Showing posts with label OMG. Show all posts

Thursday, August 06, 2026

Blue Jays Fan and I Quilted This!

Allô and welcome😎 My son and DIL went to Toronto to see a Blue Jays baseball game last weekend. As I've mentioned in a previous post, my DIL asked me to make her a Blue Jays t-shirt, so here it is.

Blue Jays T-shirt

Here is the t-shirt on dear Sarah.

Sarah is now ready to see the game!

I'm afraid that I forgot to take a picture of the finished appliqué, once it had been sewn on. Here is the appliqué before it got machine satin stitched.

Blue Jays appliqué ready for its satin stitch.

This is the photo that I sent Sarah before I stitched it. She asked that it be moved to the right, closer to the two flowers on her t-shirt.

Sarah asked me if I could make her this t-shirt she saw on Instagram. It's from instagram.com/studiomooi.ca/ and was posted October 25, 2025 if you want to find it. I'm afraid that it took me this long to make it but it was just in time for them to see the game last weekend. Sarah chose the fabric - it really is cute!

Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt

I've gotten far with the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt but didn't get it finished for our friends' 40th wedding anniversary. I just can't do all nighters or quilting marathons any more. I really am getting older (and some would say wiser). In the afternoon before the party, I just sent our friends a quick picture of the quilt. Here it is.

Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt on Saturday morning

Once the pressure of finishing the quilt was gone, I even managed to FMQ a lot of the centre panel with the lake and park before leaving for the party. Three weeks ago I posted the list of things I needed to do by the end of July. It didn't all get done, but here it is. I've added the final steps in finishing the quilt and what's left is in red.

Plans for the rest of July/August

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 ✓
Cut and bind the quilt

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 ✓

I'll be linking up to the August OMG (One Monthly Goal). This quilt will get finished!!!

Playing with Watercolour on Fabric

I know that I don't want to learn to paint but I do want to learn to add watercolour to fabric for stitching. This was my first attempt and I love it!

After watching a few videos on watercolour painting, everyone said that having a good (expensive) set of paint was worth it. So, a few months ago I was in a paper shop in the Ottawa market area and bought a small set of very fine watercolour paints. Everyone was correct - the pigments are so much stronger and easier to work with. I didn't prep any of my fabric although everything is always washed when it come in. I will iron them to help set the paint. I'm not planning on using them for anything that needs to be washed, so they should be OK.

My clean up fabric, a vintage doily and white fabric

What's happening in the back yard!

I couldn't resist sharing this with you. I bought a corn feeder for the squirrels but the corn that comes with it are not available, so I dehydrated my own corn. It took the squirrels one day to eat it all up. I'm now dehydrating more!

Squirrel eating the dehydrated corn on the cob

What I learned

The Blue Jays t-shirt appliqué went well. My satin stitch is not great but good enough. One day I'll practice some more - it's the only way that I want to raw-edge appliqué.
When making the appliqué I ended up using the white fabric as a background and sewed every piece on that. That really helped since I just cut around the finished logo once I was done.
I am getting older and can't handle stress well (I never could frankly!) So not finishing the quilt on time for the party was not a big surprise. I really need to pace myself.
As I mentioned, once the pressure was off, it was fun to keep FMQ it again.
I know that the last part of the FMQ is the fiddly parts - flowers, details on houses, etc. That means that I need to be patient and accept the thread changes required.
I did have more tension problems and they were with one type of less expensive cotton thread. I'm now avoiding them for this project.
I'm so happy with my watercolour painted fabric. I remember the lady on the video saying that the paint dries lighter, but I don't think that this is the case with the expensive paints. They look as vibrant as when I painted them.
I'm hoping that this fabric will inspire me to stitch up something cool!

Related links

Blue Jays logo on instagram.com/studiomooi.ca/
Getting Things Done and I Quilted This!, July 23, 2026
Slow Progress and I Quilted This!, July 16, 2026
How to add Watercolor Paint to Fabric for Slow Stitching by Jo Mo

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, particularly the August OMG. You may want to check some out. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Oh Scrap!,

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.

