Showing posts with label fibre art show. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fibre art show. Show all posts

Thursday, April 24, 2025

Scrappy Runner Finish and Fibre Fling 2025

Hello and welcome 😊 Thanks for dropping by. This week I was able to finish my scrappy runner and prepare my pieces for Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Artists' show, Fibre Fling 2025. Things are very slowly getting back to normal and I am very grateful!

Scrappy Runner Finish


It's finished and I'm so happy with it. 

My Scrappy Runner and the two cuties

If you recall, I made this runner, and the cuties, to place at the back of my car, to help me find my car when in a parking lot! It worked!!!

The cuties were posing on the trunk of the car

They are now installed in their new home.

This is what I see from outside. A great way to find my car😍

Here is a close-up of the runner. Some of the free motion quilting (FMQ) can be seen but some of it was very hard to see, as I was stitching it! The plan was to do an all-over pattern but after the first 5 strips, where I couldn't see what I was stitching, I decided that variety was a good thing!

FMQ - on the 4th and 5th strip, I couldn't see what I was stitching!

More FMQ designs and the Velcro that keeps the cuties attached

The other end of the runner

Here is the FMQ from the back. I used scraps from the runner to bind the quilt. That's always fun! 

Runner seen from the back

So much FMQ texture

The Scrappy Runner is also my Table Scrap Challenge for April. I thought that the colour was teal, which my runner has quite a bit of. Being scrappy, it also has red in the orphan blocks, which is the actual colour of the month. 😁 So I'm good for both colours but not the theme, which is rain. However, the cuties are bound to see rain since they're in the car! 

Rain on the car!

Fibre Fling 2025

Here are the two pieces that will be at Fibre Fling this weekend. I spent the evening preparing the pieces to be hung. I'm afraid that I don't always finish my pieces for exhibition (with hanging sleeve, label, etc.) as soon as I'm done.

You may remember my Project Quilting 16-1, Mythical Creatures. I made it in the allotted week, based on a TextileArtist.org workshop with Woo Jin Joo, on Korean mythology. You can check out the post in Related links below.

The Rabbit's Adventure - based on a Korean folktale.

My second piece, called Scrap Happy, also comes from a TextileArtist.org workshop of July 2022. It was with Natalya Khorover and involved working with scraps. I didn't finish the piece as she suggested because I loved the scraps and embellishment as they were. I attached it on a canvas. I looked for this piece in my blog but it looks like it never got posted. So here it is, Scrap Happy. I have donated it for a raffle. Visitors to the show can buy tickets and put them in the boxes of the art that they would like to win. The funds go to the Food Bank, so it's a worthy cause.

Scrap Happy

Fibre Fling 2025 - Friday and Saturday

What I learned
  • As always, I love playing with scraps. The runner was a fun, whimsical project that helped me get through these tough few weeks. Looking at the cuties in the back of the car makes me smile. This is exactly why I make quilts and art!
  • It'll be nice to see The Rabbit's Adventure on display at the show. It's my best piece so far this year.
  • I'm actually going to miss seeing Scrap Happy in my studio. I hope that it goes to someone who will also like it's whimsy and colour.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. You may want to check some out after you've linked up below! Sew & Tell, Needle & Thread Thursday, Monday Musings, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 528 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. 

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts had two quilt patterns published! Two great quilts from one lovely fabric line. 

Preeti's Brighton quilt was published in Make Modern Magazine

Preeti's Let's Dance was published in Quilter's World

Donnalee used one of her rulers to quilt gentle curves on her Wonky Hearts panel quilt. To see more details on how she quilted it, check out her post.

Wonky Hearts quilted by Donnalee 

Quilting Gail was on a retreat and used her new book, Picture Patchwork, to make three quilts. The first one is a great little train. Check out her post to read more about the book and see her other projects. Gail quilted the train using Silly Moon Rulers: Rocket and Beanie.

Quilting Gail's latest quilt - Train from a great new book

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Wednesday, October 23, 2024

More Joyful Embroidery and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊 It's been a crazy week here between stitching, getting ready for Out of the Box (OOTB) Fall Fibre Fling and membership and actually working! When I retired, I never thought that I would ever say that again. It's actually been great, so no regrets!

Stitching Black-eyed Susan


I usually share my disasters but I'm making an exception here. My first attempt at stitching the flower was a complete disaster. I'm not exaggerating. I picked out the embroidery thread since it was easier than re-drawing the flower. Then I watched Fleur Wood's video and it was clear that my stitches had been too long. Fleur uses a split-back stitch to colour in her flowers. It's sort of like a short-long stitch but better. It ended up being very fun to do!

