Showing posts with label FMQ. Show all posts

Thursday, July 23, 2026

Getting Things Done and I Quilted This!

Bonjour and welcome 😊 It's been a very busy time here, and not all quilting related. I am happy to say that I did manage to get many things done (but it's never as much as I'd like!) I took a road trip with Lise this week to Almonte. It wasn't as we planned but it was awesome and good to get away and spend time together. I bought some antique lace that I hope to use for art, hopefully soon 😍. Let's get on with it, since it's already Thursday!

Blue Skies in the Rainbow Neighbourhood

After fixing an oops last week, I wanted to quilt something substantial on the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt, so it was blue skies time. It wasn't without its minor frustrations but the top third of the sky is done. After considering my options, I went with a wave/meander. That's a good thing because my Jag really didn't want to play nice with the Bottom Line thread. I'm not sure that I could have FMQ anything more intricate.

Yellow house with FMQ blue sky

Blue house with FMQ blue sky

Orange house with FMQ blue sky

I'm sorry for the quality of the pictures. Soon we'll have the whole thing photographed in great light (when it's done!)

Summer Hexie Sew Along

I've been making more hexies for the Summer Hexie Sew Along with Mad About Patchwork. I'm not exactly following the order of making thing but close enough! Here they are so far. I really wanted to see if the fabric I had chosen would play well together. I would say that they do! 😁

Three single and two double flowers

I've got many more hexies prepped to stitch together so it is coming along well.

Bloomers Sew Along

I remembered that I wanted to sew more hexie flowers for the Bloomers SAL. I've prepared two more batik hexies but haven't stitched them to the pink backgrounds yet. Here are the five hexies and the flower blocks beneath them. They are hanging on my design wall, to which I added extra side panels so that I can hang wider projects.

Five Bloomer blocks with hexies

I'll be finishing two more hexies to attach to the other blocks. I still need to make one more flower block since it's easier to make the wall hanging with 8 blocks than 7.

Mémère's Placemat

I've been stitching while watching videos. Here is what I've added to my grandmother's placemat.

Feather stitches

Variations on the blanket stitch

I'm not in love with the blanket stitches but not sure I'll be ripping them out, It'll depend on my mood the next time I work on it. At least perle cotton is easier to rip out than floss!

Plans for the rest of July

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

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

What I learned

About that oops moment - I managed to quilt the batting to the backing when first quilting the orange house. I was hoping to just remove the batting without the stitches but the area was too large. So I removed the stitches and batting and re-quilted the side roof. It all went well, just time consuming.
Except for having problems with the white thread, I've been quilting with cotton and polyester thread without issues. I wanted to FMQ the sky without it standing out as much so I used a lovely Bottom Line light blue. I switched needles hoping it would help, but it didn't. I'm surprised that I've been quite patient, stopping when the thread misbehaves, removing it and then continuing. I have noticed that if I slow down, it happens less, so that's what I'm doing.
It's so weird since I wasn't able to use cotton thread to FQM my son's quilt but now it's the opposite. We'll call it a temperamental Jag moment and get on with it. I only have part of the second row of sky to FMQ. I'll switch to a cotton thread for the night sky.😁
I'm having so much fun sewing my hexies now that I've found the right fabric. It's lovely to sew them when I don't have the energy to FMQ.
There are 5 double flowers to make, three clusters of four flowers and then two clusters of three flowers. That's doable by mid August.
I'm really happy with the hexies for my Bloomers SAL but I'm going to try to wait until the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt is finished before making the last flower block and sewing everything together.

Related links

Slow Progress and I Quilted This!, July 16, 2026
A Finished Flimsy, FMQ, slow stitching and I Quilted This! June 18, 2026

Linking Parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out after linking up below! Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, 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 😊.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts used blocks from her parts department (orphan blocks) to make two Lil Bear Hugs quilts. They're so cute! There is also another potato chip block quilt. Some kids are going to be thrilled! Kat quilted these in different ways - you can see that more from the backing.

Orange & teal Lil Bear Hug quilt by Kat

Teal & orange Lil Bear Hug quilt by Kat

Potato Chip Lil Bear Hug quilt by Kat

Terry of On Going Projects finished FQM her Sashiko project. You'll want to head over there to read all about it!

Terry's Sashiko rose project

Here are Terry's lovely FMQ details

Diann from Little Penguins Quilts is working on her Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) patchwork hearts project. There is always lots to figure out in a QAYG. You may want to read Diann's post to see what needed to be done!

Diann's lovely QAYG patchwork hearts

Sandra of mmm quilts released her Diamond Baby quilt pattern and made another version using primary colours, which she called Bright Spark. Check out her post for more details and the pattern.

Bright Spark by Sandra

Gwyned Trefethen's quilt, How does your garden grow?, will be on exhibition with the South Shore Art Center next month. This is an opportunity to see this beauty in person.

Gwyned's How does your garden grow? quilt

Margo at MY Quilts and Crafts spent a long time figuring out how to quilt her latest denim quilt. It looks like it's coming along. Here's a peek at the quilting so far.