Gwyned Trefethen has done some thread painting but it's very time consuming. She's glad that she can now use her machine embroidery with her thread painting. She shared with us a few of her early thread painting pieces. Here is Spring Chorus.

Spring Chorus, thread painted by Gwyned

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts shared with us this very lovely quilt called Boxed In. The quilt is in the Summer 2026 issue of Quilter’s World. Unfortunately it was shipped out but never made it back. That's such a shame. Sent the quilt some good vibes so that it makes its way back to her.😍

Boxed In by Preeti

Close-up of Boxed In by Preeti

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.

Sandra's third version of her Lyra quilt - Arabian Nights

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Island Batik Fabric and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊. The weather here is all over the place but this morning the poplar in my back yard had leaf buds. There was no greenery yesterday and now there are tiny leaves peaking out! Between the explosion of bulbs and the birds hard at work constructing their nests in the neighbourhood, it must be Spring! 😍

A Future Quilt Make-over

I was one of the lucky winners of a bundle of Island Batik fabric for the 2026 SAHRR. That was the best gift ever since after over 10 years of sleeping under it, I have a king-sized quilt to repair/make-over.

Island Batik bundle of fat quarters

With 169 blocks to quilt, I never did finish FMQ it. This caused some of the problems but unfortunately a few fabrics just disintegrated around the FMQ. I've been buying batik fabrics ever since I started quilting. Back then, I didn't know that not all batik fabrics are of the same quality.

Batik king-size quilt - after 10 years, in need of serious repairs

I started FMQ the quilt in 2016. All of the 8" blocks had been stitched-in-the-ditch. When we first slept under it, only 23 blocks had been quilted. By 2019 I had 54 blocks FMQ and in 2020 I had 120 blocks done, that's about 2/3 done.

In my 2020 post I had repaired a few of the blocks but since then it's gotten worse and I just did what I do best - I ignored it by putting another smaller quilt over the worst of it! I really didn't know if I should fix the quilt or just throw it out but when I won these fabrics, I knew that it would eventually get fixed.

A couple of weeks ago we bought a new bed cover. Since it wad deeply discounted, it's quality and lovely to sleep under. This means that I can now work on the original quilt without having to take it off the bed and then put it back on to sleep 😁

Block I fixed the last time - there are many more!

Next week I'll be washing the batiks as well as the king-size quilt. After that, I'll figure out how many blocks need to be repaired or replaced. I'm hoping to fix a few blocks at a time but this will be a big job over several months.

May's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

For April's OMG I managed to iron the flimsy. Next will be the backing and then the sandwich. My objective remains the same - to start quilting it, at least in-the-ditch. I'll be linking up to May's OMG when it opens 😊

May's OMG

What I learned

I now know that batiks, like other fabrics, are not all the same quality. I now should have enough batiks to fix the whole quilt.
Since I'm not sure which batiks were the cheaper made ones in my stash, I've only been using batiks for art or wall hangings that won't be washed.
I was gifted some gorgeous batiks from Alaska that I'll be adding to the quilt - thanks Lise😀
Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in the SAHRR 2026 and a particular thank you to Kathleen who mailed the box to Canada - wow, no wonder no one wants to ship to Canada from the US anymore....so a very special thanks!😍

Related links

How many more blocks to FMQ?, September 08, 2020
Only 115 blocks left on Free Motion Mavericks, August 15, 2019
Only 146 blocks to go!, July 09, 2016

Linking parties

I'll be linking up this post to many fun linking parties, including the May OMG. Monday Musings, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts,

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 (contact me if you need the coding).

Gretchen quilted this colourful Fabric Vortex quilt for her grandson. She quilted it with a spiral design. Gretchen made the quilt reversable using orphan blocks. Her grandson was thrilled! If you're interested in learning more about making a fabric vortex quilt, Gretchen has included all kinds of links in her post. I'm looking forward to going down that rabbit hole once this late post is finally published!

Gretchen's Fabric Vortex quilt, quilted in a spiral design

The back of Gretchen's Fabric Vortex quilt - made of orphan blocks

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts worked on her second quilt in the 6 quilts in 6 weeks challenge. She was able to find a UFO started last year that was a Villa Rosa design - Honey Bouquet. Kat quilted her scrappy quilt on her domestic.

Kat's second quilt for the 6 quilts in 6 weeks challenge

Anne-Marie of Stories from the Sewing Room found out that one of the quilts that she custom quilted in 2024 was on "display at the AQS shows in Daytona Beach and Hartford this spring and will also be on display in Paducah." What amazing news! You'll want to check out the FMQ on her original post.

Custom quilted by Anne-Marie in 2024

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, April 02, 2026

A Orange Scrappy FMQ Finish

Allô and welcome 😊 Another week has flown by! It's now April and still pretty cold but above freezing during the day. My backyard is a mess but the birds and critters are finding all kinds of goodies under the melting snow. There is a lot of nesting activities - I love it!

FMQ the orange scrappy quilt

The free motion quilting (FMQ) is finished! I did end up doing a lot of dot-to-dot as taught by Angela Walters.

FMQ orange scrappy quilt

I think that the FMQ went so well because I used a FriXion pen and ruler to mark the lines before FMQ it. The whole point of dot-to-dot is that you can look from one point to another and FMQ straight lines between them. Unfortunately my unmarked lines are often very wobbly. Another advantage of marking is that it gives me time to think about what I'll be FMQ. When I don't mark the lines, I just tend to wing it...and that's not always the best solution.

Marked lines before FMQ

Marked lines and FMQ

The top border of the quilt is wider than the other borders. I used a real stencil to mark the lines. For the other borders, I just FMQ large loops. You can see these on the back of the quilt in the photo below.

FMQ the borders

Now I just have to trim the quilt and bind it. I'm not sure where it's going but I'm glad that it's almost done.

A full back view - before all the borders were FMQ

Another look at the quilt, on a windy day

April's One Monthly Goal

I didn't realise that the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL was held in 2023! It's been finished almost 3 years ago. I would like to give it my friends this year. The quilt measures 68" x 65" and will require a lot of FMQ!

Rainbow Neighbourhood flimsy

For April, my goal is to sandwich it and start on the quilting-in-the-ditch. I think that this is doable if life cooperates 😁

What I learned

Marking the lines of FMQ designs helps me by letting me know where I'm going. Although they are far from perfect, by following a marked line they tend to turn out straighter.
As I mentioned, marking the lines means that I've planned what I want to quilt, so my FMQ is more deliberate.
Also, when I'm too tired to FMQ, I can still mark the lines so that I know what to do the next day.
I will definitely be doing this when I can. Using this type of FMQ means that the quilt is less densely quilted - a good thing for baby quilts.
I hope that I'll be able to take some nice outdoor photos when the quilt is bound and finished. Right now everything outside is filthy - not a place for a baby quilt!

Related links

Quilting a Scrappy Quilt and I Quilted This! February 26, 2026
Orange Scraps and a Baby Quilt, July 02, 2025
Final Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt Top, June 28, 2023

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including April's OMG link up. Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Put your foot down, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell,

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 feel free to grab the button.

Kate from Life in Pieces finished quilting-as-you-go her Kate's Choice quilt. It started as Grandmother's Choice - a quilt along about women's rights. When it became a UFO, Kate decided to choose her own blocks and called it Kate's Choice. It's so lovely. You'll want to read her post for more info. I've been looking forward to her finish since Grandmother's Choice is also one of my UFOs.

Kate's finished Kate's Choice quilt

Details of Kate's quilt-as-you-go and her border

Gail from Quilting Gail finished her SAHRR 2026 for the parade. It's so colourful. Have a look at some of the FMQ details. She did some ruler quilting and FMQ.

Gail's finished SAHRR 2026

Details of Gail's FMQ and ruler work quilting

Janine of Rainbow Hare was able to finish her SAHRR 2026 on time for the parade, even if she wasn't able to join in much. After deciding that the quilt would be a playmat for the children, the quilt came together nicely!

Janine's SAHRR 2026 finish

Janine's quilt - a colourful playmat

Brenda of Songbird Designs custom quilted her SAHRR 2026 finish. She used ruler work and FMQ. You'll want to check out her post and look at this quilt in detail!