Showing posts with label Table Scraps Challenge. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 03, 2025

December OMG and Table Scraps Challenge

Bonjour and welcome! 😄 I've managed to get a few things done! Yay!!!!

December's OMG

I mentioned in my last post that I would be working on my Christmas panel quilt, one of my SAHRR 2025 projects. Well, it turns out that after putting together the Cowboy panel quilt, this second one was a breeze! It came together without any re-stitching which is quite the accomplishment when you're making it up as you go along. 😂

All four borders ready to attach

I found it difficult to decide on the fabrics to use for the borders. At first I wasn't going to have a border and I was just going to use "quiet" fabrics between each block, but it was just too chaotic. I was doubtful as I was doing it, but after looking at the picture, I knew that it was NOT going to happen!

A failed experiment

I was hoping to use blue in the border but none of the blue fabrics were correct. I also didn't have the right green. So, going through my fabrics, I found a checkered fabric that had all of the right colours!

The perfect inner border

I then looked at my friend's finished Christmas panel quilt. We bought these panels last year to make together. She finished her quilt early in 2025, but I made it for the SAHRR and it took a while to make, especially since it was one of two quilts!

My friend Sylvie's Christmas panel

Isn't the yellow amazing as a border? I was lucky to find a large piece of bright yellow fabric in my stash. After making the pieces around the blocks, I should have enough for the binding.

Borders around the quilt

At this point I've added three of the borders - I just need to add the bottom border. It will then get sandwiched and quilted! 😊 That is a reasonable December One Monthly Goal (OMG).

Table Scraps Challenge

I really wanted to make something for the November Table Scraps Challenge. After all, the colours were ours to choose and the theme was ~~music~~ book or movie. Since I was playing with Christmas fabric scraps, I decided to make a couple of small mats that I will stitch up using colourful running stitches. I'm not finished stitching them, but that's something that shouldn't be rushed.

As for a song (sorry, it should have been a book or movie!), I'm going to say that the song "River" came up most often as I was working on this. Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded it (1971) and it was later recorded by Sarah McLachlan (2006).

Two Christmas fabric mats - lot of colours!

First mat - stitching with colourful running stitches

The second mat, ready to stitch

The backs of the mats

What I learned

After working on the Christmas panel quilt, I'm happy to say that I'm no longer in denial about Christmas coming!
I was really surprised by how quickly the Christmas panel quilt came together. I'm happy because it shows that I did learn a lot making the first one!
I'm so grateful that I had the fabric necessary to finish the borders around the quilt.
I looked in my Christmas fabric stash and found a nice print for the back, so it should be easy enough to piece together and then sandwich.
I'll be putting together a post with all of the links to the Christmas panel quilt like I did for the Cowboy quilt. At this time, I'm just including my last post on the Christmas panel. It has all of the related links
I'll enjoy slow stitching the Christmas mats.

Related links

SAHRR Week 6 and Free Motion Mavericks, February 27, 2025

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the December OMG and the November Table Scraps Challenge. Why not check some of these out, after linking up below? Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!

FM Mavericks

Welcome to week 560 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.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts FMQ this fun Go Blue banner. She used a new attachment that was a bit of a disappointment. Kat quilted around all of the elements of the fabric.

Go Blue banner FMQ by Kat

Donnalee made another lovely placemat for Zoey, her dog. This one is a Christmas mat. As well, she made this storage bag that will be sold at the guild's show.

Zoey's Christmas mat by Donnalee

Storage Bag made by Donnalee

Deb, the Scrappy Quilter, FMQ this lovely mystery quilt that was designed by a friend, for their guild.

Mystery quilt made by Deb

Here is a look at her FMQ. She used a wondering leaf design in different colours of thread.

Multi-coloured thread used by Deb
for the colourful areas

A white leaf FMQ by Deb in the white sections

It's now your turn!

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Scrappy Purple BB Quilt Finish and FM Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊 The scrappy purple BB quilt for July's Table Scraps Challenge is done! This month's theme was English Country Garden or Bloom Time. It looks like I got both the colour and theme covered. ✓

A Finish - scrappy purple BB quilt

The binding was attached and I then FMQ the border. Since there were dots in the border, I just swung around from one dot to the next. When the border on a couple of sides didn't have two rows of dots, I just gently swung around as if there were.😁 In each corner of the quilt, I FMQ a little heart before going on to the next side.

