Showing posts with label hand-stitching. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Slow Stitching and an extended I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊I didn't get any FMQ done this week but I played with thread, fabric, and slow stitching. I think I needed the calm that it brings. Please note that I'll be going away on a personal art retreat next week. Since I won't have access to the internet for my computer, I'm going to extend the linking party for an extra week. Also, the linking party for September's A Quilter's Cove QAL will take place on Saturday, October 3rd.

Mini Stitch Block

I have been reading a lot about art lately. On the Take Two blog, I read this very interesting article, "How to bring a sense of place into your art." Debbie Lyddon suggests that you sit quietly and observe a place, rather than reach for your camera. Here is an exercise that she suggests. In a place that you already know, spend 10 minutes and write down three sounds, two textures and one memory that the place brings up.

These are the notes I took on my phone (without taking pictures).

3 sounds: the leaves singing in the wind, bird chirping and crickets.

2 textures: long grass and cement blocks

1 memory: feeding the animals.

Here's what I came up with. A little piece that finishes at 5" x 5".

Backyard Senses - an impressionist fibre art collage

The piece started off with a white flannel back to which I attached the hand-dyed scraps. I used a variety of thread - shiny green rayon floss for the flower stems, shiny gold rayon for the leaves in the tree, and hand-dyed perle cotton. To illustrate the cement, I needle wove a little block.

After the embroidery and the bird appliqué, I used sewing thread to stitch the background with running stitch. I also added wool roving for the cloud.

I found a 5" x 7" canvas that I've attaching it to. It was probably the most difficult part since I looked online and they don't recommend using watercolour paints directly on canvas. I looked into my paint and ink supplies and found some Liquitex Acrylic ink that could work. That's what I worked on tonight - I was just too impatient to wait. I added Prussian blue ink to the front, sides and back edge of the canvas and then mounted the piece onto it.

Backyard Senses - attached to the painted canvas

What I learned

I'm sure that I could take this sense of space further but it was interesting to think about including sound and texture into the work.
I wanted to get the feel of the wind blowing in the leaves and the texture of grass and cement.
It was the first time that I used my rayon thread. They were at hand and I didn't want to hunt down anything specific. I'm glad that I took the time to play with them.
I'm hoping to work on this concept on little pieces like the one I did. They are fun, forgiving and take just an investment in thinking and a few hours of stitching.
After all of the quilting that I've done this summer, I'm going to give myself permission to play and experiment with art. 😍
I enjoyed working with the Liquitex Acrylic ink and it dries very quickly. When I painted the sides, it made a mess on the back edge of the canvas, so I carefully painted that. Next time I'll make sure to paint everything before attaching my piece.
As I mentioned, this linking party will be on for two weeks while the Quilter's Cove QAL linking party will start on Saturday, October 3rd.

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.

Gretchen of Gretchen's Little Corner is busy quilting baby quilts. What a lovely Berenstein Bears Baby Quilt with Framed Squares. Check out her simple but effective quilting. She started by stitching-in-the-ditch and then quilted around the insides of the squares and then added half orange peels.

Gretchen's Berenstein Bears Baby Quilt

Details of the quilting on the back of Gretchen's baby quilt

Sally from Crafts, Cavies and Cooking made a very lovely string backpack to replace an old one. She backed the blocks with fabric and stitched some wavy lines to keep it all together.

A lovely new string backpack by Sally

Sandra from mmm quilts made another lovely quilt. This one, Biblioasis, has some great book themed fabric in it. You'll want to check out her blog for more information on her FMQ and her quilt!

Biblioasis by Sandra

Yummy details of Sandra's FMQ on Biblioasis

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps finished her Little Lala quilt that she made for her QAL. It's so lovely! She used the same quilting motif as her grandmother, except that it was machine quilted. Check out her post for more details.

Melva's Little Lala quilt

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, September 05, 2024

Floral Fusion and hand-stitching on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! The daylight is getting shorter, the nights are cooler and I'm a very happy stitcher. I've been spending lots of time in my backyard - a little bit of gardening but mostly enjoying the wildlife and stitching quietly. This is what I envisioned retirement to be. 😎 Let's see what I've been up to.

