Showing posts with label scrappy quilting. Show all posts

Thursday, August 13, 2026

A Finish and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 I hope you're enjoying (or tolerating) the August weather. Thanks for dropping by. Today I have a finished baby quilt. It's been in the works for a while and I finally stopped agonizing about the binding and just got it done!

Orange Scrappy Baby Quilt Finished

The quilt is made of scraps that I got from my DIL's mother. She made a lovely quilt for her granddaughter but didn't want the scraps (can you believe that? 😲) I was quite happy to oblige - there were some nice big pieces in there, enough for another baby quilt. You've seen me make it and FMQ quilt it and now it's done.

Finished and washed - Orange Scrappy Baby Quilt

I made some very simple blocks, mostly the wonky snowball variety. My first post about this quilt was from July 2025, so it took a little longer than a year. Way to go me!😍

Glamour shot with the phlox

It was nice this week so I took some glamour pictures in my backyard. You can see some of the good parts of the yard 😁.

The very yellow scrappy backing of the quilt

The quilt in my favourite part of the yard

As I mentioned above, I've been thinking about the binding for this quilt since I finished FMQ it in April of this year. Should I got with a yellow or another colour? I didn't have enough scraps from the quilt for a scrappy binding and the yellow backing is just too bright. Finally I decided on a brown and found the perfect one in my stash. It was the brown/orangish porcupine in the fabric that decided it. Let's face it, the binding needs to match something - so a cute porcupine will do.

Note - technical details that can be skipped!

Since I was in a learning mood (patient and curious), I decided to push myself to do a good machine binding. I've done them before but they weren't very good, so this was a learning moment. I used a 2¼" side binding (I'm adding this for my records.) I realised that I believed that the binding needed to be flush with the quilt fabric underneath it, with no extra space inside the binding. That's why the back of my binding was always wider than the front and couldn't be neatly stitched by machine. I'm not sure how clear this is, but I ended up lining the back of the binding just beyond the original front stitch line. This mostly worked. I did fix a few spots where I missed the edge of the binding but it was much better than I usually do.

Binding needs to slightly cover the stitch line

The corners are not always easy to stitch, so when re-stitching it, I used a glue stick to keep the corner in place to stitch it. It worked wonderfully!

Gluing down the corner to stitch it well

What I learned

When in doubt about the colour of the fabric to use for the binding, match an element of the quilt - it should work.
Taking the time to think about how I was putting on the binding and what was going wrong helped me get better at sewing the binding by machine. It was time well spent. Hopefully I'll be able to practice and get better!
The tip to myself for future machine bindings is to take my time and concentrate on each step.
I'm hoping to spend some quality time in my studio this weekend and finishing the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt. Then I'll be able to practice on another binding 😀

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.

Terry from Ongoing Projects quilted her Stars and Stripes Guild Challenge. She shared pictures of the quilting, but we'll have to wait until October for the reveal!

Terry using a combination of thread to
quilt straight and curved lines

Terry quilting straight lines on her Stars and Stripes

Diann of Little Penguin Quilts finished this sweet Christmas in July table topper. Here it is. You'll want to go and read the post for more details.

Diann's Christmas in July table topper

Gail of Quilting Gail made a test quilt based on Brenda's new pattern Tilt-a-Whirl. You'll see Brenda's quilt below. Gail made her quilt in low volume colours. Gail used Silly Moon rulers Turkey and Charming to quilt it.

Gail's test version of Brenda's new quilt pattern, Tilt-a-whirl

Details of Gail's quilting of Tilt-a-whirl

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting quilted and finished two quilts! The first is a pineapple quilt with large stippling while the other was made using a jelly roll and quilted with large freehand feathers. Check out these two beauties!

Vicki's pineapple quilt with large stipling

Vicki's jelly roll quilt with freehand feathers

Brenda of Songbird Designs has a new pattern out for a new fabric collection. The quilt pattern is Tilt-a-whirl which you saw earlier.

Tilt-a-whirl by Brenda

Brenda also made this great Funky Tulip runner which she quilted using FMQ and rulers. Brenda used the new fabric line. You may want to check out her post for more details.