Finished and washed! Very soft and cuddly

The back of the BB quilt

July's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

I had stated for my July OMG that I would work, at least a little bit, on the cowboy panel quilt. That's exactly what I did. I did have the project at hand and sewed on the first border in a darker brown than I originally planned. I like it. I'm be using the much lighter brown around each block. I hope that I can keep making progress on this project in August - we'll see!

First border added around the cowboy panel

What I learned

After finishing the BB quilt, I was a little nervous about the stiffness of the finished quilt. I do tend to FMQ every inch of my quilts. I washed it last night and it's as soft and cuddly as any quilt.
I'm really glad that I took the time to add the first border around the cowboy panel. It might be enough to keep me motivated to get this done.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 542 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Gail of Quilting Gail joined Melva's Christmas in July Blog Hop and made two very lovely placemats that will be giving through her guild to Meals on Wheels around the holidays.

Front of Gail's two placemats - made with Island Batik fabric

The Christmas fabric back of Gail's placemats

Have you seen Joanne, the Canuck Quilter's newest quilt, Patchwork Wishes? It looks scrappy but coordinated because it comes from precuts. If you're interested in how Joanne quilted it, be sure to read her post - you might learn some useful tips!

Joanne's Patchwork Wishes

Joanne quilted all of it using her walking foot, including the lovely border!

Patchwork wishes - all quilted with a
walking foot by Joanne

It's now your turn!

Wednesday, July 02, 2025

Orange Scraps and a Baby Quilt

Hi and welcome 😀. I've been sewing baby scraps into a cute baby quilt! Since my studio is still a mess and very, very hot, I've laid out the quilt on the dining room table. I found a 40" x 42" piece of yellow fabric that is perfect for the backing. That made designing the quilt easy since I just laid the blocks and fabric on the backing. It's all about keeping it simple 😍

Scrappy Baby Quilt Flimsy

I've called the post Orange Scraps since that's the June colour of the Table Scraps Challenge. The quilt fabrics are beautiful scraps of mostly muted orange, blue, gold and gray.

Scrappy baby quilt flimsy is finished!

This afternoon it was all sewn up except for the two side borders. I used the two longest scraps for the top and bottom, so the side borders are heavily pieced. I waited until our AC was working before ironing the borders.

Quilt top with just the borders to attach

As I mentioned, I used the dining room table to audition and design the quilt. I started off with the 4 blocks I had prepared a couple of weeks ago. A lot of the design was based on the fabric I had. After placing the blocks where I thought they might go, I added fabric to complete the rows. It's essentially a quilt with three rows. The blocks make up most of each row, with additional fabric strips added to make it look good.

Bottom row sewn together

Bottom border and the two rows sewn together

The side borders had to be pieced because although I had largish fabric pieces, they were going in the wrong direction. I wanted all of the cute animals facing downwards.

I'm really looking forward to FMQ the blocks since I'll be able to use dot-to-dot quilting a la Angela Walters.

Another look at the scrappy orange baby quilt flimsy

July's One Monthly Goal

Since I managed to achieve my June OMG, I'm going to add a goal for July. With the studio now cool (but still messy), and life somewhat normal, I'm going to work on putting together the Cowboy quilt panel that I was doing during the SAHRR this winter. The panel and blocks are still on my design wall so at least it's accessible 😁 I would love to have a flimsy ready by the end of July, but I'll settle for any progress!

This was the last layout option...we'll see!

What I learned

The entire quilt was made from scraps that I received. I'm so glad that I was able to use most of them up. There are now only scraps to be divided among the various scrap bins.
I'll have to find some binding fabric that plays well with these.
The quilt is roughly the same size as my backing - so I may have to add a few scraps to make it slightly larger, or trim the existing quilt. The largest it can be is 40" x 40"
These are not my usual colours but I'm so glad that I got to play with them. Maybe quilts don't have to be bright???😉
I also played with a few more hexies but I'll keep them for a day when I have nothing else to show.
My dining room table will be cleared of quilty things. Once it's cool enough, I'll be bringing my laptop up there also. People will be shocked!
I'm so happy to be linking up to June's Table Scraps Challenge. I did the orange but not the beach theme.

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 538 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was another very productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting finished a UFO Jelly Roll quilt. We know how good that feels 😊She backed it in fleece and FMQ with large stippling. It's perfect for a lovely quilty hug!