First two flowers stitched

For the first flower, I used 3 strands of embroidery floss for the petals and then two strands for the outline. In my first attempt, I had used a lighter colour for the outline and that did not look good. So I did learn something other than don't use long stitches!

First flower needs a stem and centre

The first flower was stitched with the split-back stitch. I used a stem stitch for the outline. This really helps to show where the petals overlap. I am using very sharp embroidery needles and have left a bit of DNA on my piece. I didn't bother washing it off since it was stitched over.
 
Working on the second flower

I used 6 strands of brown embroidery floss for the centre of both flowers. I started with the split-back stitch and then covered it in French Knots. The stems are done in stem stitch, in a light green #8 perle cotton. 

For the second flower, I used a yellow #8 perle cotton for the petals. I'm happy to say that it didn't make much difference. I'm happy because when I can, I prefer embroidering with perle cotton.

Punch Needle


As I mentioned last week, Fleur has shown us how to use punch needle instead of using a Turkey stitch to make rug-like fringes. I must admit that I had a hard time getting used to using the punch needle but a little practice and some very good information from Amy Oxford of the Oxford Punch Needle School helped a lot. In her video about which yarns to use, she explains the mechanics of the punch needle and gives suggestions of yarns that work and don't work. 

In the image below, I was trying to use a cheap inexpensive embroidery thread. If it doesn't work, Amy suggests to either double up the thread if it's very fine, or use a "control" thread such as wool along with it. I managed to do one line with this teal thread but gave up after that. I only watched the video after giving up. 

Trying various yarns and threads in the Punch Needle

For punch needle the image at the top shows you that I worked from there, but it's actually the back of the piece. The lovely fringe comes up on the other side, as you can see in the image below.

Later on I used a gorgeous fine variegated cotton yard. I used two pieces of thread in the punch needle. It worked beautifully and the mixed colours of the variegated thread came out great. If this image is a little confusing it's because I flipped the hoop around and punch needled from the front, to obtain a flat lovely area. Since it worked so well, I flipped the hoop again and added some fringe for the top in the same yarn. 
Experimenting with doing punch needle from the back and the front

At the beginning, it's difficult not to have the thread pop out of the fabric so once I was finished, I embroidered with the same yarn in the areas with gaps. When the fringe is actually on top, you don't notice these gaps, unless they are huge. On the top, the luscious fringes take up lots of space. 

In the image below, you can see that I added some curly twined fabric at the top. In the space between the yellow and green rug area, I stitched the fabric strip down to add crinkly texture. 

Punch needle, stitching and adding interesting texture

This is where I've gotten so far. Below the green rug, I added a scrap of blue green fabric and stitched some organic blanket stitches on top. I'm not sure where I'll go next with the piece, but I did add a few interesting bits that could work....we'll see 😁

Embroidery stitching on fabric and a few ideas

I wanted to share with you this great picture I took earlier today. It's been raining leaves!

Raining Leaves in the backyard!

Coming up - Fall Fibre Fling!


I was happy to learn that I only have one shift at the Membership table since the volunteer coordinator included this in the list. I'll be doing one shift on Saturday afternoon and then a shift at the front doors on Friday early afternoon. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's art. Since this is a sale, there is likely to be a little less art and a lot of fun textile things for sale. I'll try to keep my purchases reasonable 😍 

This Friday and Saturday in Ottawa

What I learned
  • When embroidering, don't draw your flower too close to the edge of the fabric - it makes it more difficult to stitch! I really should know that but didn't notice until I came to stitch it.
  • I love the effect that the paint had on the fabric. It's so uneven and splotchy, and yet stitches up very well!
  • I enjoyed stitching the flowers using the split-back stitch and it didn't take long that my stitches were improving.
  • I really like the stem stitch, so that's what I used for the outlines and the stems.
  • As I mentioned I'm happy that in this instance, the #8 perle cotton was similar to three strands of embroidery floss. I just prefer stitching (and threading) perle cotton!
  • I know that we'll be going back to work on these flowers later because Fleur Woods is all about layering and she believes that more is better 😁
  • Punch needle is a skill that is improved with practice. 
  • Once I got the basics and my work should have been ok, I looked up Oxford Punch Needle on Google and got the exact video that I needed. I figured that my problem was the yarn that I used...and I was correct. 
  • So don't be afraid to search out more information if what you're doing isn't working. Odds are, someone else had the same issues and you'll find it solved somewhere!
  • I love being able to do punch needle from both the back and the front. It also helped me understand what what happening at both ends.
  • I have been stitching much more densely then they recommend when you are making a rug. It will be fun to actually make a small rug at some point.
  • I've registered for a workshop on punch needle next winter. The workshop is with Robin through OOTB. Then I can learn to use punch needle the way that it was meant to be used.
  • Fall Fling was a huge success. People love seeing what we do and I love having an excuse to talk about it.😊
Related links
Linking parties

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 504 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a 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 finished quilting two very lovely Swirling Star Christmas Toppers. Check out her post to see the FMQ from the back!

