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

• First Nation Space on Free Motion Mavericks, June 16, 2022
• Coneflowers and books on Free Motion Mavericks, June 30, 2022

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

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

• Summer Book Club Quilt-Along
• Kate Basti on Instagram
  

  

  Summer Book Club QAL of 2019
  
  

• Tall Tales pattern
• Posts using the Tall Tales pattern
  
• Nifty Novelties Blog Hop at Free Motion Mavericks, October 24, 2019
• Fantastical book block on Free Motion Mavericks, October 10, 2019
• Book covers with Free Motion Mavericks, September 25, 2019

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!

Mallard Duck Mini Finish with Free Motion Mavericks

Even without my favourite sewing machine, I was able to sew and quilt with the walking foot, my son's Mallard Duck mini. When I showed it to him, he said that he would find a spot for this one and the other two that I've made for him.

Finishing the Mallard Duck

As you saw in my Making a Mallard Duck Mini post, the foundation paper piecing went well. I always manage to make at least one piece that doesn't have enough selvage but I'm really good at problem solving 😊  I would have loved to go crazy with the free motion quilting (FMQ) but this little guy got off easy.

Finished Mallard Duck mini 

In a previous life I was a planner, but you wouldn't know it based on most of my quilting. I had planned to use my extended-border binding technique where I extend the backing fabric to make the binding, but I wasn't thrilled with the backing fabric as a binding. I ended up trimming the piece but if I had through it through, I would have added at least a half inch to the outside so that my binding would be wide enough to look like a frame. 

Carefully measuring the binding for a ½" frame

So, more problem solving to be done. I cut the binding fabric 2" wide but didn't double it. Instead I very carefully measured the front of the binding so that it would be a ½" wide all around the piece. I should be measuring my binding all the time since I tend to have some wider areas. Accuracy and consistency are not my strengths but that doesn't mean that I can't try!😊

Looking for that perfect button

When it came time to choose the perfect button, I went to my giant jar of buttons. I thought that it was a good idea to have all of my buttons in one jar (and it looks good too!) but having to find one tiny button in that jar might not be the most efficient way of storing them...

Writing the label on fabric backed
with freezer paper

The back of the mini

In case you don't know this trick, the next time you need to write up a label, iron a piece of freezer paper to the back of the fabric. It will stabilize the fabric so that it's easy to write on.

What I learned

• I'm really happy with my finished Mallard Duck mini. I spent a lot of time getting the binding to be the same width so that it looks like a frame.
• Sometimes I make fancy labels but I kept this one simple. Using the freezer paper really helps me write on the fabric.
• I'm not sure what I'm going to do with my button jar. It's not like I need buttons very often, so it may not be worth changing it...again!
• I would have loved to FMQ this little guy - I even found a great picture to follow to make it realistic. Oh well, maybe the next one.

Related links

• Making a Mallard Duck Mini, November 17, 2021
•  Extended-border binding technique
• A loon, a bear and a binding tutorial, November 25, 2018
• Made by Marney website and her patterns on Etsy

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Check them out! November's One Monthly Goal (OMG) Finish,  Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Put Your Foot Down, Off The Wall Friday, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2021, Needle & Thread Thursday, 

Project details

Mallard Duck Mini, pattern by Made By Marney

8¾" X 8¼"

Materials: commercial and batik cotton, button

Techniques: foundation paper piecing and quilting with a walking foot 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 358 of the Free Motion Mavericks' linking party. Last time, Donnalee linked up her red birds on an improv background. She FMQ her background with a serpentine design. It looks very effective. If you didn't see her post, check it out here. She also discovered that using safety pins is a good way to keep her quilt sandwich together. What do you use to keep things together (if you're not using a long-arm)?

DonnaleeQ: Red Birds Improv

Now it's your turn.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Making a Mallard Duck Mini

About a year and a half ago, I promised my son a third mini for his apartment entrance. My timing is off since he’s moving in a few weeks to another apartment. I really hope that he’ll have somewhere to hang up, or even use these as mug rugs.

Foundation Paper Piecing a Mallard Duck

I’ve used a few of "Made by Marney" foundation paper piecing patterns. I particularly like her Woodland Animals series. 

Mallard Duck mini - so far

I love this little guy. As you can see, I haven’t cropped it yet.

Since my Jag is still in the shop and will be for another few weeks, I decided to do some basic quilting with my walking foot. It went ok. I had a hard time seeing if the stitching was going in-the-ditch or next to it. It was generally good enough – it’s not my favourite thing to do and frankly I’m only slightly better at it with my Jag 😊

Un-stitching the quilting

I got ambitious late one evening when I should have known better. I decided to use my walking foot to follow the not-so gentle curves of the water. Of course I wanted to get right to it, and didn’t adjust my stitch length, which would have been fine if the stitching had been good, but as it was terrible, I had one heck of a time un-stitching it.

