Showing posts with label scraps. Show all posts

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!

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 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 😍

Thursday, March 19, 2026

SAHRR , FMQ, and I Quilted This!

Hi and welcome 😊 There are so many acronyms in this blog title - I feel like I could be back at work! So my Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) is almost a flimsy (quilt top) and this week I found calm by doing some free motion quilting (FMQ) on my orange scrappy baby quilt. It was a busy and productive week, and I'm glad that you're visiting!

Almost a SAHRR flimsy

Here is the top border added to the SAHRR piece. It went relatively well until I added the last piece. I was shocked when I discovered that it was about 2½" short since I was so sure that it would fit. At least it was easy to add extra fabric. You can see in the photo below that I gave it an extra inch or so for good measures. Everything will get trimmed before adding the final side borders.

SAHRR quilt with pieced side and top borders

I now have 3 blocks to add to the bottom and will do roughly what I did for the top border.

I had originally made this small block by sewing the smaller hour-glass blocks together. Unfortunately it didn't really look like hour-glass blocks.

Original small hour-glass blocks
sewn together

So I researched hour-glass quilts and found that they are usually made with a couple of colours and are set in different directions. Then I pulled apart my little block and made four more small hour-glass blocks with a purple background. I placed it within a block - so now I have the two larger blocks to set and then add the bottom border.

Three last blocks for the bottom

Next steps: The parade starts next week, so I'll have the flimsy done by then.

Sew the last three blocks into a bottom border and

Add the 4" final border.

Add the outer side borders. I don't trust my estimated measurements, so I'll see if it's the size I want once the side outer borders are on. 😕

FMQ a Scrappy Baby Quilt

I really needed a break from the SAHRR, so I got back to the scrappy baby quilt. I finished stitching it in-the-ditch, and then started FMQ. I remembered that I wanted a dot-to-dot quilting (à la Angela Walters) but somehow forgot about the dot-to-dot part and just started with Angela's Shape by Shape designs.

FMQ the scrappy quilt

The FMQ is really difficult to see because I used 100 wt. white Bottom Line thread. It worked well and I could see most of the quilting as I was doing it.

FMQ using mostly straight lines which I drew before quilting

FMQ details

Backing where you can see the stitch-in-the-ditch and some FMQ

When I realised that I wasn't actually doing dot-to-dot quilting, I took out my FMQ journal - I have attached all of Angela Walter's diagrams in it. I really want the FMQ to be light. This will be perfect.

Project Quilting 17.6 - a Happy Handful

I remembered to check on Project Quilting (PQ) and since it was a quick make, I got out some scraps and made this. The theme is to make something small enough to hold in one hand.

A handful of cuteness for Project Quilting 😍

The first block I made was the centre wonky snowball in the middle. I added pink squares around it, pieced some batting and used a cute Winnie-the-Poo fabric underneath. I put my top fabric wrong side up for the pillow case finish (it's supposed to be right side up!) but since I didn't have any specific size in mind for the piece, I just cut around the stitching, turned it right side up and re-sewed the pillow case finish.

I used my walking foot to quilt it with straight lines. A quick and fun finish!

A quick finish that I can hold in one hand!

What I learned

I was tired of working on putting the SAHRR quilt together. It felt like work, not fun, so I knew that I had to do something else.
I'm confident that I'll be able to finish the flimsy by the parade (which I'm sure will run for longer than a day!)
It was calming to do some FMQ on the baby quilt. I'm trying to keep the FMQ light. I'm also doing a lot of marking of straight lines - it's worth the effort if it means keeping my lines straight!
Making the PQ mini was nice, especially using those light spring fabrics instead of the dark ones in my SAHRR.
Not having a plan meant that I could wing it, including just making the mat smaller instead of un-stitching it to redo the pillow case finish.
You may have noticed the snow underneath my Handful of Cuteness project. Yes, it's back....Happy Spring Equinox!
The mat is very cute and I'm using it already in the living room under my stitching supplies. Thanks to Kim and Trish for another fun season of Project Quilting!

I Quilted This!

Here are the posts from last week that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊 and feel free to grab the button.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts is also an Angela Walter's fan. She FMQ her large open spaces panel with all kinds of wonderful FMQ designs. You'll want to head over there and look at all of her detailed photos by clicking on them to enlarge them. Wow!

