Showing posts with label Summer Book Club QAL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer Book Club QAL. Show all posts

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Project QUILTING 14.4 – A Novel Project

Yes, I'm back - I can't believe it either, but how could I resist a challenge about books and novels? It just had to happen 😊

A project inspired by books I've read

I have a really, really hard time choosing my favourite books, authors, etc. It all depends on my mood and what's going on in my life at the time. I guess my reading list is like my quilting and art - all over the place 😁 So here's to all of the books that have let me dream, escape, laugh and grow!

Books in my life

My project was inspired by the fabric that I've put aside for last year's Summer Book Challenge with Kate Basti. Instead of making more Tall Tale blocks that wouldn't count as a specific project, I used some of those fabrics to make 2" hexies, English Paper Piecing (EPP) style.

Of the 20 hexies, 4 of them are of books.

Five (5) are beautiful hand-dyed fabrics that represent my love of colour and art and all of the books that I've read on the subject, including novels about artists.

The rest of the hexies, eleven (11) represent the types of books I love. There is a sewing novelty fabric to represent the tons of books that I devour about quilting, as well as the cozy mysteries that I've read. 

The purple fish represent Douglas Adams' book - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.

The large bird with the blue flowers is a Nordic fabric, representing the amazing and scary Nordic Noir novels that I enjoy, even if they sometimes spook me!

The nesting doll and the toucan fabric represent the books that I read about other cultures and countries.

The final four hexies of the squirrel, lama, cactus and colourful bird represent the quirky, fun, fantastical books that take me away on adventures.

Here is one of the photos that I took of the fabric pulled for the Summer Book Challenge. You'll recognize a few.

Fabric pulled for the Summer Book Club

Right now I'm reading up on penguins to get ready for my upcoming trip to Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Antarctica. 

Reading all about Penguins

Free Motion Quilting


For the FMQ, I stitched around the hexies and then in-the-ditch between the hexies. I then added words that were related to reading and books. They are: books, library, love, reading, knowledge, fiction, history, learn, culture, fantasy, thriller, true, mystery, funny, sad, travel, escape, novel, adventure, poetry and sci-fi.

Books about artists!


What I learned
  • Books are too important to me to skip this Project Quilting challenge, even if I have other things to work on!
  • It's been a long time since I did EPP hexies. I still love it!
  • In 2020, I did a Project Quilting, Challenge 11.2 of Team Colours. Since I'm not a sports fan (or even a team person), I created a book case quilt of my favourite team - Library! See, I really can't resist 😊
  • Thanks so much to Kim and Trish for these wonderful challenges!
My team colours:
The colours of a library





















Related links

Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including Project QUILTING 14.4 – A Novel Project . Let's check out the other Novel related posts! Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Beauties Pageant, Off The Wall Friday, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2023, Sew & Tell, TGIFF, 

Project details



Books in my life
Made for Project QUILTING 14.4 – A Novel Project 
Size: 11¼"x 16½"
Material: commercial and hand-dyed fabrics
Techniques: English Paper Piecing (EPP) and free motion quilting (FMQ)




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Thursday, July 14, 2022

Books everywhere on Free Motion Mavericks

My favourite summer pastime is reading. In this post, we are celebrating all kinds of books - the free motion quilted (FMQ) and the paper pieced kind 😊 

FMQ books of the Version 2.0 kind

I wanted to FMQ something on my son's quilt but it had to be simple and relatively mindless. As I looked at the PowerPoint map of the Version 2.0 quilt, I realised that I could quilt a whole bunch of books onto one of the maroon stripes. Yeah!

FMQ books following the patterns copied
 onto Golden Thread quilting paper 

I started by tracing 5 or 6 images of books from the internet. From the first tracing, I made a second copy and then pinned them onto the stripe.

All of the traced images are pinned on the stripe

Eventually I had to remove some of the traced images since they were getting in the way of the FMQ. It was easy to pin them back when I was ready to quilt them. 

I wish I could say that it was easy and mindless to quilt but that would not be true! Since the quilt is queen size, it's awkward to quilt to begin with. I figured out that I had to start at a top corner of an image so that I could work my way forward and actually see the tracing. I also quilted all of the books sideways since it was the easiest way to place the quilt within the machine.

Here are a couple more pictures!

All kinds of different books -
 some even have a feather pen!

Many books as well as the night sky


Update on the Summer Book Club

I'm quite behind on the making of my Tall Tales blocks but I did manage to make ten so far.

