and Stanley Park.
I went into my studio for the first time today to do some stitching. It's still a disaster but I'm quite good at working around and ignoring piles of stuff!
It felt really good to stitch up scrappy strips.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 526 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts has two lovely Bear Hug quilts to share with us. These are the perfect pieces to practice FMQ on. Way to go Kat! You can see details of her quilting by visiting her post.

Kat created Bear Hug #8 from an orphan/test block

Bear Hug # 9 made by Kat with a twist n' stitch tool

Denise from the Quiltery made a quilt with a variation of the Drunkards Path. Not only is the fabric beautiful but her layout is truly stunning! I love all of the mouvement in that quilt. Denise FMQ it with four petal flowers.

Denise's Drunkards Path Variation

It's now your turn!

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

A Shuttered Window and Open Works Tutorial on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to Week 566 of Free Motion Mavericks! I taught part of a playday on Monday for some members of the Out of the Box Fibre Artists group (OOTB). Since I'd like to share this with you, I created a tutorial. Hope you enjoy it.

Shuttered Window

We start by making the shuttered windows. The open work, which are the threads on top, is optional and is done once the shuttered window is finished. 😊

Shuttered window

Shuttered window with open work

These are the triangles that I made for my Exit Strategy piece.

For this tutorial,

I made a few samples, so please don't mind the different coloured fabrics.
There is both a hand stitched and machine stitched component.

1. You will need two pieces of fabric. The larger one is at the top and the slightly smaller one is at the bottom.

2. Mark the shape that you want on your top fabric. The shape needs to be smaller than your bottom fabric.

You can use any shape that you like, but one side needs to be straight. That's the side that you will be using for your shuttered window. A triangle, rectangle, or square works well. They can also have wonky sides.

On the top fabric, mark your shape.

If you're not sure if the shape is larger than your bottom fabric, place your top fabric over your bottom fabric and hold these up in front of a window or a light. You'll want to ensure that your bottom fabric is at least a half inch (½") larger than your shape, on all sides.

Use a light or window to check that your bottom
fabric is larger than your shape

3. Except for the side that will be shuttered, cut the other sides of your shape along the line.

Cut the sides of your shape, except for the straight shuttered side.

4. Place the bottom fabric underneath the top fabric, both facing up.

The bottom fabric peaks out of the open shape

The sides of the your shape can be wonky 😊

Decide on the orientation of your bottom fabric if applicable.

You can change the orientation of your bottom fabric
as long as it still a ½" larger on all sides than the shape.

5. Stitch around the three sides of the fabric. Fold the window shutter section to keep it out of the way of your stitching.

Stitch all sides except the window side.

You can stitch however you like, as long as the sides are stable.

You can use one of your sewing machine's
fancy stitch to sew around the three sides.

6. Fold your window shutter any way that you like and then secure it using stitches, beads, buttons, etc.

You can be as fancy with your folds as you like!

1. Close your window shutter

2. Fold the shutter in half diagonally

3. Fold the other side diagonally

4. Bring the point up and pin

4a. Fold the point to face downward

Point is facing down. Secure it.

You can fold the shutter accordion style and secure it with beads.

An accordion fold secured with stitching

Open Work

To add the threads across your window, you can do this by hand or by machine.

Ensure that you secure the thread on the edge, each time that it crosses the window.
Watch the tension on the thread so that it isn't too tight (and pulls) or too slack (and sags).

If you do this by machine,

Take a few stitches on the side to anchor or secure the thread.
Lift the foot and go across to the other side where you want your thread to land.
Anchor the thread by taking a few stitches on the side.
Repeat until you are happy with your threads.

The open work can be done by machine.

If done by machine, once you are finished, you can clip
the bobbin threads at the back of the piece
since they have been secured at the side.

The finished block that was stitched by machine. You can now
secure the window if you didn't do it before.

Class piece finished with open work

Demo finished with open work.
Threads were doubled.

Members' work

Here are images of the work done by the members during the playday. There are some very interesting variations!

