Showing posts with label Kawandi style. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kawandi style. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Finished Kawandi Style Mat

Hi and welcome! I'm happy that you're able to stop by. I didn't get much done this week, except for hosting a welcome party and attending my son's wedding. It was amazing!!!! I did finish the neutral Kawandi style mat for my niece since she's in town for the wedding. I took a few pictures for this post, just for you! 😉

Neutral Kawandi style mat


I worked on this project for several months, bringing it with me when I thought I might have time to stitch. I finally took a few minutes to finish it this week, since my niece is here from Denmark and going back soon.

Kawandi style mat in neutrals for my niece

I have to admit that this is my favourite neutral project yet. I'm not very fond of neutrals but I worked hard to find fabric that would be considered neutrals but still have pops of colours. For my niece, I included fabric with the Eiffel Tower (she spent a semester in Paris), some doggy fabric and some black and white words in French. There was also many values which helps keep things interesting.

Kawandi style mat in the garden

I couldn't resist the contrast - the mat is on my outdoor rug

The mat is inspired by Kawandi quilting but I'm not patient enough to stitch each piece of fabric by hand the way that it's done traditionally. I did that for my first Kawandi style mat. It was a great learning experience but what I really love about these mats is the running stitch finish. So I sewed the scraps together and then stitched it to a backing by machine. It makes for a fun, slow stitching project that I can easily take with me. 

Kawandi inspired neutral mat

I can't leave without a picture of Stéphane and Sarah.

The happy bride and groom 😍

What I learned
  • I love the Kawandi style neutral mat. This is my fifth mat and I'm hoping to make more.
  • The wedding was amazing. Now I know how parents feels when their child gets married. The day was so full of love and joy. Sarah and Stéphane worked very hard to make this happen and it was truly wonderful!
  • Now that hubby is mostly healed and we know that my eye is fine, I'm ready to get back to playing with textiles. I hope to post some interesting projects soon!
  • Update: I found some great information about Kawandi quilting. If you're interested, it's worthwhile reading!
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out. Remember to link up below! Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put Your Foot Down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 
I've linked up to Favorite Finish Linkup

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 532 of Free Motion Mavericks! Unfortunately when I copied my InLinkz coding, I removed some other important blog coding! I was able to fix it but a little late. Please feel free to link up posts from last week also! Here is the project from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 
 
Here are some lovely baby quilts that Kat of Scrapbox Quilts quilted. She FMQ this first one in a diagonal grid using a straight ruler.

Baby quilt FMQ by Kat

This second baby quilt was quilted using a serpentine stitch on a diagonal grid. It's a lovely fabric with two borders. So cute!

Another baby quilt with lovely fabric and borders

Kat made the third baby quilt using scraps in a small trip around the world design. It's FMQ using the orange peel design. It's so lovely. You can click on the images to see the FMQ.

Back of the baby quilt by Kat

Trip around the world baby quilt by Kat


















It's now your turn!


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Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Hand stitching fun and Free Motion Mavericks

Bonjour and welcome 😊. Thanks for dropping by. I haven't done much creatively but Fibre Fling 2025 was inspiring. It was one of our best shows ever.

Kawandi style mat in neutral colours


I started this Kawandi style mat in neutral colours for my niece a couple of months ago. I'm actually very impressed with how it looks, considering that they are neutral scraps 😁 You may know that I don't generally consider them colours - but these really are lovely!

Stitching on the train in early March

This is what it looks like - almost finished!

Kawandi style mat in neutral fabrics

Small Embroidery Piece

In mid-April I shared with you a small embroidery project that I've been playing with. I have many embroidery projects on the go, but this one is small and just for play - so not intimidating! I continued working on it during Fibre Fling. I didn't get much done since I was busy chatting up potential members, existing members, visitors and friends. It was a lot of fun.

Small embroidery piece coming along

What I learned
  • Fibre Fling was a great show but as an introvert, although I had a great time, it's really hard on my energy. I'm finally starting to feel more like myself.
  • I was inspired by the beautiful pieces there and am looking forward to checking out the photos that I took. It's always a good show but there was some truly amazing art.
  • I didn't work on my Floral Fusion, which was my April OMG. I'm not going to post it again, just try to finish it!
  • I stopped working on the Kawandi style mat after I realised that most of my stitching was being done in hospital waiting rooms. That's not the energy that I want for the piece, so I'll quietly finish it a home this week to give to my niece while she's back in Canada.
  • I'm looking forward to taking some great outdoor photos once the Kawandi style mat is finished - my back yard is just brimming with bulbs. It's on of my favourite times back there.
Here is a picture of my favourite bulb, miniature irises. I had some other pretty lilac coloured flowers but the rabbit wasn't content with the apples and seeds out there. It ate all of them!!! I hope they tasted good 😋
Miniature irises in the backyard

Related links
Linking party
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out. Please consider linking up below. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday,  Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 529 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was another 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 finished 7 new Bear Hugs. They are so cute and all were FM quilted, just because 😊You can check out the quilts on Kat's latest Bear Hugs post.