I remembered a tip from Jackie Gering in her Craftsy class, Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot. If you are very, very careful, you can remove your quilting stitches with your rotary cutter. You just very gently rub the edge of the rotary cutter over the stitches, between the batting and the fabric. I figured that I had nothing to lose, because if I couldn’t un-stitch it, I was going to re-do part of the piece (I’m not sure if that was possible, but I would have started over if that’s what it took!) I’m very happy to report that it worked wonderfully. You can see the results in this image. 

Once it’s pressed, I’m sure that it'll be fine. The next step is to practice on a quilt sandwich. I know that I can follow the curve of the fabric if I’m very, very patient. That’s not my forte, so I’ll have to be in a good place 😊

Bear Foundation Paper Pieced,
pattern by Made by Marney

This little piece is my November One Monthly Goal (OMG), so I’ll finish quilting it with my walking foot.  I’ll post the results on my next Free Motion Mavericks post (it’ll be a couple of days early, but I’m hoping you won’t mind!)

What I learned

• I’m sure that when I started quilting the curves that a voice in my head suggested that I not do it....but it didn’t scream and I wasn’t listening....so now I know that I can use my rotary cutter to un-stitch the quilting.
• I hope that my son will put up this third mini along with the others. Now that he won’t be living alone, it will have to be negotiated! I may have to make a couple more for his girlfriend...but I won’t suggest it since that could take me another few years (sigh).
• For some eye candy, here are a couple of minis that I've made with patterns by Made by Marney.
• I’m using my old sewing machine. It’s a Kenmore from the 1980’s. In theory it can do FMQ. I lowered the feed dogs but it’s very difficult to get the quilt to glide – now I know why they invented products like the Supreme Slidder. I’ve never had an issue with this on my jag, but then, it is a jag! 

Moose Foundation Paper Pieced,
pattern by Made by Marney

Related links

• Made by Marney and her Etsy shop
• Jackie Gering's Craftsy class, Creative Quilting With Your Walking Foot
• November's OMG - All for One, November 3, 2021

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Let's see what everyone is up to! Midweek Makers, Patchwork & Quilts, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Put your foot down, Off the Wall Friday, Oh Scrap!, 

I've linked up this post on DrEAMi. If you want to see the finished project, my latest post will be published Tuesday, November 30 at 8pm. is here!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 356 of Free Motion Mavericks. It's been a long time since I hosted my last party. It was good to have a rest, thanks to Muv, but now we will be resuming our regular fortnight schedule.

Thanks to all of you who linked up. It's always difficult to choose one quilt to feature and I do try to feature quilts and quilters who are at different levels on their journey to mastering FMQ. However, I had to feature Sandra's Fleurs quilt. What a beauty! She does all of her FMQ on a long arm, but she's the one in charge 😊!  You can see the whole quilt in Sandra's post. I really had to show you the details...Wow!

Fleurs by Sandra at mmmquilts

Now it's your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Book covers with Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to the Free Motion Mavericks (week 248) link up.

New book covers to be FMQ

These aren't fabric covers for books, but rather two foundation paper-pieced book blocks with FMQ covers 😊

I was able to piece these two Tall Tales book blocks during my holidays. Next comes the appliqué on one of them and some Free Motion Quilted (FMQ) flowers on the other. I'm sure that both will end up being heavily quilted by the time I'm finished!

Book cover to be appliqued to make a whimsical forest

Book cover to be FMQ with flowers

Summer Book Club QAL
with Kate Basti of Quilt with Kate

I made these blocks through the Summer Book Club Quilt-Along. I've only finished two books to date but you may want to take a look at the awesome quilts that are being done in the Quilt-Along (see the Instagram link is Related links).

Bambi book 

The Earth is not flat book

What I learned

• Making these two blocks was much easier and smoother than making the first batch - practice does help!
• I only remembered to use the Extended-Border Binding technique for the second book. I'll be doing a traditional binding for the first one. I'm looking forward to comparing the results of the two.

Related links

• Summer Book Club QAL on Intragram with Quilt with Kate (quiltwithkate.com)
• Tall Tales pattern
• Relaxing & playing, July 1, 2019
• Extended-border binding technique and tutorial

Linking parties
I'll be linking this post to many linky parties. Why not check them out? And remember to link up to Free Motion Mavericks - it doesn't have to be FMQ. Midweek Makers, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Moving It Forward, Main Crush Monday,Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down,

Free Motion Mavericks

Thanks to everyone who linked up last time. I want to highlight Dione's lovely Crazed Diamond quilt. If you didn't see it last time, do check out her award winning FMQ.

