Thursday, May 05, 2022

Free Motion Mavericks and Version 2.0

Welcome to week 380 of the Free Motion Mavericks' linking party. I'm glad to say that I'm feeling much better now and it looks like spring is finally here 😁!

Being a little patriotic on V 2.0

As a Canadian, being overtly patriotic (or anything else) is not generally part of our culture. We are very proud of and thankful to live in Canada, just usually quiet about it (unless we're talking hockey or other sports!)

Maple leaves on V 2.0 quilt

Since the maple leaf was on the original quilt that my mother made, it had to be here also. I may be Canadian but I couldn't draw a maple leaf that looks good if my life depended on it. So... I tried a new product that was recommended by one of my readers. Thanks! It's called Golden Threads Quilting Paper. The instructions said to layer the paper and stitch through it (without thread) to mark the paper. I just traced the leaf several times instead. It worked really well and was easy to remove.

Golden Threads Quilting Paper

Here is a photo of a row of maple leaves from the back - it's not as obvious because it almost matches the backing fabric.

Maple leaves from the back

More maple leaves

Planning

The next section that I'll tackle is the square (about 18") at the bottom of the quilt. It originally had a dream catcher to honour my son's First Nation heritage. As well as the dream catcher, I will add an image of Turtle Island, the Anishinaabe symbol and a medicine wheel.

I found a stylized image of a wind-blown white pine and while I was trying to draw it, I realised that the leaves looked like quilted feathers. I practiced drawing it and here is my FMQ practice piece. I'll create a template of the Turtle Island and then will quilt the tree within it.

Practicing FMQ Turtle Island with a pine tree

What I learned

The Golden Threads Quilting Paper was lovely to work with.
Once I traced the maple leaf, it was easy to keep tracing more of them onto the quilting paper.
I'm glad that one more stripe is done and I'm looking forward to quilting on a larger scale in that 18" square! I will be practicing a lot to make sure that I get it right.

Free Motion Mavericks

Thanks to DonnaLee and Frédérique for linking up last time. DonnaLee has many interesting blocks on her design wall and Frédérique shared with us photos of her Journée d'Amitié doing Boro stitching.

Journée d'Amitié doing Boro stitching with Frédérique

DonnaLee's design board - I love those neutral blocks!

I hope that you've had some time to play this week. Feel free to link up a project!

Sunday, May 01, 2022

Pink love for April's Table Scrap Challenge

This weekend was the first time in years that I went to an in-town quilting retreat. What a lot of fun 😀

April's Table Scraps Challenge

April's colour was pink and the theme was "word".

Pink Love table runner

I spent a good part of three days sewing at a local quilt retreat organised by the Common Thread Quilt Guild (CTQG). I hadn't been in several years, so it was really nice seeing familiar faces.

I spent a few hours on Friday and Saturday sewing improv piecing strips. Each strip is a different colour and measures roughly 7½" by 40". I worked on the yellow and orange strips and have more than half of the strips done. I'll talk about these in a separate post, hopefully soon 😊.

Today I made my Table Scrap Challenge runner. On retreats we can use the guild's Accuquilt Go! Cutter, so I cut quite a few squares as well as a few shapes that I eventually want to use in projects.

Using the guild's Accuquilt Go! Cutter

I love making 9 patch type blocks....and I don't care how many "patches" there are 😀. I put some pink and white-on-white 1½" squares together and then used the scraps left from the cutter to improv piece the borders.

Sewing 1½" squares and adding improv borders

I put the top together and as soon as I got home (to my Jag), I cut the batting and backing fabric and started free motion quilting (FMQ). That's the best part and fun was had by all 😄. I started by stitching-in-the-ditch around the corner white pieces and then used some very pink Glide thread to FMQ.

In the pink borders, I followed the pink "waves" and then quilted loops or wishbones (I call them lj since that's what I think about when I quilt them). In each white corner, I quilted either my word "pink" or a flower. The centre of the piece is quilted in what I call "Flower Meander". It's my variation of Angela Walter's Feather Meander.

Details of the FMQ

Details of my word "Pink"

The back of the runner

Another view of the Pink Love table runner

My Table Scraps challenge quilts are always a squirrel because I only make them if I can find the time and interest to make them - and they are, of course, always at the last minute!

