Showing posts with label improvisational piecing. Show all posts

Thursday, September 18, 2025

Scrappy Neutral Placemats

Hi and welcome 😊 I'm still away on vacation but technology is allowing me to schedule these posts. If all goes well...(and of course it will!), when you read this, I'll be on the Atlantic Ocean, making my way to Portugal. Once we finish our cruise, we are spending a few days in Denmark with my brother, SIL and niece. I'm mentioning them because this post is about the gifts that I made for them before leaving.

What do you bring with you from home when you don't have much room in your luggage? Scrappy placemats of course!

Scrappy Neutral Placemats

Here are the three scrappy neutral placemats that I made. Each is finished differently.

Three neutral placemats - ready to leave 😉

This placemat is the least neutral...which of course means that it's my favourite!

The most colourful of the neutral placemats

The next two placemats are scrappier. For one of them, I sewed up strips into sections, slashed them, rotated and then added the diagonal strips. The other one has the diagonal strip in the side corner.

Scrappier neutral placemats

The most neutral of the placemats

There are three different bindings on the placemats. The top one is a yellow tone-on-tone fabric and I ended up binding it totally by machine. I did manage to miss a few spots on one side, so I'll be bringing the thread with me and hand-stitching those spots. I cut the binding at 2¼". I'm sure that it would have been fine if I hadn't been so stressed (I finished it the day before leaving!).

For the other two placemats I found brown binding fabric in my stash that had already been cut at 2½". The placemat with the centre diagonal went on great and I stitched it by hand. If you look closely to the third one (with the side diagonal), you'll see that I managed to sew the binding on to the wrong side of the placemat. In theory it shouldn't make a difference but it did. I stitched that one by machine.

FMQ the Placemats

Here are a few pictures of the FMQ. For the two scrappy placemats I used my walking foot to create straight and diagonal lines, and then added FMQ for a bit of curves and zing.

Free motion and walking foot quilting

More Free motion and walking foot quilting

FMQ in the spaces between the walking foot lines
as well as a feather near the top

FM and walking foot quilting as seen from the back

The last placemat I made is entirely FMQ. My intention was to lightly FMQ it... but that's not what happened 😁 I FMQ most of it, bound it and then finished quilting it.

FMQ details of the most colourful neutral placemat

What I learned

The first two placemats were made and finished a while back but I only finished the last one the day before leaving - not a good idea since I had so much to do.
I do love how they came out. I think that this is the first time that I used the walking foot so extensively and then added FMQ. I really love the effect.
I find that straight lines are harsher - that's why most of my FMQ is made up of curves. It lightens things up!

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some of these out after you've linked up below? Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, Sew & Tell, Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 549 of Free Motion Mavericks! I hope that you're having a good party without me 😎! I will be reading your posts and comments but since I don't have my laptop, I'll be skipping the features while I'm gone. Have a great week!

It's 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!

Thursday, August 29, 2024

International Dog Day and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! Monday was International Dog Day and Susan is holding her annual party. I've been making scrappy mats and since I'm addicted, I thought that I'd make a mat to fit under Poppy's water bowl so that she could appreciate it when she visits. 😁

Scrappy Mat for Poppy

I was out of town (more about that in a special post) so I didn't have time to free motion quilt (FMQ) the mat yet. Since I watched many of the videos last week from the FMQ Summit, I want my scrappy mats to be quilting in designs that I learned during the summit. I've been practicing one of the designs by drawing it but it's taken quite a few pages to get it right! Hopefully I'll have my scrappy mats quilted for you soon!

Front of the scrappy Poppy mat 🐕

Back of the scrappy Poppy mat 🐶

Poppy hasn't visited since I made the mat, so there's no picture of Poppy with the mat, but I do have lots of Poppy pictures! If you're wondering, Poppy is my son and his fiancé's dog.

Poppy really wanting a treat 😀

Poppy chilling in the sun in my back yard

Poppy's coy look 😍

Poppy with her Rocky Raccoon toy!

Poppy's water bowl (made by my daughter) on her new mat

Poppy's water bowl on the back side of the mat

Here is the other scrappy improv mat that I made last week. Once more I used an orphan block and just added fun fabric to finish it off. It's finished off pillowcase style and is now ready to FMQ.

A second scrappy improv mat ready for FMQ

What I learned

I checked to see if Canada was also celebrating National Dog Day and it turns out that it's an international celebration, so Happy International Dog Day (on August 26!) Hope you had a chance to hug your/a dog!😊
I've had a great time making scrappy improv mats. I used the lovely fat quarter paw print fabric as well as other scraps, including the centre piece which is from a panel. I know that I have many other doggy fabric scraps....but I'm not sure where they are! When I stumble upon them, I'll put them where they now belong. 🐕
I used the pillowcase method to finish both mats. It's such an easy finish and once it's stitched ⅛" from the edge and the opening is closed, there's nothing left to do but FMQ.
I'm thrilled to say that I remembered my lesson learned for doing a pillowcase finish - what ever is facing the front will be the back!
I also learned a valuable lesson when I made my first half-square triangle block! I thought that I was doing so well not having to look up how to make them....well, if you check out the front of Poppy's mat, you'll see at there are two half-square triangle blocks. The one on top was made first, and it has a half-square triangle block made up of the same fabric 😁! The second block, with two different fabrics, was made after I remembered to use two different fabrics!
So the lesson is: use two different fabrics facing each other to make half-square triangle blocks. I'm sure that you don't need the reminder so this is for me!