What I learned

It was so much fun teaching my part of the playday. I was the second presenter and it was the perfect position since my section was the easiest, so a bit of a break between the two more involved sections of smocking and creating tucks.
All the participants had a good time and did some interesting things. It's always nice to see the creativity in the class.
When I presented, I mentioned that at least one side of the shape had to be straight for the window shutter. That got me thinking that my other sides didn't have to be straight. That's when I made my wonky sides 😊
I enjoyed using my sewing machine to make the fancy stitches on the side of my demo for you. It has so much potential.
Did you recognize the fabric? These are scraps from my niece's t-shirt quilt.

Free Motion Mavericks

We had three lovely FMQ finishes last week.

Melva made a runner and bowl cozies for a client. The mountains on the runner are prairie points and the "C" is for Colorado! 😎

Melva's lovely Colorado runner and bowl cozies.

Frédérique of Patchwork & Appliqué made this gorgeous reversible Patio quilt for her husband. It took a few years to accumulate the right fabrics, but what a finish! Her backing consists of blocks made during the "30 days of improv" challenge last year. She made a stencil of a lovely continuous line flower pattern. It looks amazing!

Frédérique's reversible Patio quilt is finished!

Sandra of mmm quilts finished this cute pixelated heart quilt for her daughter's cat. How wonderful! I'm sure that Harper will enjoy cuddling up on it. Sandra quilted it with lovely double loops. You can see Harper's name quilted in the bottom left side of the quilt.😊

A pixelated heart quilt for Harper by Sandra of mmm quilts.

It's now your turn!

Thursday, March 19, 2020

An Exit Strategy Finish at Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks' link up for week 272. I'm thrilled to be celebrating a finish!

Presenting Exit Strategy 1

Exit Strategy 1

Can you believe that all of these blocks started life as creations for the One Week Improv Challenge with Amy Ellis of Amy's Creative Side, and grew up to be this? (If you haven't been following along, see Related links below.)

Improv block

Improv block with added
embellishment

I shared with you most of my progress in last week's post. This week, the big change was adding quilting in the sashing, some beading with pearls and garnet, and some wonderful roving. I even did more braiding 😊

I finally figured out how to FMQ around the top triangle of the first block. I was using some gorgeous variegated thread in block 4 and noticed that it was a perfect match for the fabric around the triangle.

I also added some dark purple wool at the top of the block. I had a hard time getting those beads on since the beads couldn't go through the larger needle needed for the yarn. It's called perseverance!

Beads, yarn and beautiful variegated thread

I started FMQ the sashing with triangles. Then, of course, I had to add something in the horizontal sashing, so my son created some smaller hexie templates for me.

Adding FMQ triangles and hexies in the sashing

The second block remained mostly the same, except for taking the purple of the FMQ on the right, outside of the block.

Only minor changes to Block 2

I added FMQ around the braided leaf in the third block. For a change, the feathers filled four different fabrics. I knotted and braided the roving in the middle of the piece to try to connect each block and create movement.

FMQ feathers around the braided leaf

In the fourth block, I started by FMQ spirals with that variegated thread that I mentioned earlier, and then added large wavy lines in the dark purple fabric.

Adding swirls

I wanted to add some beading in the right top corner. In my stash, I found a fresh water pearl and a regular pearl from my trip to China. I also added garnet stones on top and around the pearls.

Beading pearls and garnet

What I learned

This has been such a wonderful learning experience.
I learned that I can trust my intuition. I may not know what to do, but it does come eventually.
Working on one area of the piece often brought about an idea for another area, such as the variegated swirls and then using that same thread in the leaves of the top triangle.
One of the hardest thing to figure out is...is it enough or is it too much? My son is very good at letting me know if something doesn't work or if something is missing.
Exit Strategy was my March OMG. I didn't think that I would be finishing it on time since our Fibre Fling show was cancelled and I didn't feel any pressure to finish it, so I'm really thrilled that it's done 😊