Swirling Star Christmas Toppers by Kat

Donnalee only has the buttons to add to her Avocado Cat. How cute is that?

Avocado Cat by Donnalee

Dawn of Quilting by Dawn made a gorgeous Circle of Friends quilt for the newlyweds. In the photo you can see the lovely stitching. 

Circle of Friends quilt made by Dawn

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Thursday, July 04, 2024

Outdoor Fibre Art Exhibit “Impermanence / Éphémère”

Hi and welcome! It's been hot and sunny here - perfect for installing our Outdoor Fibre Art Exhibit “Impermanence / Éphémère”. Let's hope that our pieces are not too impermanent and able to withstand the summer weather and wildlife 😊.

“Impermanence / Éphémère”


The vernissage for the exhibit is Friday (tomorrow, July 5th) at the Arbor Gallery in Vankleek Hill, east of Ottawa. I'll be sharing photos of the vernissage and other participants' art work in the next post. 

I finished all of my tasks (see last post) on Monday July 1st , around 6 p.m. and went to Vankleek Hill the next day to install the work. I had some great help from Garnet and it only took a little over an hour. 

The four Prayer Flags and me

Here is "In The Sky, an Outdoor Hanging Sculpture". I'm hoping to have a second part to it - maybe next year!

"In The Sky, an Outdoor Hanging Sculpture"

The three seasonal garden fence art pieces look great against the white of the back rustic door. We have "Raining Pink Petals" at the top (Spring), "Squirrel!" (Summer) in the middle and then "Essence of Leaves" (Fall) at the bottom. 

Three seasonal garden fence art 

This is what the art pieces look like at the back of the building.

Back of the Arbor Gallery

Here are close-up photos of each garden fence art pieces.

"Raining Pink Petals"

"Squirrel!" 

"Essence of Leaves" 

I've created a separate page for my work at the Arbour Gallery. On the back of my business card, I'll have the QR code linking to that page. 

“Impermanence / Éphémère” poster

What I learned
  • I'm so happy that I created that to-do list and included them on my last two posts. It really helped keep me on track. 
  • I did forget to add - Stitch nut shells to the "Squirrel!" piece. I almost forgot but as I was looking at my finished pieces, it came to me....thank goodness. I added a half shell by the squirrel. I had to enlarge a tiny hole on one side to stitch it down but it looks good! 😊
  • The "Squirrel!" piece was my last one and it only took a couple of days. It's a good thing that I had the little squirrel hoop piece to guide me (see previous post).
  • I'm not sure if I was tired and therefor more whimsical (less serious) but I ended up appliquéing all kinds of fun details to "Squirrel!" There is a bunny (of course), lots of butterflies and colourful birds.
  • I was so relieved after hanging the pieces that I spent all of the next day reading and trying to fill up an almost empty fridge!)I should have been writing this post - but I needed the time off!
  • I'm really looking forward to seeing if and how the pieces will change during the summer. At home I haven't had any critters play or try to eat my pieces. I guess we'll see how well behaved these guys are!
Related links
Linking parties

I'm linking up "Squirrel" as my July Favorite Finish with Quilting JetGirl.

Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 488 of Free Motion Mavericks! We've had quite the party going on last week! Thanks so much for linking up your projects. 😍 Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Quilting Gail went to Quilt Canada in Edmonton last week. If you haven't seen her video, I suggest that you take a look. Wow - what amazing quilts! Thanks so much for sharing! 

Here is a quilt that Gail finished in June as part of the Prism Blog Hop.

Prisms by Gail

Gail quilted this one using the Silly Moon Charming & Rocket quilting rulers. 

Details of the quilting on Prisms by Gail

Gretchen of Gretchen's Little Corner makes lovely quilts but doesn't like to quilt them. However, she's quilting her smaller quilts this summer and hoping that she'll get in the grove to quilt a larger one. Good luck Gretchen!

These are Christmas placemats that she finished in January, ready for next Christmas. 