Crazed Diamonds by Dione of the Clever Chameleon

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Relaxing and Playing

With its deadlines and general busyness, June was a pretty difficult month. I'm glad that the rush is over, but I'm sorry to see spring come to an end. I just love the cool weather and the beautiful early flowers - now it looks like the heat and humidity is back! Oh well, if I can't play in the garden, I'll just have to play indoors with my fabrics 😊

Playing with hexies and embroidery

I've finally taken a little bit of time to add to my embroidery. I'm not even keeping track of the Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) since I won't be catching up anytime soon. But who says that it needs to be done in one year? Certainly not our host, Sharon of Pintangle. I really appreciate her posts laid back attitude, and encouragement.

Page 3 - Buttonhole wheel stitch

I love how there buttonhole wheels play so well with each other. It almost looks like they belongs in the sea. This was my One Thing With Amy post  last week on Instagram. I did get it done - now I have to remember to actually post it!

Buttonhole Wheels (week 13)

Page 4 - Feather stitch (in progress)

I started this page this morning, while enjoying my coffee in the back yard. I'm going to play with variations of the Feather stitch.

Feather stitch (week 5) in progress

Page 2 - Herringbone stitch

After not knowing how to proceed with Page 1, I decided to add some hexies to break up the stitching and add a focus to the page. This page contains different sizes of herringbone stitches.

Herringbone stitches (week 6)

Page 1 - Chain stitch

The Chain stitch page may not be pretty but it sure holds many types of chain stitches. There is the Chain stitch (week 1), the Detached Chain stitch (week 7), the Cable Chain stitch (week 14), and the Butterfly Chain stitch (week 15).

All kinds of Chain stitches

Important Notice! I just found out that #100hexies100days2019 has already started on Instagram. I just love looking at everyone's very artfully arranged hexies. It's so much fun. Anyway, I'll be joining in once a week and will write a couple of posts during the event!

Summer Book Club Quilt-Along

I'm participating in the Summer Book Club QAL on Instagram with Kate Basti of Quilt with Kate. I'm only on my second book but it's a really cute foundation paper pieced pattern called Tall Tales. It's very affordable and all proceeds from this pattern benefit the Columbus Literacy Council.

I really love seeing everyone's books on Instagram. They are so lovely.

Here are my two books so far. Instead of making a quilt, I'm making minis (of course!) Most of these will be cubicle minis for my colleagues, friends and family 😊 and the bonus is that these are great to practice FMQ.

This first book was made because it was the first cute fabric that I found.

Bambi book inspired by the fabric

FMQ flowers

"The Earth is Not Flat" book for my son

This second book was made for my son, the science guy in our family. I was going to call it "The Earth is No Longer Flat", but I knew that there wouldn't be enough space on the book spine and of course my son would have argued that the Earth was never flat - and I certainly didn't have space for "The Earth is No Longer Perceived as Flat!" :-)

FMQ stars and planets

One Monthly Goal (OMG) for July

My OMG for July is to finish the quilt top from last year's Kingfisher Stitch-Along,










What I learned

• It's good to be playing around with quilting and FMQ.
• You may have noticed that I join a lot of quilt-alongs and such but often don't get much done. I really like love to try new things and as long as I keep my expectations small (like minis and occasional posts) then I feel that I've gotten a lot out of them. Each activity, hosted by dedicated people, has lots to offer. I appreciate all of the work that goes into organising these events.
• For all of the events that I do participate in, there are many more that I bypass. I'm finally getting to know what I'll enjoy doing and what will end up being just one more obligation....she can learn!

Happy Canada Day!

Related links

• Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) with Sharon of Pintangle
• One Thing Challenge (#onethingwithamy) on Instagram with Amy's Creative Side
• Slow Stitching Update, April 13, 2019
• 100 Days of Fun with Hexies, August 22, 2018
• Summer Book Club QAL on Intragram with Quilt with Kate (quiltwithkate.com)
• Tall Tales pattern
• Kingfisher Stitch-Along: Embroidery, Art and Hexies in Florence, December 26, 2018

Remember to come back on
Thursday to link up!

Linking parties

I'm linked up my books to mmm quilts! DrEAMi link-up and linking up to July's Goal Setting for OMG. I will be linking up this post to many fun linking parties. Let's go see what's going on! What I Made Monday, Moving it Forward, Design Wall Monday, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Free Motion Mavericks with Muv, Midweek Maker, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Needle & Thread Thursday, Slow Sunday Stitching, Off The Wall Friday, TGIFF, Finished Or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun,