Showing posts with label walking foot. Show all posts

Thursday, January 22, 2026

Getting stuff done and I Quilted This!

Hello and welcome 😊 Has your winter started yet? Apparently the weather here is cold enough for the Rideau Canal to be open for skating - so it's officially winter in Ottawa. The weather inside my studio is lovely so stuff is getting done! My plans for 2026 are ambitious, but at least I'm working on them.

FMQ the Cowboy panel quilt (SAHRR 2025)

I stitched-in-the-ditch most of the quilt and it was time to start quilting the blocks. I used the walking foot for the quilting that was straight lines and then switched to the FM or darning foot for the rest. I'm very happy to report that my tension was perfect even with the cotton thread.

Here are a few of the blocks. Some of them were quilted in straight lines with the walking foot.

Straight line quilting

Other blocks got a mix of straight line quilting and then FMQ.

Straight line and FMQ for this block

Some blocks were FMQ.

Lots of fun FMQ

FMQ with dark variegated thread.
The cow will be outlined in another colour.

FMQ with the possibility of adding
more details on the hat and boots

I worked through the quilt by colour. The straight lines were mostly done with blue thread. I then started FMQ with the dark variegated thread and finally a soft gray polyester thread. Once I finish quilting the blocks, I'll tackle the panel. I really don't mind following the fabric's pattern but I have to be careful to actually stitch on the line! 😁

First baby quilt in the making

My youngest adult child has three friends who are having babies so we are making them baby quilts. JJ helped me decide on the patterns and the fabric. This first quilt is from the Martingale book, Modern Baby. We chose the Square Dance pattern because we want to include fabric that relates to the parents' hobbies and lives.

Square Dance pattern

Modern Baby by Martingale

I'm using my stash of Kona cottons to make the shapes while the squares within will be novelty fabric to reflect their interests and of course baby.

This is what the quilt looks like so far. Unfortunately my design wall is not wide enough, but you get the idea.

The first row of the quilt

The first block is a Star Wars fabric, the second is cute dinosaurs, the third fabric has a rainbow and flowers and says "Be happy, be kind, be you" and the fourth fabric is adventure themed.

It took me a while to figure things out because the pattern assumes that you'll make all of the same pieces at once. Since I'm using the fabric I have, I had to figure out how to make each block. The trickiest part was to make the half square triangles with three different fabrics. It took a few tries but I got it! I'm happy to report that I didn't have to use the seam ripper much 😁

I've made a rough plan to keep me organised.

The plan to keep me on track

Embroidery

Yesterday I finally put away our Christmas tree. Now I have my slow stitching space back in our living room. I started by stitching the year in the next square of my Not so daily stitching project. I couldn't help stitching it in white 😀 as a nod to the silly colour of the year, but I then had to add a bit of colour!

I also experimented with the turkey stitch. I stitched it in beautiful silk yarn. Our local yarn store is closing since the owner is retiring. I've been in there a few times in the last couple of months to pick up some beautiful yarns to embroider with. You can get quite a bit when it's 40-50% off.

Practicing the turkey stitch with silk yarn

before the haircut!

Turkey stitch with a trim

This was very much a practice block, but I guess I should add a little something to make it more cohesive.

I've been wanting to practice this stitch but didn't remember its name. Fleur Woods, the textile artist that I took a course from last year is offering the same course again and since I registered last year, I can participate in this one. I reviewed parts of the course and found the turkey stitch. I want to use this in the last coiled project that I was working on to add flowers to the piece. The turkey stitch will be perfect!

What I learned

I've really enjoyed quilting the cowboy panel quilt. With so many blocks to quilt, it's fun to jump from one to another to use the same coloured thread.
Since my tension is doing great, I don't even have to change the bobbin thread except from dark to light to match the top thread.
I do enjoy FMQ by following the lines in the fabric images. It's just getting harder to stay on the line but I'm OK if I take it slowly.
I'm also FMQ with a strong pair of reading glasses, that has a clip-on magnifier attached to them. What a difference it makes. I now have two sets (upstairs and down) and use them to embroider and get that darn thread/yarn into the needle!
I really enjoyed figuring out the Square Dance baby pattern. I should be able to use the Kona solids from my stash. We also have some really cool novelty fabrics to choose from.
I've been really scattered and overwhelmed during the last week. Today doing some slow stitching really helped to calm me down. I feel so much better. 😊

Coming up

Things are getting busy so I'm going to use this space to keep myself organised!

This week's prompt for Project Quilting is plaid - the finished project is due Sunday.
Round 1 of SAHRR 2026 is now out - it's the hour glass block. I need to get fabric from my stash and make at least one block. The linking party closes on Monday.
The Cowboy panel quilt is my January OMG - I have until January 31^th to post it.
The blue house for A Quilter's Cove QAL needs to be done by January 31^th so that I can host the linking party!

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party. I'll be featuring the projects from last week's party that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. Thank you everyone who linked up. Feel free to grab the button.

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts quilted another charity quilt with a donated flimsy and backing. Kat quilted this baby quilt in a continuous circle.

Baby quilt quilted by Kat

Melva, of Melva Loves Scraps, made a quilted panel for her t-shirt. Melva quilted the block before adding it to the t-shirt using a reverse appliqué technique. If you're interested, read her post to find out how to make your own!

Melva's finished t-shirt with a quilt block

Melva and her Arches National Park t-shirt

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts participated in the Starry Seas Blog Hop. Her quilt, Dawn to Dusk, was inspired by her commute. You'll want to check out her post for more details of the story.

Preeti's Dawn to Dusk quilt for the Starry Seas Blog Hop

It's now your turn!😍

Thursday, January 15, 2026

Starting Things and I Quilted This!

Bonjour and welcome! 😄 It's been raining, snowing, raining and snowing for the last week. I'm sure that the January cold will eventually come back but it is nice not bundling up to go outside! I've been busy with all kinds of things, but not much sewing. Oh well, there's always tomorrow 😉.

Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR) 2026

I pulled out blocks that had never been put together - of course they were made in a Quilt-Along from a long, long time ago. Specifically, the Growing Up QAL with Alida in 2017.

Blocks from the Growing Up QAL from 2017

The blocks were supposed to be 12½" x 12½" but the New York Beauty style block was smaller so I ended up trimming them all. The four blocks measure 23½" square.

The blocks that I chose are block 5 - improv piecing, block 6 - Famous Jane Style block, block 7 - EPP, and block 11 - New York Beauty style block. If you want to read more about the Growing Up QAL, all the links are posted below.

A Quilter's Cove QAL

As I mentioned in my planning post, Kat of Scrapbox Quilts is hosting a QAL. We'll be making houses in the monthly colours of the 2026 RSC. This month it's blue! Kat has already made her lovely blue house block. I have no idea what I'll be making, except that it will be a blue house. Since my goals for 2026 are scrappy, small, playful and experimental - that's exactly what I'll be doing. 😁

If you want to join, just check out the colour of the month at soscrappy (see link below) and make one or more house blocks. The linking party will open the last Saturday of the month for 7 days. So come back between January 30^th and February 6^th to link up!

Cowboy Panel Quilting (SAHRR 2025)

I have started the stitching-in-the-ditch of the Cowboy panel quilt. I'm almost done! Then starts the fun part - FMQ. I used the walking foot with cotton thread - it worked wonderfully.

Proof of the work being done!

Here's the backing flannel fabric.

Backing flannel fabric

What I learned

It was so cool going through my blocks. I can't say that they are orphan blocks, they just haven't been put into a quilt yet!
I was pretty impressed with the sewing that I had done. At the time, I was doing a lot more blocks, so my block construction wasn't quite as wonky....also, I think that I cared more about accuracy back then, than I do now😊
I think that the SAHRR 2026 has lots of potential. I'm hoping to add some awesome fabric that will hopefully play well with the more sober solids.

I Quilted This!

Donnalee has been busy making a lot more Christmas placemats. Here are some of them waiting to be bound.

Donnalee's placemats, quilted and ready for binding

Gwyned Trefethen made this very lovely piece, Holiday Sparkle, for Project Quilting. She used her embroidery machine to stitch these ornaments to the fabric.

Holiday Sparkle by Gwyned

See the stippling on the back of Holiday Sparkle by Gwyned

It's now your turn! 😍

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, January 30, 2025

Lots of Updates and Free Motion Mavericks

Hello and welcome 😊. I've had another busy week keeping up with SAHRR (Stay at Home Round Robin), January's OMG (One Monthly Goal) and TSC (Table Scraps Challenge) - so many acronyms, I feel like I'm back at work....oh yes, I have been putting some hours in my very part-time contract. Phew - that does sound busy 😁!

Getting caught up with making blocks

Last week I made 4 lovely Art Square blocks for week 1 of SAHRR, for the Christmas panel. On the weekend, I made 2 Art Square blocks for the Cowboy panel. In the first block, I used a print of wild horses galloping in the mountains. I'm going to be using a lot of that one!

Art Block for the Cowboy panel

The next block has two of the same fabrics but with denim squares for a totally different look.

Cowboy panel with the 2 Art Square blocks

For week 2 of the SAHRR, we are making blocks with half-square triangles (HST). This time, before tacking any blocks, I looked online and found the make-2 and make-8 HST at a time. I used the make-8 HST and made a Friendship Star block from the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt book by Pam Lintott and Nicky Lintott. In the image below, it's the block on the left with the lamas.

I also made another block with fabric that I wanted to showcase. The bison is perfect, so I just added borders to make it 6½". Speaking of borders, I did the same thing with the Friendship Star block. In a moment of inattention, I trimmed the block to 6" and then realised that I had no seam allowance - thus the addition of a border. Necessity is the mother of invention! 😉

Cowboy panel with 4 blocks

The Christmas panel got two more blocks with HST except that I made them using the stitch and flip technique - where you pin a square onto your base, sew diagonally across the square and Voilà! a triangle made in another technique.

Two week 2 blocks with one of the Art Square blocks

For the Christmas panel, I found a block called Fairy Floss block (#755 designed by Helen Stubbings in the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, vol. 8.) The original block is 12" with embroidery around the hexies. I reduced it to 6½" and had a great time playing with hexies. For the second block, I just used a lovely fabric and made the same type of border using the stitch and flip method to add the triangles.

Hexies in the middle of my block

"Snow Happens" - January's OMG

I finished the border on "Snow Happens" last week and today I started quilting it. I used a white cotton fabric for the back since it's a wall hanging that won't get dirty. I used my walking foot with a slightly larger stitch than my machine's default. I stitched on both sides of the blue border and then on the white background where the diamond border starts. I stitched around the bottom row of the diamonds in the border. It went well. It won't take me long to finish the quilting. I will probably FMQ around the snow people. I'm not sure if I'll have to do more. Less might be better in this instance (I can't believe that I just said that!)

Quilting around the borders and diamonds with a walking foot

From the back - walking foot quilting in progress

Table Scraps Challenge - January

The colour for January's TSC is pink. I've been wanting to make another Kawandi style mat for a while since I gave away the three that I've done so far. This one is very special to me and will remain in my home. The base is made from a placemat that my mother made when she first started quilting.

I forgot to take pictures before I cut up the placemat. It was much larger than I needed so I cut it and used a QAYG (quilt as you go) technique to put it back together. I had binding left from the part that I cut off, so I attached it to both pieces.

If you're wondering about the piece of pinwheel fabric at the back, well, when I was sewing the fabric down (on the other side), I managed to sew a strip of fabric that got stuck to the back. It was very difficult to remove, so I added a bit of the fabric to the back, since it obviously wanted to be there. 😁

The back of my Kawandi style mat - a repurposed placemat made by my mother.

I used mostly pink, purple and blue fabric scraps. Like the last Kawandi style piece I last made, I stitched the pieces by machine to the back. It's just so much easier to handle while stitching. This time I decided to leave the binding showing on the sides.

Scraps stitched down, ready to quilt.

This is the progress that I've done. It's slow going but so pleasant and peaceful to stitch. Isn't it amazing how the look of the fabric changes after it's been stitched?

Kawandi Style mat - in progress

Kawandi Style mat - progress from the back

What I learned

I haven't made quilt blocks in a long time but I'm pretty happy with my results. When I concentrate, I seem to be doing well. I do pull seams apart if they are too wonky but for the most part, they are presentable.
It really does show that practice makes better. My blocks are better this week than last week's.
I've had fun looking in the few magazines and books of blocks that I have. I'm always looking for very simple blocks 😊.
Making blocks for two panels is a lot but as long as I make at least one block for each panel each week, I'm happy. When I get closer to the end, I'll probably repeat a few blocks to give it cohesion.
After getting some good suggestions on my "Snow Happens" diamonds, I briefly considered fixing the two sides but when I thought about it, it was just too complicated and really not worth the frustration. Besides the recipient of the wall hanging is quite OK with it as it is.
I changed the photo of "Snow Happens" above since it was really bad in the evening light.
I really love working on the Kawandi Style mat and I've taken out scraps to make another one - this time for my niece. It'll be in more neutral pallet....just because I love her!😍

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 517 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Melva linked up her finished flimsy of Red Skies as well as her finish! What a gorgeous quilt.😊