Showing posts with label t-shirt quilt. Show all posts

Thursday, January 04, 2024

Making Plans on my 600th post!

Happy 2024! This first post of the year is also my 600^th post. 🥳 Yeah! Thanks Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl for hosting this wonderful party again.

For the last couple of years I've tried to minimize and generalize my plans - that's the best way for me to get realistic and possibly follow them. Last year my intention for 2023 was to learn by playing, with mindfulness and contentment. I still think that this is a great intention to work towards but I've tweaked it a bit.

For 2024, my intention is to learn by playing, with mindfulness and gratitude.

Anna's Hygge t-shirt quilt December 2023

Quilts

There are two quilts that I will be starting:

Swatches and plan

my daughter's Paddington Bear quilt, and
my husband's panel wall hanging.

I've started the Paddington centre panel

Double Decker Bus
Quiltmaker
May/June 2023

I'll be working on my Rainbow Neighbourhood flimsy, and finally, I'm really looking forward to free motion quilting (FMQ) my friend's quilt.

I've committed to participating in the SAHRR (Stay At Home Round Robin) again this year. I'm planning on making a medium sized wall hanging. That should help me keep up without stress. I love this challenge and the ladies who run it are so much fun.

It's going to be busy in the quilt making department but I have lots of time, no deadlines and some fun work ahead! 😊

Challenges and Hand-made Books

I will once again be participating in the Joyful Quilter's 2024 Table Scraps Challenge. I love making small scrappy projects each month. The fun of this challenge outweighs the deadline factor 😁 I'm already planning to make 3 more scrappy placemats for the rest of the family.

Two scrappy placemats done in 2023

Project Quilting starts January 7^th. I'm really hoping to use my quilting calendar to keep track of events such as this. I've added it to the calendar - now I just need to remember to look at it! 😁 Speaking of calendars, I also need to make myself a FMQ agenda cover.

These are the agenda and journal covers that I made in 2023
as well as the three Project Quilting projects.

I'm looking forward to making more handmade books this year. Although I'm no longer in the Handmade book club, I still have many books to make and all kinds of fun ideas for their uses. I'm also planning on leading a playdate with the Out of the Box (OOTB) fibre artists group this winter.

I procrastinated writing this post and made a Crown Binding. It's a type of Artist book structure and is made mostly by folding paper. I'm not surprised that my books turned out quite wonky - I was never good at origami. It's an accuracy challenge thing 😏

2 crown bindings

You can see the structure
keeping the pages in place

Art Quilts and Mindful Stitching

I tend to spend time stitching and working on art quilts between the larger quilt projects. As much as I love quilting, I need to make art quilts. It nourishes my soul. The art quilts often involve mindful stitching, but I do want to stitch every day. I'm still a member of the TextileArtist.org Stitch Club. I don't make each project but I tend to go back and forth, depending on my mood.

I'm not really working on an art quilt right now but I do have an embroidery started. It's called Snow Happens by Bird Brain Designs. I've had it forever in my stash and I've already started. I'm not going to show you more progress since it looks really bad with the pattern stitch lines in. Once I iron off the lines, it will look great - just not the same as the pattern! 😁

Stitching the Snow people

Snow Happens by Bird Brain Designs

I'll be making a wall hanging for my son's girlfriend. Instead of those diamonds on the pattern, I was thinking of working with hexies. Once I figure out how large I want to make it, I'll design the wall hanging with various elements on it. I have until next December, so I should be good. I know that it isn't very mindful but as long as I have audiobooks to keep me going, it will get done!

I'm going to try doing some mindful stitching by either starting a small panel of intuitive stitching à la Karen Turner, or possibly following the Stitch Away the Winter Blues with Kate Ward of Zen Stitching. The objective isn't the end product but rather the process.

Participating in Shows

I'll be participating in the Common Thread Quilt Guild's quilt show this spring. I plan to enter Version 2.0. I will also be making some really fun fibre art as part of an outdoor exhibition. The art will live outside for a few months. I'm really looking forward to playing and seeing what I can make. I made these prayer flags last winter and they survived the outdoor very well.

Flag in the tree

Prayer flags on the snow

What I learned

As I look at my post, I realise that I have a lot of things that I want to do in 2024.
If there are very few deadlines, I should be OK. The stress comes with trying to meet deadlines, not in the playing with fabric and fibre 😊
I want to emphasize the playing aspect. If it's not fun, when why do it?
Playing gives me the freedom to try things, make mistakes and sometimes even work my way out of those challenges.
It's amazing to see all of the snow that we had last winter. Right now the ground is just covered in leaves. There was a light covering of snow on Christmas day but it was all melted by the afternoon with the rain we got.
I'm looking forward to another wonderful year of learning and playing. I am extremely grateful for the gift of time that retirement has brought.
Wishing you all happiness, health and fun in 2024! Here's to another 600 posts!

