Blue Jays Fan and I Quilted This!

Allô and welcome😎 My son and DIL went to Toronto to see a Blue Jays baseball game last weekend. As I've mentioned in a previous post, my DIL asked me to make her a Blue Jays t-shirt, so here it is. 

Blue Jays T-shirt

Here is the t-shirt on dear Sarah. 

Sarah is now ready to see the game!

I'm afraid that I forgot to take a picture of the finished appliqué, once it had been sewn on. Here is the appliqué before it got machine satin stitched.

Blue Jays appliqué ready for its satin stitch.

This is the photo that I sent Sarah before I stitched it. She asked that it be moved to the right, closer to the two flowers on her t-shirt.

Sarah asked me if I could make her this t-shirt she saw on Instagram. It's from instagram.com/studiomooi.ca/ and was posted October 25, 2025 if you want to find it. I'm afraid that it took me this long to make it but it was just in time for them to see the game last weekend. Sarah chose the fabric - it really is cute! 

Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt

I've gotten far with the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt but didn't get it finished for our friends' 40th wedding anniversary. I just can't do all nighters or quilting marathons any more. I really am getting older (and some would say wiser). In the afternoon before the party, I just sent our friends a quick picture of the quilt. Here it is.

Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt on Saturday morning

Once the pressure of finishing the quilt was gone, I even managed to FMQ a lot of the centre panel with the lake and park before leaving for the party. Three weeks ago I posted the list of things I needed to do by the end of July. It didn't all get done, but here it is. I've added the final steps in finishing the quilt and what's left is in red. 

Plans for the rest of July/August

• Finish FMQ the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt
• First row: finish grass and details in the yards and houses ✓
• Second row: finish sky ✓, pond/park and the last house
• Third row: finish night sky, yards and house details ✓
• Cut and bind the quilt
• Make the teal house for the Quilter's Cove QAL ✓
• Make the Blue Jays appliqué and attach it to the t-shirt ✓
• Continue sewing together hexie flowers ✓

I'll be linking up to the August OMG (One Monthly Goal). This quilt will get finished!!!

Playing with Watercolour on Fabric

I know that I don't want to learn to paint but I do want to learn to add watercolour to fabric for stitching. This was my first attempt and I love it!

After watching a few videos on watercolour painting, everyone said that having a good (expensive) set of paint was worth it. So, a few months ago I was in a paper shop in the Ottawa market area and bought a small set of very fine watercolour paints. Everyone was correct - the pigments are so much stronger and easier to work with. I didn't prep any of my fabric although everything is always washed when it come in. I will iron them to help set the paint. I'm not planning on using them for anything that needs to be washed, so they should be OK.

My clean up fabric, a vintage doily and white fabric

What's happening in the back yard!

I couldn't resist sharing this with you. I bought a corn feeder for the squirrels but the corn that comes with it are not available, so I dehydrated my own corn. It took the squirrels one day to eat it all up. I'm now dehydrating more!

Squirrel eating the dehydrated corn on the cob

What I learned

• The Blue Jays t-shirt appliqué went well. My satin stitch is not great but good enough. One day I'll practice some more - it's the only way that I want to raw-edge appliqué.
• When making the appliqué I ended up using the white fabric as a background and sewed every piece on that. That really helped since I just cut around the finished logo once I was done.
• I am getting older and can't handle stress well (I never could frankly!) So not finishing the quilt on time for the party was not a big surprise. I really need to pace myself.
• As I mentioned, once the pressure was off, it was fun to keep FMQ it again.
• I know that the last part of the FMQ is the fiddly parts - flowers, details on houses, etc. That means that I need to be patient and accept the thread changes required.
• I did have more tension problems and they were with one type of less expensive cotton thread. I'm now avoiding them for this project.
• I'm so happy with my watercolour painted fabric. I remember the lady on the video saying that the paint dries lighter, but I don't think that this is the case with the expensive paints. They look as vibrant as when I painted them.
• I'm hoping that this fabric will inspire me to stitch up something cool!

Related links

• Blue Jays logo on instagram.com/studiomooi.ca/ 
• Getting Things Done and I Quilted This!, July 23, 2026
• Slow Progress and I Quilted This!, July 16, 2026
• How to add Watercolor Paint to Fabric for Slow Stitching by Jo Mo

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, particularly the August OMG. You may want to check some out. Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, Beauties Pageant, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Oh Scrap!,

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. 

