Showing posts with label wall hanging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wall hanging. Show all posts

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Floral Fusion Finally Finished!

Hello and welcome 😀! I hope this post finds you well. I'm slowly getting back to stitching and working in my studio. I've also spent some lovely mornings outside in the backyard. Coffee always tastes better there!  This week I even have a finish! Yay!!!

Floral Fusion wall hanging


My first post about the Floral Fusion SAL was at the beginning of September. I was pretty good at keeping up and started sewing the blocks together in mid-October. Unfortunately it's taken until now to finish it. It will finally be hanging on my daughter's wall.

Finished! Floral Fusion wall hanging

I went outside yesterday for the photo shoot. I just hung the wall hanging in front of my prayer flags. 

Floral Fusion hanging in the backyard

In my last post, I mentioned that I had found some of the dark fabric from the wall hanging in my stash. It finished up quickly and looks great. I was hoping to finish this early and I did 😊. It's my June One Monthly Goal (OMG), so I'll be linking it to the party at the end of the month.

Floral Fusion wall hanging

What I learned & updates
  • I always have a hard time finishing up SAL or QAL on time - they usually linger for years as UFOs. I'm really happy that this one didn't!
  • I'm so grateful to Denise at the Quiltery for hosting her SAL. It was a lot of fun.
  • I got to use a lot of older floral fabrics - many of my mother's scraps from the summer dresses she used to make.
  • I'm also working on some mending - a pair of jeans that needs a new behind, and cut-off shorts that need a couple of patched to be presentable 😉
  • My studio is slowly coming along, but I need to rethink my book making storage. It's taking up too much space, especially for the much smaller amount of time that I spend making journals. The problem is that if it's not easy accessible, it'll never get used!
  • I have a few empty bins in the basement that I'll bring up and try to organise. Hopefully that's all I'll need!
Related links
Linking parties

Great news! My quilt was featured on Needle and Thread Thursday!

Project details

Floral Fusion wall hanging
Made as part of the Floral Fusion SAL with Denise at The Quiltery
Size: 28" x 32"
Material: scrappy floral fabric on a low volume white/beige background
Techniques: machine appliqué, free motion quilting (FMQ)



Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 535 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up your lovely projects! Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Gretchen from Gretchen's Little Corner has finished quilting another quilt - this one made with lovely embroidered blocks by her granddaughter. What a great joint project!

Gretchen's granddaughter embroidered these blocks!

Gretchen put together a lovely quilt using her
granddaughter's embroidered blocks

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts finished quilting two lovely quilts! The first one is a cute baby quilt and the other a lovely wall hanging!

A lovely panel baby quilt by Kat


Vicki, from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting, did an amazing job FMQ her UFO quilt. Lucky for her, she had bundled up fabric for the border, backing and binding. That makes finishing up so much easier! Vicki custom quilted it on her long arm, doing a little bit every day. Check out her post for more eye candy!

Vicki's FMQ UFO - a real beauty!

Details of Vicki's quilting

Frédérique from Quilting, Patchwork, Appliqué, made this very cute textile card (4" x 6"). She was able to share it with us since it's been sent and delivered. Frédérique FMQ it and even included fancy machine star stiches.

Frédérique's sweet textile card

Frédérique's textile card, as seen from the back

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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Wednesday, April 09, 2025

Imagine and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. There isn't much happening here but today I changed up the quilts on the one wall of the house that I can re-organise. I wanted to share my Imagine quilt - it's as good a time as any.

Imagine - 2015 Music Challenge


I can't believe that it's already been 10 years since this quilt was created for our guild's Music Challenge. I had a lot of fun putting it together and even more fun FMQ it. You can read the blog posts (see Related links below) if you're interested.

Imagine - created 10 years ago!

We woke up two days ago to snow! I had noticed that my phone said that there would be snow/rain but there was a good foot of snow in the back yard, and it kept snowing most of the day. It's partly melted and with luck will be gone by tomorrow ❄ I know...it is just April.

Our April snow - showers to come eventually

A very brave bird...
I'm glad that I put food out the day before!

Fun Scrappy Runner

When I'm stressed, I reach for whimsical - so I bought these two stuffed doggies, in their bunny ears, to put at the back of my car. I'm hoping that it might help me identify my car from the back - because it's a white car, like every second car in the parking lot!

I brought down my scrappy bin that is mostly filled with strips and a few orphan blocks. I grabbed two orphan blocks from my Exit Strategy piece and started attaching strips. I want to make a runner to place under these two cuties so that I can Velcro them into place on the back - otherwise they keep wondering off!

Cuties on top of the new scrappy runner

Tomorrow I'll go measure the back of the car since the dogs will be on each side of the middle head rest. I haven't driven my car since the snow storm. I'm hoping that by then, the snow will be completely melted off it!

Scrappy bin of mostly strips and a few orphan blocks

What I learned and updates
  • Taking some time off for self-care was a great idea. I was too tired to get excited about anything quilty - I know...scary! 
  • Hubby is back home with an IV of antibiotics. It's really amazing what they can do - the IV is replaced once a day and then is pumped out every 8 hours. We go to the clinic once a day to get it changed. 
  • I'm still having fun with my Finch bird Minty - I'm achieving many goals so that she can go on adventures around the world. Right now she's in Vancouver discovering Nanaimo bars and Stanley Park.
  • I went into my studio for the first time today to do some stitching. It's still a disaster but I'm quite good at working around and ignoring piles of stuff!
  • It felt really good to stitch up scrappy strips.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties - you may want to check some out. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Patchwork & Quilts,


Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 526 of Free Motion Mavericks! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts has two lovely Bear Hug quilts to share with us. These are the perfect pieces to practice FMQ on. Way to go Kat! You can see details of her quilting by visiting her post.

Kat created Bear Hug #8 from an orphan/test block 

Bear Hug # 9 made by Kat with a twist n' stitch tool

Denise from the Quiltery made a quilt with a variation of the Drunkards Path. Not only is the fabric beautiful but her layout is truly stunning! I love all of the mouvement in that quilt. Denise FMQ it with four petal flowers.  

Denise's Drunkards Path Variation 


It's now your turn!

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Monday, February 10, 2025

Snow Happens Finish, SAHRR & Mom's Mat

Bonjour and welcome 😎. It may be a tad cold but the sun is shining brightly! I'm happy for those who do winter sports. Downtown the Rideau Canal is open and busy with skaters. I'm happy to be cosy in my studio. There is just enough space for me to write this blog or sit at my sewing machine! If you guessed that the cleanup is not going well, you would be correct. At this point, it's easier to ignore the piles, until I need something in them. 😁 

"Snow Happens" wall hanging


I'm so happy to tell you that my son and his fiancé came over for supper and then left with their new wall hanging. I've made few quilted projects that include embroidery and I'm very happy with it.

"Snow Happens" wall hanging - finished and in the snow!

The last time you saw this project was at the end of January. I had quilted some of it with my walking foot. Shortly after, I finished the straight quilting and then FMQ the rest. I forgot to take more pictures, but here is a closeup of some of the quilting. There are snowflakes on both sides of the blue diamonds and then loops in the white space that links them together. 

FMQ snowflakes on the border.

For the embroidery, I just went around each part of it. I was thinking of going back to add more FMQ once I had done the binding, but it doesn't need it. I took these photos on the snow last night, just as the sun was setting. I'm glad that I did because the photo taken inside has a very yellow tone.

Photo taken inside the house - the white has yellow tones.

I was very lucky to have enough of the blue fabric to finish the binding. It would have been a shame to have to make it a scrappy binding. It helps that the binding didn't need to be doubled. 😊

"Snow Happens".... in the snow!

Star blocks for the cowboy panel

Last week I only had time to make two blocks for the cowboy panel. I was hoping to join the linking party for week 3 but if it's ok, I'll be joining a couple of posts for week 4.


Nine patch star

I have some red plaid fabric from a shirt that I pulled apart as well as some lighter jean fabric. I cut two squares of 6½" of each fabric and made 8 HST at a time. I then trimmed them to 2½". That made 18 HSTs! 😁 Then I had to figure out how to put these together to make two star blocks. In the book, Quilter's Mix and Match Blocks, I found a nine patch star. The pattern was made up of three different fabric colours but I decided to make my own version with only the two. 

Nine patch star in two colours

Second nine patch star....sort of 😕

I just noticed as I'm writing this post that my second block is different! Does anyone else have problems getting their HST in the correct position? I undid many of the HST even though I thought that they were OK...and I still misplaced one! The image is quite dark but you might notice that the denim on each block is different - the first one has the back facing out. I noticed only after slicing through all of the HSTs. I was not going to start over!

I still have to make a star block for the Christmas panel - but I think that I'll stick with flying geese blocks.

Mom's Kawandi style mat completed

I also completed my fourth Kawandi style mat. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the backing is on one of my mother's quilted placemats. It's a bit different from the traditional Kawandi style pieces since the placemat's binding underneath it is showing, and I machine stitched all of the top scrappy fabric. I just loved stitching it, mostly while chatting with my daughter. 😊 

Kawandi style mat, made on top of my mother's placemat

Here's my mother's placemat, cut to size.

I love its wonkiness 😃 - it's very much my style! If you're wondering about the small windmill on the back, you'll have to check out my previous post.

What I learned
  • I learned a lot working on all of these projects, such as:
    • There is such a thing a keeping the FMQ to a minimum and it turned out great in the embroidered part of my wall hanging.
    • I have a note on my bulletin board that says that I should try 1¾" wide binding when it doesn't need to be folder. I have now changed that to 1½". 
    • HST are easy to make 8 at a time but can be difficult to place correctly in a block!
    • When I concentrate, my blocks are sewn pretty well but you just can't trust HSTs to be facing the correct way!
    • I still prefer wonkiness over precise!
    • I love that I was able to repurpose my mother's placemat. She was very much with me when I worked on the mat!
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to these fun linking parties, including Free Motion Mavericks and the latest SAHRR linking party. Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Beauties Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell,

I've linked up this post for my February Favourite Finish with Quilting JetGirl. I'm not sure which is my favourite - "Snow Happens" with all that work, or Mom's mat - with it's beautiful wonkiness! 😍

Project details

"Snow Happens" wall hanging
Designed by Bird Brain Designs
Size: 17" by 29"
Materials: embroidery floss, commercial fabric, batting
Techniques: hand-embroidery, piecing, quilted with walking foot and FMQ
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Thursday, February 06, 2025

PQ 16-3 Common Blocks & Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! I hope that you're hibernating in your studios and playing with fabric 😊. It's a great way to cope. I've also read books and listened to many audio books - my way of coping when fabric isn't enough. 😉 Let's talk about lovely stuff and fuel our creativity.

Common Blocks


This week's theme for Project Quilting is Common Blocks. I might have been disappointed in the theme if I hadn't been totally immersed in block construction for SAHRR. Since I'm on a roll, I might as well keep going.

Common Quilt Blocks wall hanging 

I used the beautiful hand-dyed fabrics that were gifted to me a while back by now-retired textile artist, Elaine Quehl. I was lucky to inherit bags of the fabric she took to workshops when she was teaching. Elaine was surprised that I was still playing with these. I think that I'm probably good for a couple more years. 😍

Three common blocks - friendship star, nine patch and pinwheel

I chose these blocks because I made 8 half-square triangles at a time and then figured out how I could use them! I also wanted something that was very common and also easy. I find that if I can make the HST then sewing them together is not too difficult.

Quilting the blocks that were to be turned into a journal cover

My blocks are pretty good but unfortunately I wasn't as careful with adding strips as I was piecing the blocks. In my quilting universe, wonky is more than fine! I was going to turn these blocks into a journal cover but last night, after quilting the piece, I just had no patience to keep going. I ended up using the pillowcase method to add a backing, even after quilting it with its own backing. 

Quilting on the envelope/pillowcase back

Stitching the edge of the whole piece and then going back to add a few quilt lines to the blue fabric in the front made the new backing more than secure. 

You can see on the photo that I used many easy FMQ designs, from squiggly lines, loops and twists (I call them fj because that's what you're writing in cursive!) to feathers. 

When I showed my daughter the placemat, she was thrilled and asked if she could hang it on her wall. I agree with her that the fabrics look so great together. I'm glad when my colour instincts work! 

February's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

I'm working on many projects. Some will be finished very soon (like my "Snow Happens" wall hanging) and others are scheduled to be finished at the end of March (the two SAHRRs). There is a quilt that doesn't need much work finish, but unless it's elevated in priority, it could languish for months. Therefore, my February's OMG is my Floral Fusion wall hanging, the quilt a-long hosted by Denise at The Quiltery.

Update: I've almost finished my Floral Fusion wall hanging but didn't get it done in February since my daughter hopes to paint her room and wasn't sure which colour I should use to bind the quilt. It's get done as soon as I know...and I'll be posting it when it's finished. 

Floral Fusion just needs a little more FMQ and a binding!













What I learned
  • I enjoyed making these blocks based on the 8 HST that I had made.
  • Since I was going to make a journal cover, I needed the piece with the three blocks to finish at 14" x 10". Since my friendship star block was 6", I added a few borders. For my 4" nine patch and pinwheel blocks, I ended up adding strips of fabric between and around them. Unfortunately, I didn't trim both blocks to the same size - that's why they are slightly wonky! I don't know why I thought that this would work... I would say it was the fatigue talking.
  • No wonder I wasn't up to making a journal cover. I could have waited a day or two, but I want to make more blocks for the SAHRR, so I really didn't want to spend more time on this piece.
  • Did you notice that the photos of the piece are taken both as a placemat and in a different direction as a wall hanging? It's my daughter who turned the placemat around and frankly, it looks much better in that direction.
  • I'm so glad that my daughter wants this on her wall. It'll look great over her new desk!
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including Project Quilting, Challenge 16.3 and February's OMG. You may want to check some of them out, as well as those linking up to Free Motion Mavericks below! Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!,

Project details

Made for Project Quilting's 16.3 Challenge - Common Blocks
Size: 14¼" x 10½"
Materials: hand-dyed fabric
Techniques: piecing, free motion quilting, walking foot quilting and envelope/pillowcase finish.




Free Motion Mavericks


Welcome to week 518 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks so much for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Melva of Melva loves scraps has been using her pink scraps. She made these two lovely pink baby quilts...but the scrap bin doesn't seem to be getting any emptier!

Melva's two pink baby quilts

Gail used a mini charm pack to make a lovely bag. The fabric and supplies got moved around a lot on her quilting table, so when she got tired of moving it, it got done! 

Gail's lovely quilted bag

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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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!😍
Related links
Linking parties

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.😊

Melva's Red Skies - a real scrappy beauty!

Melva even dreamt about how to finish quilting it! Read more about it here.

Melva's Red Skies - lovely FMQ

Donnalee bought fabric and made two winter runners. They are really lovely.

Donnalee's new winter runner

Another winter runner by Donnalee

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter
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