Rainbow Neighbourhood Finish and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome😎. It's difficult to start my post without mentioning the local weather, so I'll stop trying! I feel like I'm finally having my almost perfect summer. Yes, there is the possibility of rain every couple of days but it doesn't last more than 2 days. The weather is cool and perfect at night while the days are not as hot, except for a little bit of humidex - which means that I can do my all-time favourite thing - have my first and second cups of coffee outside. Yay! Now for the quilting part😀

A Rainbow Neighbourhood Finish

It's 99% done at the time of publishing this post. It will be completely done by the end of August, but probably before. Today (Wednesday) since I write my post and then publish it on Thursday at midnight, I have to get the quilt mostly done so that I can take those important outside pictures. There are now only minor teal, blue and green FMQ left to do. Not much but you know that even a few inches of FMQ can take a long time.

Photo of finished Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt

Here are close-up photos of the top and bottom rows of the houses.

Top left of the first two rows of the quilt

Top right of the first two rows of the quilt

Bottom left of the second and third rows of the quilt

Bottom right of the second and third rows of the quilt

I want to thank Sandra Walker of mmm quilts for hosting the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL in 2023. I went through all of my posts to track my progress and added them below to the Related links. It's been a lot of work and overall, a lot of fun.😃

FM Embroidered Label

If you've been following me lately, you know that I've been procrastinating a bit but it all got done in the end. Last week I watched the Free Motion Quilting Summit 2026 and made my first FM embroidered label. It mostly came out well, until I messed it up 😒

I started by cutting fabric, folding it into a triangle and inserting a sheet of interfacing between the two triangles. I then used a FriXion pen to mark lines to write on, and a centre line to help keep it centered.

Preparing a FM embroidered label for the back corner 

I wrote out the message with the heat erasable pen and copied it, going over each letter three times. It's in French and I may have made spelling mistakes but it's from the heart!

FM embroidered the message

I attached it to the quilt before putting on the binding, but unfortunately, not before finishing the FMQ. 

Oops!

Here's the culprit.

And I thought that I was doing so well! 

I'll be stitching down the bottom of the label and adjusting the binding - attaching a little bit of the label that didn't make it under the binding and fixing the corner binding. Except for this and one other tiny section, the binding went on great. Practice does help!

One final detail

As I was marking the last roof to be FMQ, I realised that I would be having an issue with bunching. So I'm thrilled to say that I remembered what I had learned  when that last happened. I sewed down all of the horizontal lines before FMQ the clam shell shapes for the roof tiles. It worked beautifully. 

I also had an oops moment stitching one of the horizontal lines and had a bit of a hiccup. So once I was FMQ the actual clam shells I remembered another class that I watched on the Free Motion Quilting Summit 2026. The teacher was showing us how to FMQ all kinds of rainbows and variations. Since the clam shells are the beginning of the rainbow, I remembered that she FMQ a heart within the centre. So, I did that, and then realised that I could backtrack and add a little heart where I had my hiccup! Can you see them in the image below?

A couple of hearts FMQ within the roof tiles.

What I learned (or remembered)

• As I just mentioned, I was thrilled to remember to sew horizontal lines before stitching the roof with clam shells. It really stabilized the fabric - no bunching.
• I mostly FMQ by thread colour. That means that I'll do everything in one thread colour before switching out the colour. I often find another something that I should have quilted but it's less of a hassle than always switching thread colours. That's why I have a little bit of teal, blue and green details left to FMQ. 
• The binding went on by machine very well. I only have a few minor sections to fix. It was worth practicing last week.
• I'm going to get as much as I can finished tonight (since it's still early and this  post is almost done). I want to finish it to give to our friends but also to keep working on other projects. 
• I'll be posting on Saturday for the Quilter's Cove SAL - this month's colour is yellow. I've gone through my scraps and found many interesting things. I guess you'll find out on Satureday which type of house I'm making🏠

Related links

• FMQ Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt
• Some Procrastination and I Quilted This! August 20, 2026
• Blue Jays Fan and I Quilted This! August 06, 2026
• Getting Things Done and I Quilted This! July 23, 2026
• Slow Progress and I Quilted This!, July 16, 2026
• This and that and I Quilted This! July 09, 2026
• Another Week Already? and I Quilted This!, June 24, 2026
• A Finished Flimsy, FMQ, slow stitching and I Quilted This!, June 18, 2026
• Flitting from Project to Project and I Quilted This! June 11, 2026
• A finish, June's OMG and I Quilted This!, June 04, 2026

• Making the quilt top
• Final Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt Top, June 28, 2023
• Rainbow Neighbourhood Flimsy mostly done!, June 15, 2023
• Rainbow Neighbourhood Houses Finished, June 08, 2023
• Rainbow Neighbourhood Houses 5 and 6, May 11, 2023
• Rainbow Neighbourhood Houses - Blocks 2 to 4, April 25, 2023
• Block 1 of the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL, April 08, 2023
• Link to the Rainbow Neighbourhood pattern by Sandra of mmm quilts
• Quilt Labels - Permanent handwriting with FMQ by Mary Go Round Quilts
• Rainbows for Days - Ursula Almeida (UrsulaMakes)
• Free Motion Quilting Summit 2026 is over but you can check out the teachers and their links

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the August One Monthly Goal (OMG) and Favorite Quilt Finish. You may want to check some of these out! Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Monday Musings, 

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. 