Kat's FMQ Open Spaces Challenge quilt

Details of Open Spaces FMQ by Kat

Sally of Crafts, Caves and Cooking made this insulated pizza box for last week's Project Quilting Challenge - My Compliments. Those colours really are complementary and what a practical project!

Sally's very practical pizza box

Gail from Quilting Gail made a lovely red and white baby quilt to donate for March's Red Rainbow Scraps Challenge. It's so cute! It was quilted using straight lines.

Gail's red and white baby quilt

Straight line quilting by Gail

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts made a lovely baby quilt for a co-worker. The fabrics in the quilt are so cute!

Preeti's lovely baby quilt

Cute fabric in Preeti's baby quilt

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps made a great t-shirt quilt for a client who's son is turning 21.

21st birthday t-shirt quilt made by Melva

T-shirt quilt quilted by Melva with diagonal lines

It's now your turn 😍

Thursday, November 27, 2025

Cowboy Panel Finish!

Hi and welcome! 😁 I know - two posts in one week. It's been a while since I've done that! I'm thrilled to share with you my Cowboy panel quilt flimsy. Here's the link to this week's FM Mavericks,

4 Borders on the Cowboy quilt

I've been working on this project since January through the SAHRR 2025 (Stay At Home Round Robin). I knew that I wouldn't get this project done by March when they had the parade. However, having a completed flimsy by the end of 2025 is a huge win! 😃

Cowboy panel quilt - a finished flimsy 😀

Here's are some highlights of the project. To make things easier for everyone, I've added the links directly in the post.

Week 1 was the Art block - we had to find a block that started with the fist letter of our name. The corner block and the bottom blocks are Art blocks.

Week 2 was HST or blocks with half-square triangles. The Lama block on top is a Friendship Star block with a border. The bison block in the middle was an extra block to showcase the fabric.

Weeks 1 and 2 blocks

Week 3 was a Star block. I made two Nine Patch Star blocks with scraps from two shirts. Here's one of them.

Week 3 - a Nine Patch Star block

Week 4 was blocks with inserts. I made the first block with the horse fabric and the next two blocks have all kinds of inserts. Those are the first two blocks on top as well as the last one on the bottom. I also added a pocket block with a denim border. The pocket is from one of the shirts.

Cowboy panel with blocks from weeks 1 to 3

Another insert block made later

Week 5 was a half or quarter log cabin blocks. I ended up making one regular log cabin block to feature the Canada geese fabric and then a quarter log cabin block.

Full log cabin block wit Canada geese

Quarter log cabin block with Moo!

Week 6 was the Kite block. Other than some math issues, it came out well.

Kite block that I later added coping strips

After week 6, I needed more blocks so I made a few appliqué blocks based on a free pattern that I found.

Boot and hat

Cacti

Horse shoe with friends

Finally I needed one extra block so I made an improv block.

Last block - improv

This summer, I added an inner dark brown border and completed the two side borders. It went well, especially with the help of coping strips.

Inner and side borders done

Since the side borders went together fairly easily, I thought that the top and bottom borders would be a breeze....not so much 😔 I blame it on my accuracy challenge and poor math skills. Here is the quilt with the top border.

Outside picture of the Cowboy panel quilt with 3 borders

This is where I left the quilt until this week. I knew that the bottom border wouldn't be as much trouble because in theory, all I had to do was to copy the measurements of the top border. I'm thrilled to say that I was only a quarter inch off on both ends, so just cut that off!

Last look at the Cowboy panel quilt flimsy
from SAHRR 2025

This flimsy is my November OMG - Yay! Done with days to spare.

What I learned

It was really interesting going through all of my SAHRR posts to prepare this one. There were definitely lots of learning while making all of these blocks.
The quilt is 48" x 55".
I knew that I was being overly ambitious when I started making 2 panel quilts, but the Cowboy quilt is now a flimsy and I'm hoping to finish the Christmas panel quilt by the end of the year. This is also very ambitious but I know that I can do it after everything I've learned from making the Cowboy quilt (in theory anyway😁). Think coping strips and measure 4 times!!!!
I've looked at my Christmas panel and blocks - I don't have any fabric picked out for the borders. Oh well, I'll be checking out my stash next. I will also make this my December One Monthly Goal (OMG).
My plan is to finish both flimsies this year and start the new year with FMQ fun!
Here's a photo of the panel. After checking out my photos, it looks like I'll be spreading the blocks out or making more. Come back to check up on my progress 😊