Brenda's Funky Tulip runner

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, June 04, 2026

A finish, June's OMG and I Quilted This!

Bonjour and welcome 😎! Thanks for dropping by. The weather has been so lovely here. My favourite part of the day is a morning (not too early) having coffee outside in the backyard. I've been able to do this almost every day. Evening are often in the studio. I'm happy to say that the scraps from my retreat are all put away. There is hope yet for a tidy studio!

Scrappy Improv Sewing Machine Cover

It's done! The improv sewing machine cover that I worked on during my quilting retreat is finished. I like the pattern because it used ties to close the cover. This makes it reversable and easy for those of us who are accuracy challenged!

Sides 1 and 2 were created years ago to make a scrappy fabric bag based on a lesson from Craftsy. It never got passed the stage of sewing two scrappy panels for the bag. Before leaving for the retreat I sewed them together to make sure that they would be big enough for the sewing machine cover. I just added a couple of inches on each side using wonderful fabric that looks like patchwork. I knew that it was too wide but that gave me wiggle room when trimming everything. I also used that fabric for the binding.

Side 1 of the machine cover

Side 2 of the machine cover with orange ties

Sides 3 and 4 were created at the retreat on the Featherweight. There was only one spot where the tension problem showed up. I just FMQ over it - no problems here 😁

Side 3 - lots of 2" blocks!

Side 4 - I got bored with the 2" blocks 😂

You may have noticed that the cover seems quite wide. I did trim it but ~~probably~~ could have trimmed it another 3". I wasn't going to take the chance that it would be too small. There's nothing wrong with some extra room - it might grow into it!

I used a variegated thread to sew the binding on. I sewed it by machine - not great but good enough. The other thread in the photo is a pale pink InvisaFil thread used to FMQ.

Machine cover with threads used on the project

Here are a few images of the FMQ.

FMQ sewing machine cover

More FMQ

The scrappy sewing machine cover with ties

June's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

I've been trying to start quilting my Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL flimsy for a while now. Making the quilt sandwich was my April OMG. I forgot to put it as my May OMG and would have made it since I sandwiched it on May 31st. Quilting the Rainbow Neighbourhood project is now my June OMG. I've started quilting it in-the-ditch. The goal is to do all of the in-the-ditch quilting by the end of the month although I hope to get it done quicker than that. I need this lovely finished by the beginning of August for our friends' 40th wedding anniversary.

The day and night skies have all been stitched-in-the-ditch


Using the walking foot to stitch-in-the-ditch. The quilt is 68" x 65"

I also joined our local quilt shop's, Quilty Pleasures, Summer UFO Challenge. This is one of my three UFOs/WIPs on the list.

What I learned

I'm very happy to say that I didn't have to make the orange ties for the cover. When I was gifted my friend's hand-dyed scraps she had included at least a dozen ties that she would have used to make masks. I'm so grateful because I really, really dislike making these!
I had a difficult time FMQ anything that went left. I know that my machine doesn't like it when I sew in the left direction but it was a little ridiculous. I ended up doing more squiggle lines than I usually do. FMQ forward and backwards is fine. I'll eventually get the machine cleaned and checked but for now, there are no left turns allowed!
For the machine binding, I used a 2" strip but didn't fold it. Again, I'm always afraid to make it too small but 1¾" would have been better. I'm happy to report that my corners were awesome 😊
The Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt will be mostly quilted using my walking foot. If I need a few swirls in the sky, I can FMQ them, probably very, very slowly!

I Quilted This!

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 from Gretchen's Little Corner used up tons of her scraps, even the ugly ones, to make these two quilts, that are not so ugly! Gretchen FMQ diagonal lines in the white blocks and borders. I'm sure both of these compassion quilts will be loved.

Gretchen's two "not so ugly" quilts

Terry Knott of On Going Projects finished quilting her 2022-23 temperature quilt.

Terry's 2022-2023 Temperature quilt

Terry custom quilted the quilt

Look at all of the details of the quilting by Terry

Diann from Little Penguin Quilts made this lovely orange placemat. She used larger squares so that the lovely elephant fabric would show up nicely.

