Showing posts with label Floral Fusion Sew Along. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Floral Fusion Sew Along. Show all posts

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Floral Fusion Finally Finished!

Hello and welcome 😀! I hope this post finds you well. I'm slowly getting back to stitching and working in my studio. I've also spent some lovely mornings outside in the backyard. Coffee always tastes better there!  This week I even have a finish! Yay!!!

Floral Fusion wall hanging


My first post about the Floral Fusion SAL was at the beginning of September. I was pretty good at keeping up and started sewing the blocks together in mid-October. Unfortunately it's taken until now to finish it. It will finally be hanging on my daughter's wall.

Finished! Floral Fusion wall hanging

I went outside yesterday for the photo shoot. I just hung the wall hanging in front of my prayer flags. 

Floral Fusion hanging in the backyard

In my last post, I mentioned that I had found some of the dark fabric from the wall hanging in my stash. It finished up quickly and looks great. I was hoping to finish this early and I did 😊. It's my June One Monthly Goal (OMG), so I'll be linking it to the party at the end of the month.

Floral Fusion wall hanging

What I learned & updates
  • I always have a hard time finishing up SAL or QAL on time - they usually linger for years as UFOs. I'm really happy that this one didn't!
  • I'm so grateful to Denise at the Quiltery for hosting her SAL. It was a lot of fun.
  • I got to use a lot of older floral fabrics - many of my mother's scraps from the summer dresses she used to make.
  • I'm also working on some mending - a pair of jeans that needs a new behind, and cut-off shorts that need a couple of patched to be presentable 😉
  • My studio is slowly coming along, but I need to rethink my book making storage. It's taking up too much space, especially for the much smaller amount of time that I spend making journals. The problem is that if it's not easy accessible, it'll never get used!
  • I have a few empty bins in the basement that I'll bring up and try to organise. Hopefully that's all I'll need!
Related links
Linking parties

Great news! My quilt was featured on Needle and Thread Thursday!

Project details

Floral Fusion wall hanging
Made as part of the Floral Fusion SAL with Denise at The Quiltery
Size: 28" x 32"
Material: scrappy floral fabric on a low volume white/beige background
Techniques: machine appliqué, free motion quilting (FMQ)



Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 535 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up your lovely projects! Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Gretchen from Gretchen's Little Corner has finished quilting another quilt - this one made with lovely embroidered blocks by her granddaughter. What a great joint project!

Gretchen's granddaughter embroidered these blocks!

Gretchen put together a lovely quilt using her
granddaughter's embroidered blocks

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts finished quilting two lovely quilts! The first one is a cute baby quilt and the other a lovely wall hanging!

A lovely panel baby quilt by Kat


Vicki, from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting, did an amazing job FMQ her UFO quilt. Lucky for her, she had bundled up fabric for the border, backing and binding. That makes finishing up so much easier! Vicki custom quilted it on her long arm, doing a little bit every day. Check out her post for more eye candy!

Vicki's FMQ UFO - a real beauty!

Details of Vicki's quilting

Frédérique from Quilting, Patchwork, Appliqué, made this very cute textile card (4" x 6"). She was able to share it with us since it's been sent and delivered. Frédérique FMQ it and even included fancy machine star stiches.

Frédérique's sweet textile card

Frédérique's textile card, as seen from the back

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Thursday, June 05, 2025

More Zen Stitching and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! I did some hand-stitching on a sampler that I started in Karen Turner's class last week. We had lots to do!  I finally found the fabric to bind the Floral Fusion wall hanging that I started last September with Denise of the Quiltery. There's going to be a finish in the near future!😍 

Slow-stitching Sampler


In her Making Zen class, Karen also showed us how she makes lovely hand-stitched samplers which she incorporates into a journal. I haven't worked on a meditative stitching piece in ages, so it was great to get  back to it. Karen uses fusible interfacing as the base and then irons on scraps, covered by a transparent fabric like tulle or organza to keep everything together. I did the same thing but added a piece of flannel at the back to make the sampler sturdier and easier to stitch.

Stitched sampler based on Karen Turner's workshop

I used mostly hand-dyed scraps for this sampler as well as many different types of thread, perle cotton and yarn. As long as it fits in the needle, it can be used 😁. In the end, the piece reminds me a little bit of a landscape, with the spiral sun at the top, many vines and even rain drops! 