Gwyned Trefethen has done some thread painting but it's very time consuming. She's glad that she can now use her machine embroidery with her thread painting. She shared with us a few of her early thread painting pieces. Here is Spring Chorus.

Spring Chorus, thread painted by Gwyned

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts shared with us this very lovely quilt called Boxed In. The quilt is in the Summer 2026 issue of Quilter’s World. Unfortunately it was shipped out but never made it back. That's such a shame. Sent the quilt some good vibes so that it makes its way back to her.😍

Boxed In by Preeti

Close-up of Boxed In by Preeti

It's now your turn!😍

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A Finished Flimsy, FMQ, slow stitching and I Quilted This!

Hello and welcome 😊 Another week has whizzed by. We're back to more seasonal weather and lots of rain. Yesterday the rain drops were so big that my patio umbrella was vibrating 😮 Let's get to the good stuff!

A Finished Baby Quilt Flimsy

The first baby quilt (of three) is now a finished top. It's actually one row less than the pattern but it's a baby quilt and didn't need to be that long. It measures 43" x 47". I just want baby to be wrapped up in it when it's cold and they're going out in the car or to play on the quilt on the floor. 

As I mentioned, this is the first of three baby quilts. Three of JJ's friends had babies this winter. JJ helped me plan the quilt and chose the novelty fabrics based on her friends' hobbies. This one has fabric featuring Star Wars, pickleball, smoothies, and cute animals, including dinosaurs. I have three more blocks that I'll be adding to the back (hockey, trucks and mittens) and JJ will design and prepare the label.

A baby quilt flimsy from the Square Dance pattern

FMQ Two More Houses

I had fun FMQ two more Rainbow Neighbourhood houses. 

Yellow house now FMQ

The brown house at night is also FMQ

My process is to take out some thread and then do all of the FMQ that I can with that colour. I started with white, since I was piecing the baby quilt before this. I did all of the insides of the blocks on the side walls. I then went on to yellow and then brown since I could use the same bobbin thread for both. So far it's worked very well.

I haven't quilted the yards or the actual rooves since they're another colour. The quilt has 8 houses and a park. I've FMQ 3 of the houses, so 5 more left! I'm also looking forward to playing in the park!

Slow Stitching

While watching video tutorials and catching up in the TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club, I've continued stitching my grandmother's placemat. I wanted to stitch something different in the pink sections and happened to watch Mirjam Gielen as she demonstrated how to do an organic honeycomb stitch. It's not a great stitch to quilt with since it's difficult to keep the tension even but after ironing the placemat, it wasn't too bad - at least not worth un-stitching😁

Honeycomb stitch on the placemat - a little wabbly but fine

I'll be using the honeycomb stich for only these two sections

This afternoon it was cool enough to stitch outside. It's my favourite retirement activity. There seems to be new baby grackles and squirrels around. They really don't like each other but they mostly behave 😃 Today I took out my floral watercolour concertina book and stitched away while watching the live nature show.

I started using "W" shapes - they stitch easily

Adding a lot more stitches to the pages

The concertina book - many more hours of stitching left 😍

What I learned

• After finishing the last two rows of the baby quilt, I wasn't in the mood to make another two rows (the squares and then the triangles). I looked at the quilt and decided that it was big enough. It is for a baby, and would be fine for a toddler.
• I do have three more novelty blocks to add, so I'll make a fun pieced backing since the quilt is wider than 42" (of course). 
• I do want to quilt the baby quilt but the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt is a priority. However, if I can FMQ a couple of houses per week, in a month, I could have most of it finished. I was thinking that this gave me tons of time but July is just two weeks away, 😳 so I'll be focusing on the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt.
• I'm happy to report that I've only had issues with my white thread when FMQ. I have no idea what that's all about but the tension at the back just wasn't quite right. However with the other coloured thread, everything was fine. I was using a piecing thread, so next time I'll use something a little better for the FMQ.
• The slow stitching on my grandmother's placemat wasn't as great as I hoped but it's still fine. I'll finish the last of the yellow perle cotton and then do something else for the other pink blocks.
• I had a lot of fun stitching on paper on the concertina book. The first page is the easiest, after that it gets a little clumsy but it's all good.
• I want to explore what other very simple stitches I can use on the paper. I have done some French knots. The vases on the collages are card stock, so I'll be able to try something different on those. 