Gretchen's Christmas placemats

Here's my favourite placemat, made from extra hexies from a Tula Pink project. I just love that fabric...and of course the hexies!

Gretchen's hexie placemat

Last week Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué finished her 2023 SAHRR baby quilt. It is so colourful and cute! A Perfect baby quilt.

Frédérique's finished 2023 SAHRR baby quilt.

Details of Frédérique's quilting

Denise also participated in the Prisms Blog Hop with her latest quilt, Tiptoe Through The Pines. What gorgeous fabric and colours!

Denise's Tiptoe Through The Pines.

Denise quilted diagonal lines throughout the center with feathers on the inside border.

Denise FMQ Tiptoe Through The Pines.

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Tuesday, February 06, 2024

Spending Quality Time Slow Stitching

It's already February although outside it feels like spring is in the air. 🌞 Frankly I don't mind if spring comes a few times this year 😊! I've done quite a bit of slow stitching this week and it's been lovely. 

Lots of Hexies


This summer, the #100hexies100days2023 challenge started in August. I started off well but life really got in the way in the fall. Lets face it, 100 days is pretty long! On Instagram, I made it to week 11 with hexies of fruits since I didn't have enough berry fabric 😁 I did make 3 more hexie flowers with Christmas scraps but never did post them. That gets me to week 14 which is one week shy of the 15 for the challenge. I can live with that.

Berries and fruit for week 11

Christmas hexies for three more weeks

These hexie flowers haven't been added to the rest of my scrappy hexie blanket yet because I wanted to fix my very wonky side. This image shows it best. If the top row is relatively even, then the side row is really, really off. 

Side row of double hexie flowers are off!

I undid the last three double hexie flowers. It's not perfect but it's better than it was.

I won't be winning any prizes for accuracy but it's a little better!

This is how much extra hexies I had to add before stitching the double hexie flowers back. 

Trying to make the edge a little straighter

I worked on these hexies for a few days. Since I'm dog sitting Poppy this week, I'll keep working on adding these hexie flowers and making more double flowers.

Daily Meditation Stitching


Actually, this is no longer daily and not always meditative but it is stitching! You may remember the hand-woven tablecloth from Turkey that I'm stitching.  It is coming along, but instead of daily, it's more in spurts.

It's not daily but I did ensure that I stitched the 24th block for my daughter's 30th birthday!

Celebrating my daughter's 30th birthday!

Here are some of my favourites, in no particular order. Sometimes I was experimenting and other times just stitching and playing with the thread.

Playing with variegated thread

Experimenting with variations of the fly stitch

Trying out battlement stitches

Experimenting

Trying to make fly and chain stitches work together.
I haven't succeeded yet!


One Monthly Goal


I have two objectives this month - to quilt my girlfriend's quilt and to finish Falling Swirling Leaves 3. My February OMG is the Falling Swirling Leaves 3 quilt. I worked on it and appliquéd all of the leaves. It's now ready to quilt!
A great way to remember the size of the 
zig-zag stitch that I'm using for the appliqué


A couple of the leaves appliquéd


Exhibition - Chez Lucien Restaurant in Ottawa


Some members of the Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre artists are exhibiting at the Chez Lucien Restaurant in the market. I have a wonderful lunch with my girlfriend, and we were surrounded by some very lovely art. 


Wall art at Chez Lucien

Do you recognize the birds in Home to Feed?


What I learned
  • If it looks like I have trouble establishing a routine, especially when it comes to stitching, then looks are not deceiving. I've never been a routine person, so why would I expect to be one now?
  • I don't need a plan to stitch or quilt every day because that is what I do - and when I don't, it's usually because I need a rest. I am learning to listen to my body.
  • I do know that I have to bring more interesting thread from the studio to the living room where I do all of my slow stitching. That does help me stay motivated.
  • I undid the double flowers on the hexie blanket and then proceeded to stitch them back pretty much the way that they had originally been. The problem is that they look like they are in a straight line. It's just compared to the other line that they are not straight. Besides, try to make a straight line with hexies! 😁 
  • I had a wonderful lunch at Chez Lucien. It's so cool to see my art on the wall! The other members of the OOTB also had some great pieces.
  • Poppy is not impressed with me - I've been writing this post instead of playing with her! Thank goodness that a few treats will set things right.
  • Did you see the Project Quilting challenge this week? The theme is inside out. I really have to think this one through!

Related links

Linking parties
I'll be linking up to the February One Monthly Goal (OMG) as well as many other parties. Why not check them out? Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 



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