Vicki's most recent UFO finish!

Donnalee made another cute mini - this time it's a pumpkin! We're looking forward to seeing her larger pumpkin wall hanging.

Donnalee's cute pumpkin mini

Quilting Gail finished Canuck Quilter's Mystery Quilt. She made the traditional option. It's really lovely with her ruler and FMQ. You may want to check out Canuck Quilter's post - both the traditional and the modern quilt are really lovely.

Gail's finished version of Canuck Quilter's Mystery Quilt

Gail's lovely FMQ and ruler work

Debbie of A Quilter's Table made and quilted a lovely modern scrap quilt based on Carole Lyles Shaw's Stash Jazz pattern to donate through her guild.

Debbie's Stash Jazz quilt, quilted in a grid

Brenda of Song Bird Designs has been custom quilting her latest quilt, Sedona Starburst. Here are two of the blocks. You may want to check out Brenda's blog to see the lovely quilty details!

Check out Brenda's post for better images - it's worth it!

Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué shared with us the lovely BB quilts that quilters in her area made. They will be donated to the hospital. Check out Frédérique's post to see the other cute ones!

The quilt is made in a log cabin style and then cut in ovals

It's now your turn!

Thursday, June 19, 2025

Scraps, a Finish and FM Mavericks

Hello and welcome 😓 I'm hot and miserable (no AC) but I'm not letting it get to me, at least in public 😀, so enough about that! This week, I played with scraps - my happy place! I also FMQ (free motion quilted) Poppy's little placemat for her water bowl. Everyone in the family now has a placemat. Yay!

Playing with scraps

My DIL's mother made a few baby quilts and gave me all of her scraps. There were some decent sized pieces that played well together, so I'm sure I have enough to make a baby quilt for charity. What fun! These are the four blocks that I've made so far.

Blocks for a baby quilt

I used an assortment of squares and added wonky flip and stitch ends to turn them into wonky snowball blocks. I sewed the four wonky snowball units together and added fabric strips on each side.

Wonky snowball blocks

I did the same thing to other blocks but added the wonky flip and stitch on just two sides. I've searched but I don't know what these blocks are called. If they have a name, please let us know.

Wonky on two sides blocks 😁

First two sets of blocks - the colourful ones

The other set of blocks in muted colours

When I get back to these (before the end of the month since they will be my orange Table Scraps project for June), I'll have to decide on the size of the quilt, play with the design, add sashing, etc.

Poppy Placemat

I finally FMQ Poppy's placemat. Here it is! 🐕

Front of Poppy's placemat with her water bowl (made by Jeannine)

The back of Poppy's placemat -
the top fabric is a Pet Value kerchief

What I learned

I'm in my happy place when I play with scraps. I think it's because I don't give myself pressure to measure - it's just pure play.
I was thrilled when I figured out how to flip and stitch using some very oddly shaped scraps. I took a lot of pictures, so I may prepare a tutorial some day.

Flip and stitch with oddly shaped scraps

I was not very grounded or prepared when I FMQ Poppy's placemat. I had no idea what design to use. I should have stopped and thought about if for a few minutes before starting. I have a FMQ journal full of possible designs that I can do, so there wasn't any excuse except that I was impatient.
The FMQ is ok - well at least the tension is good. It's just not cohesive or pretty. I'm sure that Poppy will not notice!
I love the water bowl that Jeannine made - it's cute, huge and covers most of the FMQ!😁
Happy Summer Solstice 🌞

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You might want to check some of them out! Please remember to link up below, even if you don't FMQ. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 536 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 from Gretchen's Little Corner quilted two lovely related quilts. Both were quilted in the same way - check out her post for more details!

The front of Gretchen's first quilt.

A lovely scrappy back with lots of interest, quilted by Gretchen

Gretchen's small quilt from the same left overs

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilts finished her scrappy brick quilt with all over stippling on her longarm. This quilt has a surprise! Vicki pieced a cute panel for the backing. It's now double sided!

Vicki's scrappy brick quilt - all finished!

The back of Vicki's quilt - a lovely panel

Janine of Quilts from the Little House made this really lovely landscape farm art quilt. She pieced it using foundation paper piecing! You'll want to check out her post for details on the inspiration, the making of it and the quilting.