Margo is finally quilting her latest denim quilt

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, July 16, 2026

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!

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

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, July 09, 2026

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.”

It's now your turn 😍

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Another Week Already? and I Quilted This!

Bonjour and welcome 😊 I'm surprised that another week is over! It was a very busy weekend with Father's Day, my son's birthday, National Indigenous Peoples Day and the Summer Solstice. We celebrated and it was awesome!😀

More FMQ Houses

I have more quilted houses to share with you. As you can see in the first image, I had the purplish pink thread out. I still have the blue star block side to stitch.

Pink house quilted

Pink house at night quilted, along with the lawn and walkway

Lawns and flowers have been quilted on two of the night houses

I took out a lighter green thread and started FMQ more of the yards. Below is a reminder of what the quilt looks like. I've now quilted houses 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 except for the rooves. The front of house 4 is quilted and most of the lawns and yards of the first three houses, as well as those of 6 and 7 are quilted.

There are small details on most houses that still need to be FMQ, like windows and doors but that will come as I keep quilting.

A reminder of what needs to be quilted on the Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt

June's OMG

Finishing the stitch-in-the-ditch for the Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt was my June OMG. I've done most of the stitch-in-the-ditch and then went on to FMQ 6 of the 8 houses. Yay for me! 😎

July's OMG

Sorry to be re-using this post to link up to July's One Monthly Goal. The Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt needs to be finished by July 31st to be gifted the next day 😍 It's going to happen.

Slow Stitching

I couldn't help it, I joined the Summer Hexie Sew Along with Mad About Patchwork - a store located on the outskirts of Ottawa.

Wednesday I spent most of the day outside in the backyard. It was pure retirement heaven.

Stitching hexies (EPP) outside

Bloomers with hexie

I haven't decided yet what fabric I'll be using to make the hexie flower ring. I tend to go scrappy but maybe my scraps could match in style or colour? They have to be different, otherwise I'll get bored...and we can't have that!😁

While I'm playing with hexies, I'll keep making hexie flowers for the Bloomers SAL that I started last year with the Quiltery. I have two hexie flowers made. Here's one of them.

What I learned

The FMQ of the houses and yards is going well. In one stitching session I can get a house and a little more done.
I'm really trying to keep the FMQ simple since I want to get it done! I just can't help it though. It's impossible for me to use an all-over design on a quilt that has so many different fun elements. That is why I learned to FMQ 😍
It looks like the rain will be back tomorrow afternoon, so I'm going to try to spend the morning outside. At the very least I can have my first cup of coffee there 😊
I'll be preparing a bag for my hexies so that I can easily take them with me.
This weekend is the last one for June. That means that I'll be hosting the Quilter's Cover QAL on Saturday. I've got and idea, fabric and an initial layout. Wish me luck!

Related links

A Finished Flimsy, FMQ, slow stitching and I Quilted This! June 18, 2026
A finish, June's OMG and I Quilted This!, June 04, 2026
Summer Hexie Sew Along with Mad About Patchwork
Bloomers and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, December 24, 2025

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including June's One Monthly Goal (OMG). You may want to check some of these out! Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Monday Musings,

I'm linking up to July's One Monthly Goal (OMG).

I Quilted This!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and consider grabbing the button.

Terry of On Going Projects finished quilting her Kaffe Challenge for her guild. The quilt, Dash is quilted using a meander in the colourful Kaffe fabric and arch lines in the solid dashes.

Terry's Dash quilt for a guild Kaffe Challenge

Lots of texture in Terry's Dash quilt

A quilter at Based on a True Story has finished a gorgeous baby quilt after finally getting a machine that quilts properly! I'm so glad that she's back on her quilting journey. Her Dogs in Sweaters quilt was quilted with paw prints and squiggles, and Dachshunds on the sweaters.

Dogs in Sweaters Quilt

Gwyned Trefethen has had to slow down while her Bernina is in the shop. We can all sympathize. Since she had to slow down, she experimented FMQ a tulip appliqué.

Gwyned's experimenting with FMQ a tulip appliqué

Melva from Melva Loves Scraps is doing a 100 days challenge. She is doing all kinds of creative projects and one of them is making hearts that she will then embellish and give away.

Melva's quilted hearts to be embellished and given away

Brenda from Songbird Designs entered her quilts in her guild's quilt show. Wow! They were both amazing! Her Peaceful Village at Sunshine Coast won two ribbons. We've seen the quilt in progress and now we see it in all of its glory!

Brenda's Peaceful Village at Sunshine Cove

Brenda's Sedona Starburst (and Miss M)

Kate from Life in Pieces finished her lovely Chilhowie quilt, a 2022 Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt. She quilted it on her domestic machine with her walking foot using diagonal lines across the centre and straight lines in the border.

Kate's Chilhowie quilt finished on her domestic

Kate's Chilhowie quilt quilted with a walking foot

Sandra from mmm quilts made a third version of her Lyra pattern for her quilt along. It's called Arabian Nights and it's stunning! You may also want to check out the Lyra Quilt Along parade.