Here are my ten lovely book blocks


What I learned
  • I'm glad that I ended up doing some FMQ on my son's Version 2.0. It's so lovely to see the different areas slowly being filled! It's very encouraging.
  • Next time, I think that I'll use a thin marker to trace the images so that they'll be easier to see.
  • There is a blue stripe next to the maroon one that I may tackle next. I'm going to FMQ some herbs since it's something that Stéphane is growing. I hope that he has better luck than me! I hope to practice drawing these and then quilt them without tracing paper. 
  • I'm not going to predict how my Summer Book Club will go but I think that if I make the blocks in an assembly-line fashion, that I'll have better luck with them. I did make a huge effort to concentrate on the last block and it did go well, but I still used the seam ripper a little bit.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Let's see what's going on out there...and remember to link up your project below - it doesn't have to be FMQ related! Midweek Makers, Design Wall Monday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, 

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 388 of Free Motion Mavericks. I hope that you're enjoying your summer so far!
Gail, of Quilting Gail, finished her Pop Star Quilt using mmm quilts' pattern during the QAL. If you didn't see it, here it is.

Gail's beautifully quilted Pop Star quilt

It's your turn 😊


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Thursday, June 30, 2022

Coneflowers and books on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to Week 388 of Free Motion Mavericks! I hope that this pre-holiday weekend finds you well 😎. I've got a squirrel and a Summer Book Club update to share with you.

Blue Stripes for a Table Scraps Challenge

This week I was very restless so I grabbed my box of strips, picked out the blue ones (mostly) and started sewing. This is my favourite kinds of piecing! I made it all up as I went along with stripes on the horizontal and vertical while adding some other colours in the mix. As you can guess, this month's Table Scraps theme was stripes and the colours were bright or dark blue. 

Playing with blue stripes

I started with the stripes but knew that I wanted to add more to it. What would happen if I added something on top of the stripes? Would it make a good background?

Blue stripes...now what?

I started jotting down ideas. 
  • Use hand-dyed scraps for the appliqué.
  • Add complimentary colours - orange with blue.
  • Look for flowers that would fit.
Looking through my collection of Vesey Bulbs garden catalogues, I found the perfect flower - it's a Marcella Butterfly Rainbow Coneflower (I'll try to get some for next year 😊)

I have the most amazing pink orange scrap, so I backed it with a fusible web adhesive. I also did the same with a green piece. Based on my rough drawing, I cut up petal pieces, leaves and the centre cone.

Preparing a drawing and then cutting out fabric

Once I finished the appliqué, it was time to free motion quilt (FMQ). I had a blast stitching the flowers and leaves. I used some newly purchased Gutermann Recycled Polyester Thread. This thread is made of 100% recycled plastic bottles. I bought them from Bridget O'Flaherty when she spoke to our guild about sustainable quilting. The thread stitched really well.

Since my garden is finally presentable (it was so wet and then hot that it was impossible to mow the lawn!), I went out first thing this morning, to take pictures in the dew. It's too bad that it's too early to take a photo with my own coneflowers!

In front of my thriving pink campion

Pretty purple flowers that are related to geranium

My flox are lovey

I think that this runner has found it's new home in my living room 😊

A new table runner for my living room

Summer Book Club QAL 2022

At the beginning of June, I started getting ready for the Summer Book Club QAL. For some crazy reason, my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for June was to make 10 blocks. I don't know what I was thinking but I did come close. If I hadn't make the table runner, I might have reached my goal but since it's the book blocks that made me so restless, I probably wouldn't be in any shape to post about it! 😊 

Don't get me wrong, the Tall Tale book blocks are great to paper piece but for some reason, my distracted brain just couldn't focus! Every block that I made had at least one, and usually many more oops! moments. Unfortunately my new seam ripper has gotten well used.



Here are my first four blocks.

My first 4 lovely book blocks

The first 8 Tall Tale book blocks


What I learned

Squirrel!!!

  • It was really weird how each of my blocks had several things that I had to redo. I just couldn't seem to focus on the piecing - my mind was all over the place.
  • Finally, when I just started piecing together some blue stripes, all was well! The FMQ of the flower went well, although by the time that I had finished the rest of the FMQ, I was getting sloppy. I should have stopped but I wanted to get this ready for this post.
  • It's like the foundation paper piecing wasn't mindless enough but not difficult enough to require my full attention. I'm going to have to work on that if I want to get past 8 blocks!
  • I want to mention Bridget O'Flaherty, our guild's guest speaker for June. I realised through her presentation that I knew her work! In 2008 I got a calendar, Quilts: Canada The land we love. It was all of Bridget's work! This is when I discovered art quilting. Bridget still quilts but with an emphasis on sustainability.
  • I have to apologize to my son for not working on his Version 2.0 quilt but I was too restless. I did start drawing some geology images from his towel though 😊  
  • Happy Canada Day and Fourth of July!