My son's latest hobby is 3D printing. He made a box to place at the back of the printer to collect the scraps of plastic (we call it plastic poop! That's what happens when you have a dog 🐕) So I used three of these in the piece. One is black, the other black and white and the last one a gray, which happens when the black and white plastic fuse together. All of the plastic pieces have some kind of hole, so they're perfect for stitching. Apparently he now has many colours of plastic so I will get more colourful poop for my art making.

In the closeup, you can also see scraps of yarn and perle cotton placed under the tulle. 

A closeup of the plastic pieces and scraps of yarn

I've now placed it in my Mindful Meditation Journal.

Sampler placed in my Mindful Stitching Journal

This side - bottom!

I was Poppy sitting earlier this week. What a cutie! 

Waiting for the squirrels - in the jungle that is my 
backyard right now!
What I learned
  • I was happy to have something simple and fun to stitch as my energy waned. 
  • Poppy was a great distraction and I'm thankful that it was cool out for all of those walks!
  • Poppy is gone and the heat is here, but the evenings will be cool, so all is good!
  • I spent some quality time in my studio looking for the fabric to make the binding for the Floral Fusion wall hanging. When you use scraps, it's not always easy to find enough binding fabric.
  • I took the opportunity to clean up in the studio. It's not great but it's less chaotic. 
  • I'm linking up to the June One Monthly Goal and will finish this piece, hopefully sooner than the end of the month! I did finish FMQ the empty blocks a while back, so it really is all about the binding.
Floral Fusion ready to be bound

Related links
Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 534 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks for linking up. This week there were lots of quilts in progress. Here is the project from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts free motion quilted this lovely pink and brown quilt following one of Angela Walter's video. 

Kat's FMQ pink and brown quilt

Here's a look at the back where you can see the FMQ better. 

Kat's FMQ as seen from the back

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Wednesday, November 20, 2024

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
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!

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 😊




You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Floral Update and a Finished Piece on Free Motion Mavericks

Hello and welcome! I hope that my Canadian readers had a good Thanksgiving. I know that it's about more than good food and being with friends and family but I'm thankful that the food was good 😋! I am also very thankful to everyone who reads or even just looks at the pictures each week. It means a lot to me. You have my gratitude.

Floral Fusion Update


As you may know, I've been making my Floral Fusion blocks and following along with Denise at The Quiltery. Once I figured out who was getting this lovely quilt, I was able to sew the pieces together in a wall hanging.  

Floral Fusion quilt top done!

I had done about half of the smaller blocks and all of the larger blocks. When I put the blocks together on my board, I was just missing one extra block to make a wall hanging. Once it was done, it was a matter of looking at the different options for the blocks. Here's some of my thinking.

First attempt: I found that the very dark leaves in the top two flowers on the right were too strong.

First attempt

Second attempt: I moved a couple of the larger flowers around. I thought that the top right flower wasn't visually strong enough. 

Second attempt

Third attempt: again I moved some of the larger flowers around. The balance was better but I wanted to bolder flowers in the centre column.

Third attempt

Final choice: I exchanged the large flowers at the top so that the more dominant flower was in the centre.

Final placement of Floral Fusion wall hanging

Once this was figured out, I started sewing the columns together. I'm not sure if it was my tension but my machine kept eating the beginning of each section that I was sewing. I used my walking foot, so that might be it, but anyway, I wasn't in the mood to fiddle around with my machine or the foot. I did what most quilters would do in this situation. I sewed a leader block before starting to stitch the Floral Fusion blocks. This was the first time that I had done this.

Using a leader block to stop or ignore the
bunching up at the edge of a seam

For those who are not familiar with this, here's what happened. Sometimes when you start sewing at the very edge of the fabric, the thread bunches right up. It's like the machine wants to eat the fabric. It happens mostly if there is a seam near the edge but in this case, it was just two pieces of fabric. This is VERY frustrating. Some quilters will start their sewing with an extra block to stitch (the leader). I assume that they either start about ⅛" from the edge of the leader or they just live with the bunching up. Either way, if you place the piece that you want to sew right at the end of the leader block, the machine won't eat this new block. 

Strips of 2½" wide fabric

I used scraps from Floral Fusion to make leader blocks. I cut strips of 2½" wide fabric and then sewed them before every seam. Many quilters will do this and after a while, they will have enough leaders to make a quilt. 

Paisley Collage


I finished up the piece that I started during the Nature's Narrative Workshop with Alice Vander Vennen. I had pulled it apart after the workshop because I liked the elements but not the design. This final design is better but I'm not sure that I like it.  