Floral Fusion

This is a sew along with Denise of The Quiltery. I try to participate in Denise's events whenever I can. Floral Fusion is perfect for me - appliqué, simple and scrappy. I've made the first set of blocks and am in the process of getting the second set done.

Block 10, the first two

Four of the first block (10) that was released

Join in the fun - there are many blocks left to go!

Floral Fusion

There's not much to say about the process except that I dug into my "floral bin" of fat quarters and choose some older fabric that plays well together. I'm hoping to have enough but I may have to raid other bins. I have floral fabric in pretty much every bin but the "floral bin" contains mostly the fabrics that have multiple colours, so don't really fit in my bins by colour.

I have had to re-do a few of the fusible webbing since I sometimes forget to place it on the back of the fabric! When I get lucky, I notice before I've ironed it on!!!

Hand-stitching/Embroidery

I hesitate to call some of my hand-stitching embroidery because I kind of make it up as I go - so some of the stitches are not recognizable as specific stitches - and I'm totally OK with that!

Stitching on paper

A few weeks ago I eco-printed on paper. Since the eco-printing is pretty good, but not as a composition, I've cut out some of the prints to stitch on. This is the first one.

Stitching on my eco-printed paper

Almost Daily Stitching 2024

This started as a Daily Stitching project in January but it didn't take me long to realise that when it comes to my art, daily is not in my vocabulary. I do what I want, when I want and I am all over the place - that's me and I've stopped fighting it.

So, I did a post in January and then mentioned the project in my First Quarter Check-in. There hasn't been an update since my first post, so here are some of the blocks. I am now more than a quarter (25%) done.

This is what the tablecloth looks like now

I took a few pictures on my swing.

The left side of the tablecloth

The right side of the tablecloth

The pictures below were taken as I was stitching outside this week. For inspiration I looked on the web and found Kitty Wilkin's (aka Night Quilter) #1yearofstitches from 2017. I absolutely love the work that she did and have used some of her stitches as inspiration. The top block is inspired by her while the block underneath are stitches that I've done with extra thread. I'm having difficulty threading a needle, so I try to use it all up before changing colours. This worked out really well.

Learning the Hungarian
Chain Stitch

Two completed blocks

Here is a close-up of some of my stitching.

Close-up of my Almost Daily Stitching 2024

What I learned

I've really enjoyed making the first block of the Floral Fusion pattern. I do have to remember to iron the fusible web to the back of the fabric!
When stitching on eco-printed paper, I mostly follow the lines, but I realised that I am free to stitch anything, anywhere. That is very liberating!
You may notice that I'm all over the place when it comes to projects and techniques. What can I say....I get bored and distracted easily 😁 I have decided though that I want to keep working on and learning more about hand-stitching and embroidery. Before committing to an expensive course (that sounds amazing!) I want to spend time to see if my interest will last longer than a few days - so far so good.
As I mentioned above, I don't try to do anything "daily" anymore. I do what I want, when I want and I am all over the place - that's me and I've stopped fighting it.
I hope that you'll check out Kitty Wilkin's (aka Night Quilter) #1yearofstitches from 2017. Her work is colourful, all over the place and gorgeous! The links to her website and Instagram are below.
For stitching on my tablecloth, I now use a hoop. It's not for the tension - it's to help me find where I am on the piece!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 497 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a lovely productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Gail of Quilting Gail is now an affiliate with Silly Moon Quilting rulers. She highlighted some of the quilts that she's done with the various Silly Moon rulers. What not check them out and see if you'd like to use Silly Moon Rulers too!

Row by Row quilted with the "Beanie" rulers to make
a Baptist Fan design without marking!

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made this really lovely Pumpkin Mini. She stippled the background and then did lovely dot-to-dot FMQ in the stars and pumpkin. I love what she FMQ in the leaves!

Vicki's Pumpkin Mini

Vicki FMQ some lovely flowing lines in the leaves

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has her Diva quilt pattern available in her Etsy Store. This is a lovely, colourful quilt that was in the Make Modern magazine. She finished it using her signature squiggly stitch.