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, particularly #2024QuiltingPlanningParty with Yvonne, the Quilting Jetgirl! Monday Making, Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024,

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 563 of Free Motion Mavericks.

Last week DonnaLee made some really cute Christmas Tree coaster as well as more placemats and a runner.

DonnaLee's sweet Christmas Tree coaster

Gail of Quilting Gail had a few finishes in December. One of her favourites was Vanishing Star. What a gorgeous quilt!

Gail's Vanishing Star quilt

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps finished her final quilt of 2023! It's a Wonky Star Toss quilt. What a fun finish 😊

Melva's Wonky Star Toss quilt

Finally, from Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué, here is the beautiful Patio quilt that will be quilted in 2024!

Patio - finished and to be quilted in 2024!

It's now your turn!

Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Best of 2023 Linking Party

I'm so glad that Cheryl of Meadow Mist is hosting this great party again. I looked at my posts, and I've been participating since 2016. Not bad since it looks like I only missed her first year. Thanks Cheryl 😊

Overview of 2023

This is my first full year of retirement. I'm assuming that this has made a difference. However, as I re-read my 2022 post, I'm not sure that much has changed. Is it a groove or a rut? I've reviewed my projects, crunched the numbers and will let you know in the "What I learned" section below.

My 2023 projects can be broken down into five categories, and all of them include fibre, mostly fabric and some paper. Many are free motion quilted (FMQ) while others are hand-stitched. I've also included WIPs (works in process), which may have become UFOs (unfinished objects). All were started, worked on or finished in 2023.

Bed quilts and throws,
Small quilty projects,
Artsy projects and quilts,
Meditation stitching, and
Hand-made books.

Bed quilts and throws

I've changed the name of this category this year. It was previously called FMQ but that's more of a technique than a category. This section included bed quilts, baby quilts and throws, whether they be finished or flimsies 😊.

Version 2.0 finish ✔ Rainbow Neighbourhood flimsy, T-shirt quilt ✔
Daisy quilt flimsy , SAHRR flimsy and Wild Hexies baby quilt ✔

Small quilty projects

This category includes projects made through Project Quilting (PQ), the ABC (Table) Scraps Challenge 2023, as well a some squirrels such as FMQ journal covers.

ABC (Table) SCRAPS Challenge 2023

Green Microwave Fabric Bowls, Scrappy Improv Runner,

Swirling Leaves 3 (WIP), Indecision,

Scrappy Yellow Placemat, Dotty blue placemat
Gorgeous Red Basket, Daisy Beauty, Crazy Quilt Topper

Project Quilting and FMQ Journal Covers

In 2023, I participated in 3 Project Quilting (PQ) challenges. I also started the new year with a new FMQ journal cover and made 4 more journal covers in October.

Pink Journal Covers, FMQ Agenda Cover, PQ 14.6 Conquer A Fear,

Blue & Green Journal Covers, PQ 14.4 A Novel Project, PQ 14.1 The First One

Artsy projects and quilts

All of these projects and quilts originated through workshops presented by TextileArtist.org. I've been a founding member since June 2020. I haven't participated in all of the workshops but I've really enjoyed every workshop that I've followed😊. It's a great way to keep learning with simple projects that can be taken to the next level.

I've done so many projects this year that I had to separate the group in two.

Stitching and watercolour, Glimpses of Antarctica

Off the Grid Sampler, Whitework,

Fish WIP, Stitching on eco-printed fabric, Thread Sampler

Squirrel! Ephemera 1, Perspective,

Mixed Media Collage, Going Somewhere,

Experimental sketchbooks large, small

Meditation Stitching

A lot of the Artsy projects would qualify as meditation stitching, but I've kept this as a separate section to highlight some of the work that I've done, particularly as mindful stitching blocks commemorating special events. I'm also including English paper pieced (EPP) hexies in this category.

Fly, Fly Away, Rent meditation block,
Card with natural elements, Fibre Fling Meditation Block,
Cabane à sucre Brazeau,

Hexies

I participated in #100hexies100days 2023 again this year. Unfortunately, I only made it to Week 11 (of 15) on Instagram, and Week 4 on my blog. 😒 I did make more hexie flowers that I'll try to post on Instagram and eventually on the blog in the new year. 😁

Hexie Love and Hexie Fun
Instagram: Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11,

Hand-made books

I made quite a few hand-made books and journals since I was a member of the Handmade Book Club for most of 2023. It really came in handy for making journals and books as gifts.

Upcycled Traveller's Journal, Fabric journal-long and link stitches, Nature printed fabric book,
3 Booklet Journals, Refillable Notepad Cases,
Butterfly Binding Journal, Glimpses of Antarctica Journal, Little Library

Journal with Hour-glass binding, Whirlwind or Dragon Scale Journals,
Booklet Journal, Single Sheet Coptic Binding with Map cover

What I learned

I was not surprised that QALs (Quilt Alongs) resulted in WIPs or UFOs again this year.
However, I was very surprised that I worked on so many larger quilts. That is definitely a result of retirement and having more time to play during the day! 😃
The beginning of the year was busy with finishing Version 2.0 and creating my SAHRR quilt. I managed to miss a few of the Project Quilting but did get three done.
The ABC (Table) Scraps Challenge 2023 was a lot of fun. I would usually remember near the end of the month but playing with scraps is always enjoyable, so I managed to participate in most of them. I have a quick one coming up for December - keep a lookout for it!
It looks like I've been busier than ever with the TextileArtists.org's stitch club. For many of the workshops, I've done more than one project, or a bigger project. I also want to go back to a few of them and continue trying things out.
I haven't done that many meditative stitching blocks, but I really like the idea of making some that commemorate an event. I just find that these are best done soon after the events, and somehow that doesn't happen often.
Most of the Stitch Club projects involve hand stitching and are usually meditative in nature.
I had fun doing the first half of the #100days100hexies 2023. I do have a few more hexies and hexie flowers stitched, so I'll be posting them on Instagram ~~eventually~~ soon since many are made with Christmas fabric. It would be nice to finish the 100, even if they are late!
I made quite a few books, journals, sketchbooks and booklets this year. The playdate that I was organising was postponed, but I did play with different materials for booklets to get ready for it. I'm looking forward to presenting it later this winter.
I also started a separate page on the blog for book making. I hope that have that finished in the new year.

Reflections on my plans for 2023

As I reviewed my plans for 2023, I realised that they were mostly met.
My intention for 2023 was to "learning by playing, with mindfulness and contentment". I feel that I did play more and I generally have to be mindful when hand-stitching. I really tried to stay away from the stress and minor chaos that I'm so good at creating, however...
participating in two quilt alongs (SAHRR and Rainbow Neighbourhood), especially at the beginning of the year, contributed to that minor chaos... and they did create two UFOs.
There was also some major stress and chaos in finishing the t-shirt quilt. I'm so happy that it's done. My niece really loves it - and I couldn't be happier!
The courses that I took outside of the Stitch Club and the Handmade Book Club were not really worth it. I hope that I'll remember to give these a pass!
I've also been generally disappointed in the free events that are offered on the Internet. I think that I'm not the target audience for these and hope to remember to give those a pass also!
I have been hosting the The Free Motion Mavericks linking party alone this year. It's a lot of work but I generally enjoy it. Since it's a specialty linking party, I know that no everyone is interested in linking up or even do any FMQ. I am really grateful to all of my readers who link up when they can. I really, really appreciate it.
Free Motion Mavericks also encourages me to do FMQ. I suspect that I will have enough projects in 2024 to keep me going for another year. 😊
It's been a full year since I've taken my retirement and I LOVE it!!!!
The biggest change has been that I no longer have to guard my weekends. I used to fight so hard to keep others from taking time from my weekends, and usually didn't succeed! Now, I spend my weekends gladly with my family because I know that when the week starts over, most of that time will be mine to play with in the studio 😃, or not (but at least it's my choice).

Linking parties

I'll be linking to many parties. Why not check some of them out? Best of 2023 with Meadow Mist, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Finished (or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts,

Thursday, December 21, 2023

T-shirt Quilt Finish on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 461 of Free Motion Mavericks. I delivered the quilt to my nephew last night at 10:30 so that he could pack it up to bring to Denmark. He lives down the street so it wasn't a long journey. He and his roommate are tall men, so they helped me take a few quick pictures of the quilt. Thanks guys!😊

A Finished T-shirt Quilt

It's done and since I drove my nephew to the airport... I know that it's way to Copenhagen ✈

A finished queen size t-shirt quilt

I'm not going to go through all of the blocks, mostly because since I don't have the quilt with me, I can't really see from the pictures what I quilted on them! 😎 Here are just a few highlights.

I had quilted stars in the sashing of this t-shirt but wasn't sure what or with what thread to quilt the t-shirt. In the image below this one, you can see the threads that I used. I FMQ with the neon orange while I originally used the variegated thread to zig-zag stitch the "14" panel from the back of the shirt to the front.

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) the bright orange t-shirt

Threads used to stitch the t-shirt

On the next two Ottawa Lions t-shirts, I FMQ the sashing with some dot-to-dot diamonds and other designs within the squares and rectangles. It was good to do something different.

Using dot-to-dot FMQ in the sashing

More dot-to-dot FMQ

The last t-shirt quilted was the New York one. For part of the sashing, I FMQ some lightning bolt designs. I then quilted the contour of the buildings, signs and statue. I used a pink thread to fill in the sky.

FMQ the New York t-shirt

FMQ the Border

I wasn't sure what to FMQ in the two side borders. I knew that it had to fill in the space quickly without being too fiddly. I found the design in Angela Walter's second book, Shape by Shape Collection 2. She calls it the Serpentine Clusters. It has three serpentine lines and then a row of feathers.

Angela Walter's Serpentine Clusters design in the two borders

Squaring the Quilt

I am accuracy challenged at the best of times. With a t-shirt quilt, you just make it up as you go along since most blocks are different sizes. It's difficult to square things when you can't really measure from anything. All I could do was make each side straight-ish and then see if the quilt could be folded in half properly.

Straightening the border sides

The quilt didn't past the folding or wonky test. Since these are just the borders, I knew that I could adjust them as required.

Folding the quilt lengthwise

Trimming the edges

I put together strips of the Kona Solids that I had used for sashing in the quilt. I was lucky that the sashing also used 2½" strips. I was able to use many of them for the binding and didn't have to do too much cutting.

Cutting strips after squaring the quilt

Strips of binding ready to be sewn together

I then used Quilting Jet Girl's Tips for Making / Planning a Scrappy Binding. It was very useful (see Related links below). I needed the binding colour used around the quilt to be a different colour from the fabric it was going to be attached to. Otherwise, the binding tends to recede and looks like there is no binding.

I put the quilt on our king size bed and placed each strip down where I wanted. Then I very carefully stitched them in the correct order and side. It was then time to attach the binding strip to the back of the quilt.

Attaching the binding strip to the back of the quilt

Finally I turned the binding over and stitched it using one of my fancy stitches. It was the first time that I did this, and I really like the result. My wavy stitching pattern isn't straight but it doesn't show as much as a straight stitching line that is wonky! 😁

Stitching down the binding with a fancy stitch

Here's a couple more pictures of the finished quilt. I hope that my niece will take some so that I can post them.

Part of the finished quilt

The best pictures I could get of the finished quilt

What I learned

FMQ a quilt that did not have batting was different. There is no doubt that the quilt would have been too heavy for my niece with batting.
The FMQ went well. I only had issues with tension a couple of times. I'm not sure what happened but when I re-threaded the machine, everything was fine.
All of the thread used for FMQ was polyester. The bobbin thread was Superior Thread's Bottom Line (60wt). I used two more colours of Bottom Line. There was also 4 colours of Madeira polyneon, 6 colours of Glide polyester thread and then the neon Orange polyester thread from Coats (I think). They also needed the same tension, so that was great.
As I mentioned, I used Quilting Jet Girl's Tips for Making / Planning a Scrappy Binding. I know that the colour of the binding needs to be a different colour from the fabric that it's attached to, otherwise the binding tends to recede and it ends up looking like there is no binding.
I knew that I wouldn't have time to hand-stitch the binding so I found a video, "How To Bind a Quilt on a Sewing Machine with Jenny Doan of Missouri Star". It taught me what I needed to know and except for one corner, the stitching went really well.
I decided to use the wavy stitch from my machine since I knew that a straight stitch line would not be straight. I also wanted something a little bit wide to attach the binding well.
Now that my niece's t-shirt quilt is done, I can focus on Christmas 🎄🎅 and other projects.
I'm also looking forward in participating in the usual end-of-year blogging posts. See you then!

Free Motion Mavericks

What wonderful quilts we had last week. I haven't visited everyone yet, but I will! 😊

Denise of the Quiltery (Love of Geese) made this really lovely Christmas hanging for both the Virtual Cookie Exchange and the Island Batik Ambassador Celebration Challenge.

Christmas tree and gift wall hanging by Denise

Donnalee finished her first fabric collage piece based on mushrooms that she saw on a trip to New Zealand. What a great finish!

Mushroom fabric collage piece by Donnalee

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps, finished her customer's t-shirt quilt and it's been delivered. It really looks great with the sashing and border fabrics.

Melva's finished customer's t-shirt quilt

Quilting Gail participated in the monthly Classic Car Colour Challenge hosted by Jen @ Patterns by Jen. What a great quilt! I especially like the border piecing. Gail did “Wild” or “Graffiti” quilting in the centre. The outside was quilted using Silly Moon’s Rocket ruler.