Paisley Collage finished

My piece before pulling it apart 

What I learned
  • I'm really happy with my Floral Fusion wall hanging. It was so much fun to make. Thanks so much Denise for a lovely sew along. It looks like this might be one of the first times that a sew or quilt along doesn't end up as a UFO! 
  • I love playing on the design wall to see how the blocks can be placed. I adjusted the blocks but really, any of those placements would have been fine.
  • After our last guild meeting, I took a small quilt home from our Community Projects to quilt. I'll use this as an excuse to quilt both of these. Then the guild will have another charity quilt and my daughter will have her new wall hanging. 😊Bonus - apparently I won't have to bind the charity quilt!!!
  • I've decided to use the pillowcase technique to finish the Floral Fusion quilt. In theory it should be the same as a small piece. I'll find out and let you know!
  • I'm glad that my workshop piece is finished. One of the things that I don't like about it is the frame. I know that framed art looks more like "art" but it's not my favourite, especially a cheap IKEA frame.
  • I have an idea for re-purposing one of my previous piece. If I can get it done during the weekend, I'll share it with you. It would be a great way to re-finish a piece that I liked but didn't love. I'm hoping that it will all work, without too much fussing. We'll see. 😉
Related links
Linking parties

Great News: Floral Fusion was featured on Needle & Thread Thursday. Thanks Kelly!

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 503 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. It was a productive week but not necessarily in the FMQ department, so I'm going to feature the quilt finish as well as some very amazing purses - not quilted but gorgeous! 

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts used her walking foot to quilt her gorgeous Star of Wonder topper. She tried to do Free Motion Quilting but it just didn't want to! Don't you hate that? Anyway she got it all done with her walking foot. It's going to look lovely on a table!

Kat's Star of Wonder topper

Island Batik had their What's in Your Bag Challenge and both Gail and Preeti did an outstanding job on their bags. I'm always so impressed because I know that bags are fiddly and they did a great job!

Here are Gail's small and large Payday bags.

Gail's small and large Payday bags

Next we have Preeti's small and large Snapshot bags.

Preeti's small and large Snapshot bags

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Wednesday, October 02, 2024

#2024 Quilting Q2 and Q3 Check-In

Hi and welcome. I missed the second quarter (Q2) check-in but since I found writing up a first quarter (Q1) check-in post so useful, I'm going to put both Q2 and Q3 here. I hope that you'll indulge me - it is a long post.

Second Quarter Check-in


April, May and June

Although I worked on a few larger projects, most of my finishes in the second quarter were smaller pieces.

Spring Tulips was an ambitious 3D art piece. The background was quilted while the vase and tulips in the vase were created with Solvy water soluble stabilizer. You can find all of the details in this post.

Spring Tulips, a 3D art piece

I also made a number of Cathedral windows hot pads using a layer cake package and a wonderful tutorial. These made great gifts.

Cathedral windows hot pads 

As usual, I participated in the Table Scraps Challenge. This is a cute yellow cuddle quilt. I was able to practice my FMQ and quilting with rulers. I finally figured out how to properly use my universal darning foot. More practice is required but it was a lot of fun.

Yellow cuddle quilt

In May, I participated in a workshop taught by Alice Vander Vennen. I really like the mini that I made during the Nature Narrative workshop. I'm still working through the design of my larger piece.

Mini made during the Nature Narrative workshop

In June, I learned Kawandi style quilting from Jen Strauser during Making Zen. I finished it during our Alaskan cruise. It was a great stitching project for the trip.

Kawandi style quilting


From March to April I started the 2 Colour Mystery Quilt hosted by Joanne of Canuck Quilter design. It consisted of only two colours and worked my accuracy challenged brain. I sewed six of the twelve blocks, which is in week 7 but didn't post on it. This is now a WIP, unless it becomes a UFO. 😁

Half of the blocks sewn together -
at least all of the fabrics and blocks are in one place!

See the Parade of Quilts on 
Canuck Quilter's site


Third Quarter Check-in


July, August and September

The end of June was an incredibly busy time as I tried to finish up my pieces for the Impermanence - Éphémère Outdoor Fibre Art Exhibit at the Arbor Gallery in Vankleek Hill. We set up the exhibition in early July with a vernissage on July 5th.

For the first time ever, I used my blog as a way of keeping track of what I still needed to do to get the 5 pieces ready. In fact, there were 5 pieces, but two of these consisted of 5 and 4 art pieces. I'm not going to repeat everything in this post. If you're interested, I created a page "My pieces in the Impermanence - Éphémère Outdoor Fibre Art Exhibit". It has lots of details and links to the original posts.

The outdoor exhibit was very well received and there is a possibility of participating again next summer.