Related links

• Flitting from Project to Project and I Quilted This! June 11, 2026
• Baby Quilt
• Baby Quilt, Upcoming Retreat and I Quilted This! May 21, 2026
• Rainbow Neighbourhood
• A finish, June's OMG and I Quilted This!, June 04, 2026
• Slow Stitching
• Projects in Progress and I Quilted This!, May 27, 2026
• Playing with watercolour and stitch, January 07, 2026

Linking parties

I'll be linking to many fun linking parties that you may want to check out!

Monday Musings, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2026, Patchwork & Quilts, Put your foot down, Beauties Pageant, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

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, has finished quilting her two final compassion quilts for the year. Awareness & Butterfly Beauty are both lovely quilts. Gretchen did some straight line quilting in both and added a piano key border and diagonal quilting in the border corners of Butterfly Beauty. You'll want to check them out!

Awareness, made and quilted by Gretchen

Butterfly Beauty, Gretchen's own design

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts finished quilting her Peaches quilt for the Quilts 4 Kids Program. It's quilted in a straight lines pattern in a zig zag style.

Kat's quilted Peaches quilt

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts participated in a blog hop to showcase a new collection of fabrics, Sunflower Spice. They are gorgeous! Preeti created a wonderful queen sized quilt, Phagun, which she quilted on her domestic machine. You won't want to miss reading more about it and seeing more eye candy! Also, you'll want to check out her very cool pouches made with a recycled Nepal napkin. 

Preeti's Phagun quilt

Diann of Little Penguin Quilts participated in Sandra's Lyra QAL and made a runner/wall hanging. It is really lovely. Here are both views.

Diann's version of Lyra as a runner

Diann's version of a wall hanging

It's now your turn 😍

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Playing with watercolour and stitch

Bonjour and welcome 😊. I've taken some me-time to play with watercolours and stitching. It's been so much fun! I love watercolours, the way that they mix with each other to make something different. I have no interest in becoming a proficient painter, rather I want to make cool marks and blobs that I can stitch into (spoken like a true fibre artist😁) 

Creating Bold Botanicals 

I've been following Helen Wells, a very cool British artist, who exudes energy! She does wonderful work in her sketch books and loves to share and teach. Last winter I bought her virtual Creating Bold Botanicals course and I finally took  a day this week to do it. It was wonderful!

My first Bold Botanicals sketch book

The sketchbook is a work in progress. I painted watercolour botanical shapes on 5 pages of sketching paper and then used lightly coloured card stock to paint various designs that end up being vases and such. I cut out funky vase shapes from the card stock pages and  collaged them onto the botanical pages. I'm afraid I got carried away and didn't take any progress photos.

The front page of my accordion sketch book

The back page of my accordion sketch book

I couldn't wait to put the accordion book together. The book is rather wonky, just like its botanicals and vases! 😃Then I started stitching into the book. As you can imagine, that's my favourite part. Here are some details of the stitching. I mostly used the running stitch in various colours and thickness of thread. It'll be fun to experiment with various colours - some of the thread blends in but we also need colours that pop.

Stitching on paper - what fun!

Running stitch and chain stitch

Part of the accordion book

January's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

I've been playing a lot...mostly as a procrastination technique. I really want to get the Cowboy panel quilt finished. If I work hard, it can be finished by the end of January!!!

January's OMG

What I learned

• As I stitch, I can examine what happens with the watercolour paints. The way that they blend and play with each other is so fun. I also used a bamboo stick to spread around the paint, like a pencil. 
• Helen suggested that we use thick sketching paper (instead of watercolour paper) - so that it's not intimidating or feels too precious.  That was a great idea but I'm looking forward to using water colour paper because it's so much easier to stitch into.
• I should have stitched some of the pages before turning them into an accordion book. Once attached to each other, they are awkward to stitch into. That's why I've worked more on the front and back pages.😊
• I used a half inch fold to stick the pages together - I should have used one inch. It would have made for a sturdier book.
• For Christmas, JJ got me another of Helen Wells' course - Nature and Nurture. I'm looking forward to sketching natural objects and then use watercolour paints.
• A couple of years ago in the TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club, we had a workshop with Sam Owen where we used water colours and then stitched onto them. I've wanted to explore this further - so this will be my chance. 

Related links

• Helen Wells, Website and online courses
• Stitching and watercolour (with Sam Owen), August 03, 2023

Linking parties

I'll be linking to many fun linking parties, including January's OMG. Sew & Tell, Monday Musings, Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Slow Sunday Stitching, 

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. 