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 496 of Free Motion Mavericks! Wow! What a productive week! It's a long featured section but well worth it! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué made another of her lovely baby quilts - Baby Quilt Floralies - to donate. I really love this pattern and just might have to make one too! Frédérique quilted-in-the-ditch around the blocks and border and then quilted straight lines in the outside border. She also made her quilt gender-neutral by using both blue and pink for her binding.


Frédérique's Baby Quilt Floralies

Frédérique quilted the outside border - very effective!

I think that Gail of Quilting Gail had lots of fun making these two Elephant quilts for the It's a Jungle Blog Hop! They are so cute. All the quilting was FMQ with echoing the elephant shapes and stippling the elephants themselves.

Gail's two elephant quilts

Margo Young of MY Quilts and Crafts made a really striking wall hanging using a new alphabet pattern. You'll have to check out her post to learn more! Margo used straight line quilting to finish it off.

Margo's alphabet quilt

Deb the Scrappy Quilter had a very productive week finishing up quilts and picking cherries! The string quilt is the twin of the peak that we had last week of her finished quilt. The blocks were quilting with a large zig-zag design.

Deb's string blocks quilted with a large zig-zag design

Deb's string quilt looks like jewels set in the quilt!

Deb's yellow Irish Chain scrappy quilt

Preeti of Sew Preeti has shared her Blush Quilt which she made in the 2024 Pantone Colour. Preeti loves to play with colour values and it shows! What lovely gradation of peach!

Preeti's lovely Blush Quilt

Last week Melva was able to reveal her 50th Anniversary Quilt. It's lovely and was obviously greatly appreciated. What a great idea to have messages on the quilt of the couple's siblings.

Melva's message and signature 50th Anniversary Quilt

Anne-Marie of Stories from the Quilting Room custom quilted a customer's Looper Quilt. Since it was to enter in a show, Anne-Marie went all out! It's another Wow quilt! She used individual FMQ motifs for the coloured strip sections and then went all out in the background!

Anne-Marie's custom quilted client quilt

Anne-Marie's custom quilted graffiti-style FMQ

Carla of Hawk Studios is working hard to get those deadlines done, and it includes lots of FMQ! She's been FMQ this quilt to enter it into the fall show. I know that she had lots of fun FMQ among the flowers 😊

Carla FMQ among the flowers

Carla FMQ in the sashing

Sally of Crafts, Cavies and Cooking has just finished a lovely quilted jacket that she made using a sweatshirt. Sally will be entering it into her local fair. She used two different sets of fabric and it looks great!

Sally's quilted jacket made with a sweatshirt

The inside of Sally's jacket - check out the quilting
and the amazing finish!

I hope that you've been inspired by all of this eye-candy. It makes me want to play with FMQ!😍 It's now your turn.

Saturday, March 30, 2024

March Table Scraps Challenge finish and April's OMG

Hi and welcome 😎 I got to play in my back yard today - it's cool but sunny and the bulbs are just coming out - so the perfect time to clean up leaves and dried plants. One more afternoon and it'll be done! Today I'm sharing my finished Table Scraps Challenge 2024 and April's One Monthly Goal (OMG).

Purple Scrappy Improv Placemat Finish

I'm sorry that I've been dragging this out but it's finally done 😍. I hope that Sarah will love it cause I really love it and will steal it from her is she doesn't 😁! What's not to love about so much purple?

Purple scrappy improv placemat finished!

Over the last two years I've used the Table Scraps Challenge to make a set of placemats. The first one was mine (blue), then my daughter (yellow) and Hubby (green). Now Sarah gets the purple and whenever we reach neutral, that will be for my son.

All four scrappy improv placemats

I made the table smaller so that I could take a good picture!

All four placemats on the small table

You can see the evolution of my improv piecing through the placemats. The first blue one was only scrappy. The yellow and green one were a little more improv but the purple is much more improvisational. It was fun to work with shapes other than squares and rectangles.

Evolution of the improv in the scrappy placemats

Here are some pictures of the free motion quilting (FMQ).

More FMQ with a variety of thread

FMQ a sun or flower

FMQ the outline of a bird - this month's theme

I used many different thread to FMQ this piece. It didn't start off as intentional. I started with a darker variegated King Tut but it was more red than purple. I then switched to a lighter variegated King Tut. I then remembered that I had this new Fantastico polyester thread. Unfortunately it didn't play nicely with the cotton bobbin thread, so I switched to a Madeira polyneon in both the bobbin and top. That was different but lots of fun!

I used 5 different type and colour thread

I found a long piece of solid dark purple binding in my binding box. Yeah - that's twice now that I get to use up binding from my stash.

Purple binding from my binding scrap box

April's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

At the beginning of May, the Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Artist group will be having our annual Fibre Fling. Since we had a Fall Fling, I only have one piece for the show. I've got a great idea (I hope) for the second piece. It will involve a vase of tulips that is partially quilted and partially 3D, using wire and fibre with glue and hand-stitching. The piece needs to be finished by the end of the month and I'll share what I have - hopefully a successful finish but always about learning!😉