Three seasonal garden fence art pieces

In the Sky, an Outdoor Hanging Sculpture

A series of Prayer Flags

I am very happy to say that all of these outdoor pieces are now in my yard. 

In the Sky is now hanging in my poplar

The series of Prayer Flags

Raining Pink Petals and Essence of Leaves

Squirrel! is the only one that was changed by being
outdoors. Someone (probably a squirrel) stole the nut
that the squirrel was getting ready to eat😂

At the end of September I learned to make twine with fabric strips. This is my latest yard art piece.

Yard Art piece made with twined fabric

In mid-July I mosquito proofed my swing. I am so happy with it and spent many hours, mostly in the evening, enjoying the back yard without being eaten alive!

Mosquito proofed swing

After the intense productivity of June, it was wonderful just playing around and making small projects. This is my second finished Kawandi style quilt. It was bigger than the first piece and I would love to make an even larger one eventually.

Second Kawandi style quilt

After quilting the yellow cuddle quilt using rulers, I decided to make a scrappy blue butterfly table topper. I quilted it using FMQ and rulers. Practice does make it easier!

 Scrappy blue butterfly table topper

During our Alaska cruise, I started on a mini landscape quilt based on one of the pictures that I took. Enjoying Alaska was finished after re-doing the gray mountains using FMQ instead of embroidery. Textile art can be so forgiving. Don't like a section? Just cover it up!

Enjoying Alaska mini landscape quilt

Another project that is a WIP is my Tibetan appliqué piece. I absolutely love it but have been distracted by pretty much everything! I only wrote one post on this project but got quite a bit further on it. I need to add another border, stitch on some cording and then decide how to finish it. I will probably quilt it but I'm quite nervous about it. I'll have to feel very Zen before tackling it!

Tibetan appliqué piece in progress (WIP)

I had a few playdates with my friend Connie to create journals. With her encouragement I did some eco printing on paper. This was the first one that I stitched on.

Embroidering on eco printed paper

I continued to make scrappy pieces for the 2024 Table Scraps Challenge. This is my orange scraps piece. I started using orphan blocks and adding to them. I also used the pillowcase method to finish these off. It's so much easier than binding small pieces.

Orange scraps piece made around an orphan block

This is a second scrappy mat that I made using an orphan block. I used it to practice my FMQ.

Second scrappy mat

For International dog day I made this lovely scrappy mat for Poppy's water dish. It has doggy prints as well as fabric picturing her friends (birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc.) 😀

International dog day scrappy mat for Poppy's water dish

Finally these are the last scrappy mug rugs that I finished for my son's niece to play with. I only used scraps, most of which I had just gotten at our quilt guild meeting.

Scrappy Play mug rugs

As part of the pre courses for the 2024 Sketchbook Revival, I made a journal for hubby to use at work as well as one for me. This was a new technique by a new-to-me teacher. 


Lay-flat Notebook with French Link Stitches

5 hole pamphlet stitch journal

I treated myself to a course, Joyful Embroidery with Fleur Woods through Fibre Arts Take Two. To get ready, I made a Joyful Journal for my notes.

My Joyful Journal

As if these projects weren't enough to keep me busy, I started the Floral Fusion Sew Along presented by fellow blogger Denise of The Quiltery. I am presently a couple of weeks behind but should be able to get caught up on the weekend (my famous last words!)

Floral Fusion blocks so far

I have a couple of ongoing embroidery projects but the one that I've stitched on the most in the last quarter is the Almost Daily Stitching project of 2024. I love trying out new embroidery stitches, thread and designs. It's coming along nicely and is still a stress-free project done whenever I feel like it.

Almost Daily Stitching project

Well, it looks like I've had a very productive second and third quarter this year. Thanks so much to Quilting Jetgirl for hosting this great event. Again, I'm so glad that I've taken the time to do this.


Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 501 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 of Scrapbox Quilts used an all over design to quilt up her Sulky Village quilt, started in 2004! She quilted wavy lines using Superior Bottom Line thread, perfect for such a busy top.  

Sulky Village quilt by Kat

Details of the Sulky Village quilt

Vivian, the Bronx Quilter custom quilted her lovely "Apple Crisp" quilt. She wasn't sure how to quilt it but then went literal - using an apple core template as a ruler to quilt the inside of her blocks and borders. She used her clam shell ruler to stitch the sides of her triple four patch blocks. 

Vivian's "Apple Crisp" quilt stitched with rulers 

Apple Core template used as a ruler in the
centre of the blocks and the borders

It's now your turn 😉

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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