Showing posts with label Karen Turner. Show all posts

Thursday, December 18, 2025

Christmas mat finish

Bonjour and welcome! 😃I hope that you've had a good week. Nope, I'm not ready, not at all!!!! I did however finish my second Christmas mat.

Hand-stitched mats

For the November Table Scraps Challenge, I made two very scrappy Christmas mats. I had a wonderful time stitching them with a running stitch. I finished the second one this week.

Two Christmas mats with running stitches

For the first mat I used only a couple of yarns - green perle cotton and red linen. All of the stitches went in the same direction. For the second mat, I wanted to shake things up 😁. I used many different colours of both perle cotton and linen yarn. The stitches went in many different directions, including in a circle and diagonally!

Second mat with running stitches

First mat - in two colours and yarns

Hand-dyed silk thread

Last week I received this amazing hand-dyed silk thread. I ordered it from Karen Turner in the UK. I chose a package of 5 pink/purple silk thread. They are so pretty! I did start stitching with one of them.

Hand-dyed silk thread by Karen Turner

Stitching a leaf on my not-so-daily stitching project

My stitches are not very good - I'll need more practice, and possibly a finer needle, to get the hang of stitching with such fine thread.

A Win!

I want to thank Gail of Quilting Gail and Sandra of mmm quilts for the lovely Arabesque quilt pattern. Gail made a sample for Sandra's new quilt pattern and I won the draw. You can see Sandra's quilt, "Happy Christmas" in FM Mavericks below 😊

What I learned

I didn't even think of stitching the first mat in different directions, but when I got to the second mat, I just wanted to do something different!
I stitched with three colours of linen yarns. Even if it was tricky getting them into the needle, I love the heavier stitches.
The Snowman in the photo was my mother's. We teased her about it because it had the same hat as she did 😀
Stitching with the silk thread takes getting used to. I had forgotten how fine it is. It's lovely using it as a double strand but then you really have to watch the tension. No worries, it's well worth it and it will be fun playing with!
There is a local yarn shop that is closing down next month, because the owner is retiring. I've been in there twice in the last few weeks. The green yarn that I used for the leaf above is a very fine cotton yarn from Japan. I love stitching with yarn that isn't necessarily intended for embroidery. It's so much fun experimenting!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 562 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts made a wall hanging and a runner using Angela Walter's panels.

Kat's FMQ wall hanging panel

Kat's FMQ from the back

Runner panel FMQ by Kat

You can see the FMQ on the
back of Kat's runner panel

Sandra from mmm quilts has a new pattern, Arabesque, that she quilted up using lovely Christmas fabrics. Happy Christmas is a lovely wall hanging! Sandra stitched-in-the-ditch and then some meandering.

Sandra's Happy Christmas wall hanging

Details of Sandra's Happy Christmas

It's now your turn! 😊

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

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!

Friday, May 30, 2025

Making Zen and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😎! I hope this post finds you well! After the excitement of the wedding, it was great to rest this week. Things are back to normal here and I finally have a little bit of time to stitch. Nothing serious but it's a start.

Making Zen Retreat

This week is/was the Making Zen Retreat. These are free online mini workshops that all include a slow making process. If you choose the free option, you have 24 hours to watch the workshops of your choice. It didn't help that I realised that it was Tuesday before I remembered! However, I did watch several workshops - they were really great. I learned new things and reviewed a few that I already knew.

The first video and project I started was the zero-waste hand-stitched needle book by Karen Turner. I love her work and follow her on Instagram. This was the first workshop that I took with her and was very impressed. I'm going to look into taking some of her online workshops in the future.

The hand-stitched needle book so far


Working outside on my zero-waste hand-stitched needle book

One of Making Zen's Tuesday workshops

I'm really hoping to finish up the needle case this weekend. I'm debating putting it together by machine or completely hand-stitching it. We'll see how I feel. Although it's not finished yet, this is my May Table Scraps Project. I purposefully added green for the colour of the month, and some of the stitches look like grass....don't they?

Green scraps and fresh (cut) grass?

I used perle cotton and Tercel pearl to stitch most of it. Over the lovely figures in the fabric, like the owl and the bear, I stitched with a thinner King Tut variegated thread. A layer of pink organza covers parts of the bear, and is stuffed with scraps of perle cotton! What fun😁!

Update: I finished the needle case. Here are a couple of images. I do want to add a little more embroidery and of course, needles and pins 😉

The front of the needle case

The back of the needle case

Opening the needle case - I'll probably embroider my initials

I just need to add needle and pins!

The other project that I really want to try is this Japanese book bag. I made a copy of the pattern with a smaller piece of cardboard so that I'll be able to put it together later. It would also be cool to make some sketch books for the bag and then add my needle case in it. 😍

cardboard pattern

Here are some of the other courses that intrigued me.

I don't know if I have enough information to make this Chinese Scrap Puzzle Pouch but I do want to try it out!

Jen Strauser's mini landscapes are very cute. I love how she stitches them up in a spiral pattern and then adds them to a fabric-made book. Something else that I would love to do!

Liz Kettle, the artist who introduced me to meditation stitching, had a video on dyeing smaller lengths of fabric (quarter or half meters) in trays. It would be perfect to do in my laundry room.

I haven't watched Tiffany Smith's Up-cycled belt bag with printed fabric yet but hopefully I'll have time before it expires!

I hope that I've intrigued you enough to look out for next year's Making Zen retreat.

What I learned

Before I start, I'm never sure if there's anything I want to watch but once I watch a couple of workshops, I'm totally hooked.
I love doing little stitching projects - so these are perfect (except that a few a day is not possible!)
I~~'m looking forward to~~ had fun stitching up the needle case. I made one ~~last year~~ in 2022. I posted it on Instagram and in my Best of 2022 post.

Needle case 2022

Linking party

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the 2025 Table Scraps Challenge. You may want to check them out before linking up below! Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, TGIFF, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put Your Foot Down, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching,

Project details

Scrappy needle case

Made following Karen Turner's Making Zen workshop

Size: 12" x 4"

Materials: commercial and hand-dyed cotton scraps, fusible interfacing, tulle, embroidery floss and perle cotton, flannel pieces, button

Techniques: hand and machine stitching, embroidery including button hoop

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 533 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Gretchen of Gretchen's Little Corner had a few quilts to share with us. The first two were compassionate quilts. Here is the first one. Gretchen quilted it in-the-ditch and through the purple chain.

Details of Gretchen's quilting

Gretchen's first compassionate quilt

Gretchen's Trip around the cottage, quilted in-the-ditch

Here is Gretchen's Peter Rabbit quilt. What a beauty! She quilted it in an "X" pattern.

Gretchen's Peter Rabbit quilt

Gretchen quilting her Peter Rabbit quilt

Donnalee finished her very special Wisteria Wall Hanging. It took a while, but it's really great! Donnalee stitched every leaf and petal by free motion. Congratulations!

Donnalee's Wisteria Wall

Details of Donnalee's FMQ

Here is Melva's Fractured Emeralds quilt.

Melva's Fractured Emeralds quilt

Details of the quilting

Our last quilt today is by Quilting Gail. This beauty was made for the Irish Chain Blog Hop. It features Island Batik fabric and was made using the Accuquilt cutter. Gail quilted it using Silly Moon rulers; Rocket, Drop 2 and Drop 3.

Gail's finish for the Irish Chain Blog Hop

Details of Gail's quilted beauty!

It's now your turn!

Tuesday, January 09, 2024

So much slow stitching going on

Hi! I hope that you're doing well! I've been doing so much slow stitching in the last few days, some of it mindfully and all of it playfully with gratitude! 😊 It's a lovely start to the year. And, I woke up to lots of snow on the ground. It had to happen and it is really lovely. The reflection of the light on the snow makes for bright days, even when it's cloudy.😎

Daily Stitching

In my planning post, I mentioned that I would like to have a daily stitching practice, possibly some intuitive stitching à la Karen Turner. If you don't know this artist, check her out in Related links below.

I was thinking of a small panel but remembered that I bought a hand-woven cotton tablecloth in Istanbul's Grand Bazaar in 2012. I bought it because it had squares that could be embroidered. It's about time that it got stitched!😊

Using a handwoven tablecloth to stitch my daily blocks

The tablecloth is 16 squares wide by 20 squares long. That's 320 squares, so almost enough for a full year! There are 3 rectangles between each square so that each block is evenly spaced. I started on January 4th, so had a few blocks to catch up on.

Six blocks stitched to date.

I started to write this post on January 6th but realised that my pictures were pretty horrible. I didn't think that it mattered if I ironed the cloth, but for the pictures, it sure did. So, it's taken me 3 days to finally get around to that. Now I have a little bit more catching up to do. As you can see, it's a daily-ish challenge or practice.

Here are closer images of each stitched area.

January 1 and 2

Walking down the path.
Is the path uneven?

If feels like spring.
Dreaming of flowers.

January 3 and 4

Leaves or feathers in the wind.

Flowers for mom.

January 5 and 6

Memories of the garden path.
Snow is coming.

Life's many curves.
Enjoy the adventure!

Snow People - Snow Happens

In my planning post, I mentioned that I had started the "Snow Happens" embroidery. It's so cute. Of course, I can't just embroider it - and I can't just use the same blue for the whole thing! That would be boring and I would never get it done. 😊

Here is my progress.

Four of the five snow people partially stitched

I haven't started on the faces or hats since I'm not sure what I want to do with them. I made the first snowman's scarf using a scrap piece of large white yarn that my girlfriend gifted me. I used a cross stitch to keep it on.

First two snow people

Close up of the first snowman and his scarf

The outlines are done. Now for the fun stuff!

What I learned

The tablecloth for the daily stitching is very large. When I stitch on it, it feels like a lovely blanket. It's going to be a lot of fun.
Lesson learned - iron the fabric before taking pictures to post!
I've been stitching almost every day but needed a couple of days off. I'm really trying to listen to my body and its moods.
I do mindful stitching when I'm working on this challenge. Mindful means paying attention to what I'm doing and what I'm feeling in the present. The audio book is for my other embroidery project.
For each square, I pick a few colours and start stitching. The only rule I have is to not undo anything except a minor tangle, if I have to!
Snow Happens

I haven't figured out what to do for the faces and hats of the snow people yet.
I used the iron around the stitched leaves since my stitching was quite different from the outline. However, I'll have to re-do parts of the outline since some of it got erased.
I love the first snowman's scarf and I want to do something similar for each of the scarves, hats and jacket.
I'm starting another audiobook, so that the snow people should stitch up quickly!