May's One Monthly Goal

I almost forgot to add my OMG for the month! I'm a member of the Fibre 15 group and are having a group show at the Stone School Gallery. I volunteered to make our comments book - so I'll be using some of the painted/dyed fabric to make a quilted journal cover.

What I learned

I am accuracy challenged, and it didn't help that I was making it up as I went along. I really should have paid more attention to piecing the blocks....oh well, they are cute!
I love white-oh-white fabric but it's not easy to tell which side is the right one. Thank goodness it doesn't really show unless you look at it too closely!
I thought that I was doing a good thing by cutting my batting ¼" wider than my quilt. I was going to make the binding that much bigger. I should have cut my binding strip larger than 2½" wide. I also finished it by machine with so-so results. Next time I want to do this, I'll have to check out a tutorial!
Although I don't make quilts often, I really appreciated the use of the Accuquilt Go! Cutter. I'm hoping for before going to my next retreat that I'll have a plan so that I can cut my fabric using it.
I was nervous about attending the retreat because I'm very much an introvert and depending on my mood, these events can be too much for me. I'm happy to say that I lasted longer than I thought I would each day. The food was great and the people so friendly. It was nice to be sociable after over two years of isolation 😀.

Saturday, April 23, 2022

Fibre Fling 2022 - Free Virtual Show now on

Hi 😊 I have some great news. I'm excited to announce the FREE VIRTUAL FIBRE ART SHOW by the Out of the Box Fibre Artists group of Ottawa, Ontario. This year is the group's 25th anniversary and I've been a member since 2016.

Free Virtual Art Show

I really hope that you will attend. The organisers have done an incredible job for the last two years to bring about a very professional show. It's very impressive. Last year's show was a huge success but one of the most received comments was that there were not enough pieces for sale. So this year, each artist was allowed to have 2 pieces not for sale but up to 5 that are for sale.

Fibre Fling 2022

Since I want all of you, dear readers, to visit the show, I am including the link to this amazing show everywhere in the post! Please click on the links to check it out!

Here are some more lovely posters of the Out of the Box's Fibre Fling 2022 Virtual textile art show and sale.

We have some very talented artists in our group - check it out!

Fibre Fling Virtual Textile Art Show and Sale

Check out the Free Virtual Art show

There are so many lovely pieces in the show

Fibre Fling Virtual Textile Art Show and Sale

When you visit the show, you will see on the home page several world class textile artists who were originally members of our group. You'll want to check them out!

At the top of the home page, you'll see several links. If you check out the Artists link, you'll find me on the second line (from your home computer). Look for Andrée G. Faubert. You'll see a short bio as well as links to my email, this blog and my Instagram account.

Recognize my piece from last year's
Fibre Fling show?

Since I want you to go see the exhibition, I'm not going to include the images of the 5 pieces that are included in the show. However, here are the links to the related blog posts, if you want to learn more about the making of the pieces.

Please let me play

The Light Beyond

Ciboulette Stitches

Yellow flower madness

Bonjour la vie

While you visiting the show, make sure to take in the other artists' work. If you're not into textile art, I suggest that you go to the Categories page to see the items that you're interested in. Here are the different works:

Make sure that you check it out!

Apparel and accessories
Beading
Collage
Crochet and lace making
Dyeing and surface design
Embroidery
Felting
Greeting cards
Home Décor
Jewelry
Mixed media
Quilting
Three-dimensional art
Wall art

I really hope that you will take the time for a quick (or long) visit to the show.

BTW, I should be symptom free in the next couple of days. I'm really looking forward to getting out of the house, even if it's just for groceries...who would have thought! 😊

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties to get the word out. Please don't hesitate to check them out.

Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Beauty Pageant, Free Motion Mavericks with Muv, TGIFF, Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts, Midweek Makers, Design Wall Monday,

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Looking Back on Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 378 of our Free Motion Mavericks linking party. My post is very short because it's my family's turn to be down with the dreaded pandemic sickness. I'm just going to pull out a few of my older FMQ images.