Lovely orange placemat by Diann

The back and simple quilting of Diann's placemat

Melva from Melva Loves Scraps finished her Pieces from the Past quilt. She used some traditional looking quilting designs for the blocks and the sashing.

Pieces from the Past by Melva

FMQ details by Melva

Brenda from Songbird Designs has finished embroidering, piecing and quilting her Sunshine Cove quilt. This is the centre medallion. What a beauty!

Brenda's centre medallion for her Sunshine Cove quilt

It's now your turn 😍

Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Projects in Progress and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😎 I'm happy that you could join me today. I have a couple of new projects in progress to share with you. Nothing fancy, just fun 😀

Scrappy Improv Happiness

I had a wonderful time at the retreat last weekend. I met some really lovely ladies that I hope to keep quilting with again. I also played with scraps, my Featherweight machine and even my Kenmore! Here's what the two sides of my sewing machine cover looked like at the end of the retreat. Both are roughly 24" x 27".

Side one - created a few years ago for a tote bag that never happened

Side 2 - created last weekend

Here is the Featherweight in action.

Featherweight working well

I was very lucky that one of the ladies attending the retreat has two Featherweight machines and is very knowledgeable. She gave me some useful tips that I greatly appreciated. I sewed with it for a couple of hours before noticing that the tension was not great - it looked fine from the front, but not the back. I unstitched the seams that were much too loose. The others will be fine since I'll be densely FMQ the cover!😉

When I got home Sunday evening, I sandwiched both sides and started FMQ with InvisaFil. The first picture has small squares FMQ with hearts. This is fabric that I had used to make my mother a quilted wreath.

Hearts FMQ on the small squares

More FMQ

I've been FMQ from both sides of the fabric since the cover will be reversable. I've quilted ¾ of the cover so far. I'll be cutting it to size, binding it and then adding ties.

Slow Stitching Mémère's Placemat

When my grandmother moved into assisted living I quilted a couple of pieces for her. I thought that this would be a wall hanging but when she saw it, she decided that it was a placemat.

Original wall hanging/placemat for my grandmother

After her death, I got them back. Now that I'm doing more slow stitching, I want to stitch this up to use it. This is what it looks like so far.

Stitching the blocks with running stitches

Going around and around

Stitching it diagonally

So far I'm stitching the larger blocks with a running stitch. I may try something different in the pink background section.

What I learned

I was nervous about bringing the Featherweight to the retreat. I'm glad to report that it worked like a charm. Other than the tension, it was really great - and even better when I fixed that!
I brought my Kenmore with me just in case (like Gail suggested). I did use it Sunday afternoon since it hadn't been used in a few years. It was good to take it for a ride 😁
It was fascinating using the Featherweight, then going to the Kenmore and finally my jag (Janome) in the evening at home. The Featherweight chugged along, the Kenmore glided and the Jag purred 😊
I'm looking forward to trimming the sewing machine cover, adding a scrappy binding and then the ties.
On Sunday afternoon I worked on my orange house with my Kenmore. Since I had only brought white thread, I used the bobbins from the Kenmore to sew with. I knew that it could be done but I had never done it. Very cool and a great way to empty a bobbin if you need to.

I Quilted This!

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, from Gretchen's Little Corner, quilted two lovely rose panels with a pink picture frame pattern. Both are slightly different - can you spot the difference? Gretchen used diagonal lines across both quilts.

First Rose Frame quilt by Gretchen

Second Rose Frame quilt by Gretchen

Gail, from Quilting Gail, made a gorgeous baby quilt, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The quilting is exquisite - you'll want to check it out on her post! Gail used the Silly Moon rulers, Twinkle, Rocket, Charming to quilt it.

How gorgeous is that!!!
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, made by Gail

Some of the quilting by Gail

Gail's quilt got two prizes!

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts made her sixth Villa Rosa quilt in six weeks for the challenge. For this one she used the Discovery pattern and quilted it with both rulers and FMQ.