Related links

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the June Table Scraps 2022 linking party! I managed to miss the DrEAMi Squirrel linkup again but you may as well check it out! Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, 

Great news! Susan of Quilt Fabrications featured my runner in her Midweek Makers post! Thanks Susan 😊

Project Details



Flower Power runner
17" x 13"
Materials: commercial and hand-dyed fabric scraps, Gutermann Recycled Polyester Thread 
Techniques: improv piecing, appliqué, and free motion quilting




Free Motion Mavericks

I hope that you've had a chance to work on some free motion quilting (FMQ) this week. Did you see the quilt that Gail from Quilting Gail had in the Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine? If you didn't, then check it out!

Quilting Gail's Summer Sailing

It's now your turn to link up!


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Tuesday, June 07, 2022

June's OMG and Summer Book Club QAL

A quick post to announce that I'm going to be playing with fun fabrics as part of Kate Basti's The Summer Book Club QAL. 

Making more book blocks

I'm thrilled to have found out about The Summer Book Club QAL on Instagram. It uses one of my favourite foundation paper piecing blocks - the Tall Tales Quilt Block. Kate Basti has designed the block and it can be purchased on her Etsy shop (links in Related links below). The pattern is only $1, and she's donating all of her sales of the pattern to the Ronald McDonald House Charities until the end of 2022.

The Summer Book Club QAL on Instagram
with Kate Basti (@katebasti)

I made a few of these blocks as minis in 2019 (feels like so long ago!). I've always wanted to make a quilt of them, since they look amazing on Instagram (#so this is my chance. The block sews up easily and is great for featuring beautiful fabric.

The QAL runs for 8 weeks. 
  • Week 1: Decide Your Project & Pull Your Fabric
  • Week 2–7: Make Tall Tales Blocks
  • Week 8: Assemble Your Project

Week 1: post (an) image(s) of our fabric on Instagram. Here is my fabric pull. As you can see I have lots of choices. I'll be choosing as I go along. I'll be using a variety of solid colours for the book borders.

Critters fabrics - some of my absolute favourites

Misc. fabrics, from cute to books to everything else

Travel fabrics

You may have noticed the small frame that I made to view the fabrics since I will be fussy-cutting them.

Solids for the block borders

More solids

Here are the blocks that I've made. I love that I can add so much to these book covers. Some have appliqué while another is mostly free motion quilted (FMQ).

Paddington book mini for my daughter of course!
for the Nifty Novelties Blog Hop

"The Earth is not flat" book for my son
during the Summer Book Club QAL of 2019

And a few mini book blocks for my colleagues!

Mon jardin with FMQ

A Fantastical Book Block with appliqué

Bambi book, also made during
the Summer Book Club QAL of 2019



June's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

My goal this month is to make 10 blocks for the Summer Book Club QAL. I'll report back here at the end of the month (or before if I need to showoff share 😊)



What I learned
  • I love this versatile block and hope to be inspired to make a whole quilt of it.
  • I'm hoping to use a few techniques, but since it will be a quilt, I won't be adding embellishment (I think!)
  • Ten blocks may be ambitious but I really want to give myself the opportunity to play!
Related links
Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun parties including June's OMG, and posting on Instagram. Remember that even if you don't use Instagram, you can check the sides of my blog to see my latest Instagram posts. 
Monday Making, Oh Scrap!, Patchwork & Quilts, Off the Wall Friday, Peacock Party, Put your foot down, Design Wall Monday, Midweek Makers, 
Muv is hosting Free Motion Mavericks - make sure to check her post out and then come back here on Thursday!
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Thursday, February 27, 2020

Finished Book Blocks

The Summer Book Club QAL may have finished a while back, but I just finished my last two book block minis. Better late than never - and I'm really happy with them. I think that they will look good in my colleagues' cubicles😊

Mon jardin mini

Patricia requested a garden scene on her book cover, something like the Garden and Pond mini that I finished last fall. There wasn't much room for a full garden but I wanted to put at least a couple of different plants.
Mon jardin 
This week, while reading a quilting post, I got sucked into the rabbit hole that is the Internet and ended up at Dover Publications, the company that publishes, among other things, books of images that can be used in art pieces without copyright infringements.

I bought the ebook version of "400 floral motifs for designers, needleworkers, and craftspeople", from their Dover Pictorial Archive Series. This book has some really lovely and uncomplicated images of flowers that are perfect for free motion quilting (FMQ). I used some of their images for the daisies and the forget-me-not on the book cover.
Daisies and Forget-Me-Not
FMQ feathers in the border

I had almost completed Paula's book block (you can read more about it in the post listed in Related links below) but had no idea what to do with the border. I wanted to FMQ something but didn't want it to distract from the book. Finally I settled on FMQ feathers using Kimono Silk thread from Superior Threads. This matching, very fine thread was perfect for the border.