Looking Back

This is the first quilt that I free motion quilted (FMQ). It was wobbly but fun. Do you recognize Angela Walter's Dot-to-Dot? I've included links to the original posts in the image captions.

My first quilt - we all have a few...or many!

This one was still a little wobbly but the
designs are expanding

It's work like this that helped me get better

Into very intense FMQ

Structure is not a bad thing...I suppose 😊

Still pretty intense but after washing
this is one of my favourite blankets

I also like using stencils. It makes for a nice change.

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check them out?

Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts,

Free Motion Mavericks

Thanks to our faithful FMQ linkers 😊. I'm just not up to choosing any one or writing up all 4, so please forgive me. I'm sure that I'll be fine by next time!

It's now your turn!

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Stitching procrastination

I've been in the mood to stitch! 😊 I started in the car and just kept going.

Chain stitch

I went away for a couple of days to Toronto with my hubby to see a concert. He had booked it before lockdown, so two years later we saw Airborne Toxic Event with Mondo cozmo opening for them. It was a really great concert. The artists were so obviously happy to be back out there doing their thing!

I wasn't going to bring any stitching but at the last minute threw a few threads and this fabric that I had started stitching on in a bag for the journey. I'm very lucky that I can stitch in the car. This was the picture in my Instagram post on the way. Turns out it's easier to embroider in the car than it is to take a photo of it or actually post!

Stitching in the car - all chain stitch variations

I kept stitching during the week. I used a variation of chain stitches. As you can see, I love adding hexies to the mix. They add colour and are fun to stitch around.

The fabric that I was using was larger than my previous 8" blocks, so I cut off this side that had half-chain stitches. The openings can be large or small. It's good to see what a stitch can do. I also used rows of them above - they are very interesting together (the pink rows under the ladder stitch.

Half-chain stitches

This is what the sampler block looks like today. Over the open chain stitch (or ladder stitch), I added some long tail chain stitches because they look like flowers behind the fence! I also love the single chain stitch (or detached or lazy daisy) in a cluster in different threads and colours. It's a little more elaborate (and fun) than just using seed stitch.

Many variations of the chain stitch

It always takes me a few stitches to figure out the correct angles of the feathered chain stitch (at the bottom of the piece and under the top hexie). These are very popular in Crazy Quilting and can be part of quite elaborate combinations.

I learned a new variation while reading Textile Stories #12, by Mirjam Gielen of Mirjam textiles. Mirjam does some great organic embroidery, mostly on her eco-printed fabrics. The heavy rows on the right are made with heavy chain stitch. I really love their weight and tried them out in a few thread weights. The orange is 6 strands of embroidery floss, the blue is #5 perle cotton; the fuchsia is #12 perle cotton. The final row is Honest Yarn's hand-dyed indigo lace linen.

Heavy chain stitch

Embroidering on eco-printed fabric

This is a piece of eco-printed linen that I started stitching on a while back. I added a few open chain stitch rows (ladder), some detached chain stitch as well as quite a few French knots.

Adding more stitches on eco-printed fabric

In the image below, in the bottom left corner, you can see Mirjam's variation of the blanket stitch to make lace like or what she calls cell like structures. That was my first try and I will be practicing this - it's quite beautiful.

Stitching on eco-printed fabric

Biodiversity piece

I love procrastinating and I'm quite good at it! However, sometimes I have to talk myself into getting things done. I promised myself that after stitching and preparing this post, that I could go back to my biodiversity piece. Since I've been working with the chain stitch, I started with the lazy daisy in the blue flowers below.

Biodiversity - getting back to it.

This piece was started based on another workshop with TextileArtists.org's stitch club. In March 2021, Kate Tume's workshop was about exploring narrative potential with embellishment. See Related links for details.

Making detached daisies within
detached daisies

What I learned

I've had a good time playing with thread - it seems that I really needed some slow stitching time!
It's been a while since I worked on a new embroidery sampler. I've added links below to the other ones I've worked on.
Embroidering in the car is a great way to pass the time, especially since I can't sleep in the car anymore.
The best thing about a live concert was seeing how happy the musicians were being on stage and doing what they love. It was very inspiring.
I was also reminded how much I love my quiet little suburb!
Now that I've started stitching the biodiversity piece, I'm going to put away the other embroidery until I finish this one.