Janine of Rainbow Hare quilted her Grannies without borders quilt. What a happy gorgeous quilt. You'll want to check out her post for some lovely pictures. I promise you it's worth it!

Janine's Grannies without borders

Terry of On Going Projects quilted up a fun mug rug. Terry wanted to practice her partial braid. She quilted the straight lines with a ruler and then continuous curves in the squares.

Terry's partial braid mug rug

Diann at Little Penguin Quilts made a scrappy yellow placemat for August. Yellow really is a happy colour! Her straight line quilting really emphasizes the sunflower star.

Diann's lovely yellow sunflower star placemat

Sandra of mmm quilts has been using up her layer cakes to make quilts. After Sandra's FMQ with dot-to-dot ruler work, it's a real beauty called Kitty Karma. This lovely is going to her neighbour and friend who is Sandra's own Bella cat sitter. The recipient will be comfortable with her own cat on her lap. The back is a lovely fleece. You'll want to check out Sandra's post for more info and pictures.

Sandra's Kitty Karma quilted with ruler work dot-to-dot

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made two great wall hangings from panels. They are both fall themed and well designed with blocks and parts of various panels. Vicki quilted the first fall quilt with ruler work as well as some lovely FMQ in the small blocks and flying geese.

Fall wall hanging made from panel - designed and quilted by Vicki

The Welcome Harvest wall hanging was also made using several different panels. Vicki quilted it with ruler work. You can check out her post for lovely quilty close-ups.

Welcome Harvest wall hanging by Vicki

Gail of Quilting Gail made a version on Dancing Shadows, designed by Brenda of Songbird Quilts. It's a lovely version FMQ with what Gail called "all over 3 finger open loop with echoing." You can see some FMQ close-ups on Gail's post.

Gail's version of Dancing Shadows

Frédérique of Quilting Patch Appliqué visited her sister-in-law and got to see the Geishas folding screen that she made for her in 2007. If you go to her post, you can check out her original posts on how she made and quilted it.

Geishas Folding Panel made by Frédérique in 2007

It's now your turn 😍

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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

A loon, a bear and a binding tutorial

Finished loon

The loon mini is quilted in-the-ditch.

I found some fabulous foundation paper pieced patterns for making woodland animals blocks. Here's how it started.

My October DrEAMi! (something that catches your fancy and you just have to Drop Everything And Make It!) was a foundation paper pieced block that I gave my brother for his birthday instead of a card. Since he loves the outdoors, I made him a loon.

This is the first of several minis that I'll be making using Made by Marney's patterns. The finishing of the loon mini and the making of the bear mini are my November DrEAMi!

A bear mini

My next mini was a bear - well actually two bears because I'm making a second one for my husband. The first one I made has a pretty obvious mistake so I'm keeping it for myself and using it in the binding tutorial below.

Extended-border binding technique

These minis are perfect for trying out new techniques. I tried this binding technique on the loon block and then took pictures of the process using the first bear mini for this short tutorial.

Challenge: I didn't want to add a binding to this block. I've tried binding the quilt from the back but didn't really like the results since my corners are not always very good. So I essentially made a wider border and used it to bind the quilt. Here is the tutorial.

Measurement: Decide how wide you want your border, then add ¼" for your seam allowance and add 1" for the binding.
In this case, the border fabric was made from 2¼" strips. (¼" seam allowance + 1" border + 1" binding.) * You can adjust how wide you want your border as well as how much fabric you want to use for your binding.

Attach the border
Attach the border fabric to the top and bottom of the block.

Adding the top and bottom border

 Attached the side borders to the block.

Adding the side borders

Sandwich the quilt with the batting and backing fabric and quilt the piece except for the border.

Quilting in-the-ditch with the "Shorty" ruler

Cut the batting and backing
Once the quilting is finished, flip over the border fabric away from the edge. Then, one side at a time, trim the excess batting and backing. 
(In this case, I cut the batting and backing 1" from the edge of the border.)

Trimming the batting and backing

Trimming the batting and backing from all sides

The front border extends past the backing once each side has been trimmed.

The front border extends past the backing

Finish Quilting 

If you want to quilt your border, this is the time to do it!

Press the border

Fold the extended part of the border in half and press. 

Pressing the extended fabric in half

Flip the pressed extended border over the back of the quilt. (I use small metal paper clips to keep my border in place.) Stitch the extended border to the back.

Using paper clips to keep the border in place while stitching

This is what the back of the pieces looks like with the border used as the binding.

The back of the bear min when the border is used as binding

The back of the loon mini 

Label

I made a label using some great retro duck fabric and used neutral fabric to write on. As I learned previously, I ironed freezer paper to the back to ensure that the fabric wouldn't shifting around when I wrote on it.