FMQ feathers in the border
Here it is! All finished 😊
Fantastical Book 
What I learned
  • It was so much fun FMQ the borders and the flowers in the garden. The hardest part was deciding what design to use.
  • As usual, quilting with the silk thread was so lovely.
  • I'm so happy that I made the time to work on these. I can't wait to give them to my colleagues.
  • This was supposed to be my February One Monthly Goal (OMG) but I forgot to link up! So, unofficially they are my February OMG😊
  • Although they are not part of my PHD list, these are two UFOs from last year, so I believe that I finally have two finishes. YEAH!
What's on this week
  • My next deadline, March 30, is for submissions to FibreFling, the annual show and sale for Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Artists group. We are able to exhibit 4 pieces, that were not shown at other OOTB shows. I have a few pieces that I've done since the last show, but I would like to finish my first Exit Strategy piece. I haven't worked on it since my January 5 post - so it's time! My goal is to work on it this weekend and write a post with an update as my March OMG. 
Related links
Linking parties
I'm going to be linking this post to the PHD March linkup, UFO Busting as well as Free Motion Mavericks - it's Muv's turn to host this week. Check it out! Needle & Thread Thursday, Put your foot down, Midweek Makers, Colour and Inspiration Tuesday, Off the Wall Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Beauty Pageant, TGIFF, 15 Minutes to Stitch in 2020, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Peacock Party,

Project details
Mon jardin
7" x 8"
Techniques: FMQ, foundation paper piecing
Material: cotton, silk thread









Fantastical Book
7 ¼" x 8 ¼"
Techniques: FMQ, foundation paper piecing
Material: cotton, silk thread
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Thursday, October 24, 2019

Nifty Novelties Blog Hop at Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 252 of Free Motion Mavericks and the opening day of Nifty Novelties Blog Hop, hosted by Marian of Seams to be Sewn. Marian has obtained some great giveaways, so please read below.

Paddington Bear visits Nifty Novelties Blog Hop 

Last fall on Throwback Thursday for October, my daughter reminded me of my promise to make her a Paddington Bear quilt. I promptly bought the fabrics, and then all kinds of art quilting deadlines happened! I've got a good idea of the quilt's design but I have a couple more quilts to do before I can get to this one. The Nifty Novelties Blog Hop was the perfect excuse to make her a Paddington Bear book mini until I get the real quilt done.

Paddington Bear book block mini
Here is a close-up of the book cover
Paddington came with us to a fancy restaurant tonight and became acquainted with my daughter 😊 I'm happy to report that Paddington Bear was on his best behaviour and my daughter loves her mini!

Paddington Bear among the fresh green sprouts
These are the novelty Paddington Bear fabrics
that I bought last fall. They come from around the world!



I hope that you'll visit the other participants in the Nifty Novelties Blog Hop. The links are at the bottom of this very long post!

Giveaway




Marian of Seams to be Sewn has received a whole bunch of fat quarters for the Nifty Novelties Blog Hop. I'm hoping that Rafflecopter will be easy to use. The giveaway is a Timeless Treasures Fabric Bundle. You can find the raffle details on Marian's post. BTW, I will pay for the shipping of the bundle for the winner of my post 😊.
Update - Dix in Canada is the winner of this Timeless Treasures Fabric Bundle. Thanks to everyone for leaving a message and Marian for organising all of this.

What I learned
  • I was going to appliqué the Paddington Bear pieces without using anything behind them (my usual way!) but it became obvious that I needed some kind of stabilizer. I decided to use the Crafted Appliqué technique. It was perfect for this project.
  • I stitched the pieces to the front of the book cover with Kimono silk thread without a problem but then had major tension issues with the FMQ. At least the tension was so bad that I was able to pull most of the thread out without effort. This is the first time that this has happened - I think my Jag is due for a tune up.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking this sweetheart at many linky parties. Also, don't be shy. Join us with Free Motion Mavericks this week. Your project doesn't have to be free motion quilted. Colour and Inspiration Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Monday Making, Moving It Forward, Design Wall Monday,

Project details
Paddington Bear book block mini
7½" x 8½"
Techniques: foundation paper pieced, crafted appliqué technique, FMQ
Material: cotton








Free Motion Mavericks
There were some lovely projects linked up last time. Quilting Gail finished a 2008 UFO from a Japanese star stack and whack class that she attended. Here is a close up of the piecing. If you didn't see it last time, take a few minutes to visit. 
Quilting Gail's Japanese star stack and whack quilt
Quilting Gail's Japanese star stack and whack quilt

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Thursday, October 24
Quilting and Learning - What a Combo (you are here!)
Days Filled With Joy
Life in the Scrapatch
Bumbleberry Stitches

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