Seven FM Quilted Bear Hugs Quilts by Kat

Quilting Gail made a beautiful quilt, Befitting Fours, using the Petal Poetry fabric line by Island Batik. The quilt was featured in their Fall/Winter ’24 Catalogue. Here is a look at the quilt and the FMQ.

Befitting Fours by Gail

FMQ flowers on Gail's Befitting Fours quilt

Preeti made two quilts for the Island Batik April Challenge. This is a version of the Drunkards Path quilt block. The block is called Moon over the Water - it's so lovely, especially in these two very different quilts. Preeti used her walking foot to quilt with squiggly lines.

Preeti's two different versions of Moon over the Water block 

It's now your turn! 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Thursday, March 13, 2025

Progress on the Small Blue Scrappy Quilt

Hi and welcome. I didn't spend much time in my studio but I did finish FMQ (free motion quilting) my child-size blue scrappy quilt. It had been a while and I had forgotten how much I love FMQ! 😍 

FMQ a scrappy quilt


I started this quilt in mid-February and it was my blue February Table Scraps Challenge quilt. Now it's my March One Monthly Goal (OMG) and it will be finished! Just the binding left to hand-stitch. I don't have a picture of the fully quilted quilt - I FMQ the scrappy columns and then the blue fabric strips at the bottom. So, you'll have something to see other than the binding on 😁

Blue scrappy quilt on the snow!

In a child's quilt, I didn't think that there should be birds without heads, so I FMQ the heads of the birds at the top of the fabric strip!

Birds with their heads stitched on!

Below you can see some of the FMQ designs. I was really trying to keep the designs flowing, so as many wavy designs as possible. In the background between the two bottom strips, I FMQ a flower, a bird (possibly a chicken!) and feathers. You can also see on the bottom edge that I FMQ circles, apples and pencils (the only non-curvy design). I drew a line with a FriXion pen an inch from the edge and then FMQ the designs. I'm happy to say that where I did that, you can see the full design even with the binding on.

The bottom FMQ background has trees, a car, a race car, more trees and a house.

FMQ fun designs in the background

In the image below, you can see the vertical stitching in the two background pieces.

Details of FMQ

I just thought that I would show you a close-up of the chicken and how the colour of the quilt changes with the inside light. The actual colour is between the outside and indoor pictures. It's a teal.

Close-up of the chicken, flower and feather


Kawandi-style mat

There is progress on my Kawandi-style mat. As I may have mentioned, I sewed the scrappy fabrics together before stitching it. I took this picture last week on the train to Toronto for my semi-annual eye exam. I'm happy to say that all is good. 😊

Kawandi-style mat,  now about 2/3 finished!

I wanted to share these gorgeous tulips that hubby bought me...well, I picked them up with the groceries but he paid for them, so he bought them!😉 Today it feels like Spring might be coming. I am always hopeful and it helps when the sun is shining and the snow is melting.

Tulips....maybe Spring will come one day?

And since I'm Poppy sitting, here she is! Of course I'm disturbing her eating for a photo and she's not amused!

Poppy - interrupted in her eating

What I learned
  • When it's been a while that I FMQ, I tend to forget which designs I can do and use. I have a FMQ journal with most of the designs that I've used. It comes in very handy. All I have to do is practice them a couple of times on paper (sometimes more!) and I'm usually ready to quilt.
  • I also looked in my PDF quilting books. I've included Lori Kennedy's book in the Related links but I didn't need to refer to her book since most of her designs are in my FMQ journal! 
  • I wanted to take an outdoor picture of the back of the quilt, but it had wet spots from the snow after I took the photos of the front! I'll try to remember that for the next time.
  • The Kawandi style mat has even kept me busy when we went back to emergency to get the results of my hubby's MRI. It's good to have something to keep busy. We're waiting to hear from a specialist but hubby is feeling a little better.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to these fun linking parties. You might want to check some out! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts,


Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 522 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive two weeks! Thanks for linking up while I was away. Here are the projects from the last two weeks that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Pat of Scrapbox Quilts finished two Bear Hug quilts. # 5 is blue and yellow and quilted using a Natalia Bonners orange peel template while #2 is pink and brown FMQ with very large swirls. They are so gorgeous😊

Pat's blue and yellow quilt with orange peel quilting
 
Kat's pink and brown quilt with large swirls

Sharon from Ms. P Designs shared with us a colourful Star Party Sampler quilt. If you go on their website, you can see how each block was FMQ. 

Sharon's Star Party Sampler quilt

Next we have Kat of Scrapbox Quilts who re-did the binding after trying a new technique that didn't quite work out. She originally FMQ her Mod Flower quilt and also used rulers.  

Kat's Mod Flower quilt 

Here is Melva's finished Hanna-land quilt for her grandchildren. It's a wonderful quilt and a mat for playing a game. That should be well loved!

Melva's Hanna-land quilt

Preeti linked up with her Miracle Fish quilt which she made as part of the Sunlit Garden Blog Hop. The quilt looks wonderful in the kids' playground!
. 
Preeti's Miracle Fish quilt in the playground

It's now your turn.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Thursday, February 27, 2025

SAHRR Week 6 and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. It's a very short post today - just too many things on the go and not much stitching to share. 
Update: I'll be travelling the first week of March, so I've extended the Free Motion Mavericks linking party by a week. Please link up 😍

Week 6 - Kite block


I didn't really find any methods that I wanted to use to make the kite block so I did a stitch and flip. It mostly worked. Too bad my math wasn't quite right.

This is the first kite block that I made since it was the closest fabric at hand 😁. I made each quarter using the stitch and flip method, starting the stitching line at 1" at the wide part, going down to ¼" from the end. It worked out really well.

Kite block - starting the stitching at 1"

This is the second block I made - starting the stitching at 1½" from the edge. It made it wider. It does waste a lot of fabric but I'm working with scraps so I really don't care. You have to stop clinging to those scraps eventually! 😂


The only issue that I had is my math - my calculations made a 6" block instead of 6½" . I forgot to take into account that each quarter has to have an extra ½" . Darn. I was so proud - but it's not a problem. When I put all the blocks together, I'll just add a border or something. As you can imagine, my blocks are not all 6½" so there will be a lot of setting borders happening. 😉

Kawandi style neutral mat

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm making a Kawandi style mat with neutral colours for my niece. I'm probably about a quarter done. There was stitching done during the hockey game and then as I listened to some training.  I love it!

Kawandi style neutral mat

I'm writing this post at my son's place, while Poppy sitting. Here's our girl!

Poppy 😍

What I learned and updates
  • When I don't have much to share on the learning front, I'll add "updates" to this section.
  • As  I mentioned above, I'm really happy with my stitch and flip version of the kite block. I just wasn't in the mood for foundation paper piecing so this was a great compromise. I figured that if it didn't work out, that it could be a wonky version, but I didn't even have to do that!
  • I've decided to make only one kite block for each panel.
  • Now I'm working on finishing my blocks for both panels. I figure that I have 4 more blocks to make for the Cowboy panel and 6 more blocks for the Christmas panel.
  • I've started making appliqué blocks for the Cowboy panel. I found a free baby quilt pattern that had cool cowboy related appliqué blocks and I'll be using those. I'll link up to the pattern when I'm done.
  • Two of the blocks will include the shape appliqué as well as fussy cut appliqués of animals. That will be very cute!
  • I haven't really thought about the extra blocks for the Christmas panel but it will include at least one bird appliqué block.
  • I started quilting-in-the-ditch the blue scrappy baby quilt that I'm making for the February Table Scraps Challenge. I'm assuming that the linking up party will start on Friday but I'm hoping to have the weekend to finish most of it. I'm really looking forward to FMQ it.
    Sneak peek at
    Blue Scraps
  • I also want to FMQ Poppy's mat but she's probably not visiting for a couple of weeks, so I have time (right, like she'd even notice!)🐶
  • Thanks for your kind words and wishes for hubby and me - we're probably off to the emergency this afternoon since it looks like it's a disk problem.😔
Related links
Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 521 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks so much for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Quilting Gail took part in the Runner Up Blog Hop. This featured a runner made using one of the rulers that they received, as well as Island Batik fabric. I couldn't resist the picture with her grand dog.  Gail quilted the runner using the Silly Moon Rocket ruler and meandering.

Gail's grand-dog guarding the bench...or runner?

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts created a runner called Crystal Pendants. It's also reversable!

Preeti's Crystal Pendants runner

Preeti's Crystal Pendants runner - the other side!

Kat of Scrapbox quilts made a Little Blu Bear Hug - her 4th bear hug quilts. It's so sweet. Kat used her walking foot to quilt it!

Kat's Little Blu Bear Hug

Here is the mini quilt - Little Blu Bear Hug by Kat

Donnalee quilted a very cute placemat, the first of four - fabric chosen by her husband. 

Donnalee's first of 4 placemats

Gwyned quilted this amazing piece, Pond Life, for Project Quilting 16.4. Her densely FMQ is so fun! You'll want to read the post for her inspiration.

Pond Life by Gwyned

It's now your turn! The linking party is open for two weeks. Enjoy!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Monday, February 10, 2025

Snow Happens Finish, SAHRR & Mom's Mat

Bonjour and welcome 😎. It may be a tad cold but the sun is shining brightly! I'm happy for those who do winter sports. Downtown the Rideau Canal is open and busy with skaters. I'm happy to be cosy in my studio. There is just enough space for me to write this blog or sit at my sewing machine! If you guessed that the cleanup is not going well, you would be correct. At this point, it's easier to ignore the piles, until I need something in them. 😁 

"Snow Happens" wall hanging


I'm so happy to tell you that my son and his fiancé came over for supper and then left with their new wall hanging. I've made few quilted projects that include embroidery and I'm very happy with it.

"Snow Happens" wall hanging - finished and in the snow!

The last time you saw this project was at the end of January. I had quilted some of it with my walking foot. Shortly after, I finished the straight quilting and then FMQ the rest. I forgot to take more pictures, but here is a closeup of some of the quilting. There are snowflakes on both sides of the blue diamonds and then loops in the white space that links them together. 

FMQ snowflakes on the border.

For the embroidery, I just went around each part of it. I was thinking of going back to add more FMQ once I had done the binding, but it doesn't need it. I took these photos on the snow last night, just as the sun was setting. I'm glad that I did because the photo taken inside has a very yellow tone.

Photo taken inside the house - the white has yellow tones.

I was very lucky to have enough of the blue fabric to finish the binding. It would have been a shame to have to make it a scrappy binding. It helps that the binding didn't need to be doubled. 😊

"Snow Happens".... in the snow!

Star blocks for the cowboy panel

Last week I only had time to make two blocks for the cowboy panel. I was hoping to join the linking party for week 3 but if it's ok, I'll be joining a couple of posts for week 4.


Nine patch star

I have some red plaid fabric from a shirt that I pulled apart as well as some lighter jean fabric. I cut two squares of 6½" of each fabric and made 8 HST at a time. I then trimmed them to 2½". That made 18 HSTs! 😁 Then I had to figure out how to put these together to make two star blocks. In the book, Quilter's Mix and Match Blocks, I found a nine patch star. The pattern was made up of three different fabric colours but I decided to make my own version with only the two. 

Nine patch star in two colours

Second nine patch star....sort of 😕

I just noticed as I'm writing this post that my second block is different! Does anyone else have problems getting their HST in the correct position? I undid many of the HST even though I thought that they were OK...and I still misplaced one! The image is quite dark but you might notice that the denim on each block is different - the first one has the back facing out. I noticed only after slicing through all of the HSTs. I was not going to start over!

I still have to make a star block for the Christmas panel - but I think that I'll stick with flying geese blocks.

Mom's Kawandi style mat completed

I also completed my fourth Kawandi style mat. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the backing is on one of my mother's quilted placemats. It's a bit different from the traditional Kawandi style pieces since the placemat's binding underneath it is showing, and I machine stitched all of the top scrappy fabric. I just loved stitching it, mostly while chatting with my daughter. 😊 

Kawandi style mat, made on top of my mother's placemat

Here's my mother's placemat, cut to size.

I love its wonkiness 😃 - it's very much my style! If you're wondering about the small windmill on the back, you'll have to check out my previous post.

What I learned
  • I learned a lot working on all of these projects, such as:
    • There is such a thing a keeping the FMQ to a minimum and it turned out great in the embroidered part of my wall hanging.
    • I have a note on my bulletin board that says that I should try 1¾" wide binding when it doesn't need to be folder. I have now changed that to 1½". 
    • HST are easy to make 8 at a time but can be difficult to place correctly in a block!
    • When I concentrate, my blocks are sewn pretty well but you just can't trust HSTs to be facing the correct way!
    • I still prefer wonkiness over precise!
    • I love that I was able to repurpose my mother's placemat. She was very much with me when I worked on the mat!
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to these fun linking parties, including Free Motion Mavericks and the latest SAHRR linking party. Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell,

I've linked up this post for my February Favourite Finish with Quilting JetGirl. I'm not sure which is my favourite - "Snow Happens" with all that work, or Mom's mat - with it's beautiful wonkiness! 😍

Project details

"Snow Happens" wall hanging
Designed by Bird Brain Designs
Size: 17" by 29"
Materials: embroidery floss, commercial fabric, batting
Techniques: hand-embroidery, piecing, quilted with walking foot and FMQ
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