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Journal Cover for Quilting Agenda

Hi! This project is a Squirrel as well as a useful way to procrastinate. More about the procrastination later 😊

Mark Making

I'm always nervous about working with paint but the few times that I've painted on fabric, the results were interesting and relatively successful for a beginner. I've been using Colour Vie pigment system which was created for Gunnel Hag, a amazing artist who became allergic to the paints she needed to create her surface designed fabrics. She's a Canadian artist who spoke at one of our Out Of The Box Textile Artists' group a few years ago. I've bought a few pieces of her fabric and made my last agenda journal cover with one of those pieces. When I saw that she had a couple of online courses, I tried out the "Make your mark" course.

Finished agenda cover

I started by painting the first piece of fabric. I was hoping to get some nice purple where the blue and red meet but that didn't work out so well. Once it had dried a little bit, I added marks on top.

There was a bit of paint on the plastic underneath the fabric, so I imprinted the next piece of fabric with it and then started making various marks. You can see below a square jar that has elastics and cord around it. Those are the marks on the fabric.

Paint and marks

Making marks using the jar wrapped with cord

This was my second piece. I used an assortment of items to make the marks - a fork, a potato masher, the bottom of a plastic container, lids etc. I did figure out a few things that will make my next practice pieces better.

Marks on the fabric

Adding stitches

I've been using a perpetual agenda since January 2020 but I was running out of pages. Here it is, made from Gunnel Hag's fabric.

Agenda cover made from Gunnel Hag's fabric

You can understand why I was reluctant to switch agenda's. I could have re-used the cover but I want to keep the agenda the way it is. It seems to be an integral part of it and was used a great deal in the last two years.

I wondered if I should over-paint the piece but decided to see what adding thread would do. Instead of free motion quilting (FMQ) the whole panel, I only quilted what I needed and was able to use the extra pieces for the inside of the cover.

FMQ fabric

I used four different variegated threads to quilt it. I looked through my FMQ journal to find designs to play with. It was great re-visiting the designs - some of which I haven't used in quite a while.

I measured many times and the journal cover came together without any issues. I used Christina Cameli's Free Motion Quilted Gifts on Craftsy.

Front of the Agenda

The sides of the cover are made with the extra fabric that wasn't FMQ

Back of the cover

You can see the whole agenda cover here.

Front of the agenda with the elastic

I really love it. It went from a simple design on the fabric to something much more complex. That is a very good lesson to learn! 😊

Procrastinating

My first procrastination is in writing this post instead of starting to fill in my new 2022 quilting agenda. I'm almost afraid to see everything that I have going on in the next two months. That is why I made the cover....but it's going to be hectic!

My second procrastination is from working on my next slow stitching project that will be in the ArtPontiac show. I think that it's been over a year since I last worked on it. This is the last photo that I found of it, but there is more done (thank goodness!) More about this piece soon I hope!

Beaded and embroidered piece on biodiversity

What I learned

As I mentioned, adding the FMQ was essentially over-painting with thread. That means that making simple designs with paint can lead to some lovely, more complex fabrics.
When I added the paint to the mark-making items, I should have used a brayer or some other way of adding an even layer of paint on the objects. There's nothing wrong with uneven marks but it might look more professional if it was even. This would be especially good for items like the potato masher.
It would be great to make another journal cover, but this time to actually plan where the marks would go. I wish that I could have put the large circles at the front of the cover, although they are interesting on the spine.

Related links

Gunnel Hag, Make Your Mark On-demand workshop, Colour Vie
Free Motion Quilted Gifts on Craftsy with Christina Cameli
Post about other FMQ journals

Making a journal cover with practice piece, December 14, 2019 (My first one)
Finishing up One Monthly Goal - OMG, January 31, 2020 (Agenda cover)
Free Motion Mavericks, February 06, 2020 (A production of quilted journal covers)
I heart Project Quilting, February 09, 2020

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun parties. Let's see what's going on! Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, Off the Wall Friday, Put Your Foot Down, Beauties Pageant, Peacock Party, Monday Making,

Design Wall Monday,

Project details