Last week Donnalee made more Christmas placemats for her and her husband. Apparently many more will be needed by next year!

Christmas placemat made by Donnalee

Deb, the Scrappy Quilter, made this gorgeous quilt through the Spring String sew along. Those lovely brown and blue fabrics really go well together.

Deb's first finished Spring String quilt

Melva of Melva Loves Scraps finished her RSC Color Wash Hexagons - what a great quilt.

Melva's RSC Color Wash Hexagons 

It's now your turn!

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Fun Scrappy Runner and Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊. I'm so glad that you're here! Things are looking up health-wise in our household, the sun is shining and flowers are peaking out 🌞. Spring is here - Yay!!!

Fun Scrappy Runner

I've taken some time to put together my latest scrappy runner for my two stuffed doggies with rabbit ears. 🐰They are so cute. Here is the runner with the two cuties.  

Scrappy runner before FMQ - with cuties

Lovely shot with the sun in the window!

This is what the runner looks like. You can see that it's made up of two very scrappy pieced blocks, with scrappy strips on each side and between them. 

I'm looking forward to FMQ it. Hopefully this weekend! 😊

Scrappy runner

Small Embroidery Piece

At some point in the last few years I drew/painted on fabric. I believe that it might have been with water colours. I found the piece a while back and attached it to a hand-dyed stretchy background fabric. It is a bit of a challenge - I tacked the top fabric to the background loosely but I've had to unstitch most of it to avoid puckering. It's not going to sit perfectly but hey, that's life 😁. I'm sure that I'll be able to do something to either hide the puckers or accentuate them.

Playing with embroidery

What I learned

• I'm having a great time adding strips to the scrappy runner - possibly too many of them! I'll FMQ what I have and can then make it shorter if I have to.
• I'm really looking forward to having these cuties keep me company in the car. 😍
• I used the same blue sheet for the backing since it worked so well for the small blue scrappy quilt.
• I'm considering doing an all-over pattern for the runner, just for something different.
• We are nearing the end of the month, so I'll have to FMQ Floral Fusion soon. 
• I don't have any plans for my small embroidery piece. I do hope that my background fabric will fit over a canvas. That would be the easiest way to finish it.
• I'm getting my pieces ready for Fibre Fling 2025. I only have the Rabbit's Adventure piece on display. I am donating a piece for the raffle, "Scrap Happy", that I think I may have missed and not shared yet. I'll do that next week!

Related links

• Imagine and Free Motion Mavericks, April 09, 2025
• PQ 16 - 1 Mythical Creatures - A Korean Folktale, January 10, 2025

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check some out? Remember to link up to Free Motion Mavericks' party below. Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday,  Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2025, Oh Scrap!, Slow Sunday Stitching, Monday Musings, 

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 527 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a very productive week! Thanks so much for linking up while I've been almost absent. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting. 

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has released a new pattern - Austin. You may remember it since it was published a while back in Make Modern Magazine. Preeti showed us an EQ photo of the quilt in pretty Spring colours. You may want to go and have a look!

A close up of Preeti's Austin, quilted with a wavy stitch

Kat of Scrapbox Quilts has FMQ two more lovely Bear Hugs. They are so cute! Both were quilted using fancy rulers! Here's the front of both quilts. You may want to go to her post to see the quilting from the back!

Kat's Bear Hugs #11, quilted with radiating lines

Kat's Bear Hugs #12. You'll want to check out the back of
the small quilt to better see the quilting, 

We have a surprise finish by Anne-Marie at Stories from the Sewing Room. Anne-Marie quilted a small quilt that came as a kit. It has two layers of batting and is absolutely scrumptious 😍. As you may know, this is my favourite type of FMQ. 

FMQ in progress - Anne-Marie 

  

Finished FMQ quilt by Anne-Marie

Brenda of Song Bird Designs participated in the Island Batik Drunkards Path Challenge with her quilt, Maze. What a lovely quilt! The quilting is exquisite. 

Maze, designed by Brenda, is Chloe approved!

I'm so excited that Kate, from Life in Pieces, has taken out her walking foot to quilt one of her pieces. This Sad Kitty trivet was made by her daughter, Grad Girl. Kate started by quilting a sandwich, following Jacquie Gering's instructions in her book "Walk", which Kate and I highly recommend!

Sad Kitty, quilted by Kate

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter