Showing posts with label Making Zen. Show all posts

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.