Using freezer paper to stabilise the fabric to create a label

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who are celebrating today!

What I learned

• Minis are great to try different techniques. There isn't the investment of time, material and effort that you might have with a larger or more complex quilt.
• One of the tricky things about foundation paper piecing is that the finished product is the reverse of the pattern. Since I didn't print up the pattern in colour, I mixed up one of the pieces. You can see that the bear block looks like it has a broken leg with a cast instead of the shadow of the leg. I haven't finished quilting the second bear, but it doesn't have a broken leg! 
• Making the bear pattern a second time was much easier since I knew what to do - and not do! I rarely make something twice but it is a good learning experience. The second time it usually is easier and faster and probably better. I think that I sometimes miss out on the learning aspect of that type of repetition. Since I was so intent on getting the second bear mini right, I wasn't bored 😊
• I used Angela Walter's "Shorty" ruler to quilt in-the-ditch. This is the second time I use it and I'm very impressed.
• I've never come across this method of binding a quilt, but if it's out there somewhere under another name, please let me know.
• I hope you were able to follow the tutorial (it's my first one). If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave me a message in the comment section, or email me at quiltingandlearning (at) gmail.com

Related links

• Travelling vicariously and DrEAMi!, October 29, 2018
• Made by Marney website and her patterns on Craftsy and Etsy
• Angela Walter's "Shorty" ruler

Linking Parties
I'll be linking this post to Sandra's DrEAMi! party as well as other linkies. Check them out and see what others are doing! Free Motion Mavericks, TGIFF!, Slow Sunday Stitching, Oh Scrap!, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward, What I Made Monday, Linky Tuesday, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Wondering Camera, Finished or Not Friday, Friday Foto Fun, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, TGIFF,

Project Details



Loon Mini, pattern by Made By Marney
8½" X 8¾"
Materials: commercial and hand-dyed cotton, embroidery floss
Techniques: foundation paper piecing and free motion quilting, embroidery

A great show

Fibre Fling 7, the Out of the Box Artist Group's annual show was a success! There was actually a line-up on Friday morning to go in :-) How impressive is that? I worked at the show on Friday afternoon and it was quite busy.

In this post, I thought that I would show you a couple of my friends' pieces as well as my own. There weren't as many pieces on display this year but the quality and variety was wonderful. It was also nice that the art work was less crowded.

Gaia, Mother Earth

My two destination art pieces looked good together.

Reason & Passion really looked great against the black background.

Here are two pieces by my friend and past-colleague, Kathy Lajeunesse. She has been working with felting and is doing some great work. I love her piece "Just before the storm". Doesn't that sky look like a storm is brewing? The embroidered flowers in the foreground are really effective.

"Just before the storm" by Kathy Lajeunesse

Her other piece was "Connected Trees" which was inspired by the book "The Hidden Life of Trees" by Peter Wohlleben. 

"Connected Trees" by Kathy Lajeunesse

One of the pieces that really stood out for me was this collection of embroidered pieces by MaryAnne Toonders. It's called "Fifty two" and features, in theory, 52 weeks of embroidered pieces. I really love the movement and colours of her piece. I'm very happy to have met her during the show.

"Fifty two"  by MaryAnne Toonders

Here is a close-up of her stitching and fabric. Aren't those fabrics just yummy?

Close up of "Fifty two" by MaryAnne Toonders

Labels

I'm not very consistent with making labels for my quilts, but I usually get around to it, either before I give it away, or before a show. 

I love trying out new ways of making interesting labels. My go-to are 4" foundation pieced blocks from Quilting on the Square (see Related links). This is what I used for the Gaia, Mother Earth piece.

Foundation paper pieced label for Gaia, Mother Earth

For the Islas Canarias piece, I found some of the original backing fabric which just happens to have lines to keep my writing straight.

Label for Islas Canarias art quilt

For the Reason & Passion quilt, I wanted to incorporate a copy of Joyce Wieland's original quilt in the label. I didn't find the photo transfers that I originally did for this label. Thank goodness I had printed up an extra sheet of the picture (mirror image) so that I was able to make a couple of photo transfers for the label. There really is nothing to it except that it takes about 24 hours to dry. After that it was just a matter of framing it.

Photo transfer image of the original quilt by Joyce Wieland

Road sign for the show

What I learned

• I really enjoyed participating in the Fibre Fling show.
• Next year I'm going to have to volunteer early to help set up the show. It just wasn't the same this year since I wasn't able to help set up.
• It looks like we may have another show coming up. They will be discussing this at next week's meeting. Looking forward to that. It's so rewarding to actually have pieces in a live show. Let's face it, pictures, no matter how good, never quite do a fibre piece justice.
• I'm always inspired by looking at fibre art by other artists.

Related links

• Getting ready for Fibre Fling 7, March 28, 2018
• Out of the Box Fibre Artists
• Sign up for Quilting on the Square's newsletter and get some great 4" foundation paper piecing patterns.

Linking parties

I will be linking up to a few linky parties. Why not check out what others are doing? Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall Monday, Moving it Forward, Linky Tuesday, Oh Scrap!, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?,