Thursday, December 15, 2022

Adding details and planning for Version 2.0

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, week 411. I've only done a bit of Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) this week on my son's Version 2.0 quilt but, I have been doing lots of thinking! 😊

Adding details to the birds sections

As I'm getting ready to finish the FMQ, I've been looking at each section that's already done, to see if the quilting is dense enough. I don't want it too dense, but empty spots lead to trouble, so I've been adding some fun little details to the bird sections.

For the Canada Goose, I added some water, bull rushes and a cloud. Underneath that, I continued the branch that the bird is perched on and added some music notes. At the very bottom of that section are a couple of flowers.

Adding details around the birds to fill up the larger empty spaces

In front of the woodpecker, I connected the branch that he's on to a tree trunk and included a hole!

Adding a tree trunk with a hole

The next section has 3 birds. At the top and the bottom, I added some musical notes.

Birds and some musical notes

More bird tweets!

Planning the FMQ around the Sun

The Sun had been FMQ with flames and there are swirls in its centre. However the Sun does not take up the entire space in the blue section. On my template I drew a few things but I didn't really like them.

To help me visualise the area that needs extra FMQ, I drew lines (mostly angled like the Sun) around the Sun and then basted the lines with white thread. In this picture, I used Paint to define the blue space and added a red line over the basting. This is roughly the area that I have to fill.

The issue is that I really don't want to quilt anything that will detract from the Sun, but I do need to fill in some of that space. My daughter suggested adding clouds, which would take up space but not be densely quilted and therefore not complete with the Sun. If I use clouds, I could add them at the bottom and sides, and then add stars at the top.

Figuring out what to quilt in the space around the Sun

What I learned

Adding the extra details around the birds was fun. There was no preparation to do except to figure out what to add. I knew that it would include music notes. After that it was just about adding more details to the trees etc.
I'll be going through all of the quilt's sections to see what else needs to be added. Hopefully this will go fairly quickly.
For the Sun, I know that echoing helps to make things stand out but I'm not sure if that's what this needs. I think that I would rather leave the Sun as it is and just add a few things in the extra space.
On the paper template, I tried adding feathers or more swirls, but both were too much.
Right now I think that fluffy clouds and stars might do the trick. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

Free Motion Mavericks

Thank you for linking up last time. Here are two lovely free motion quilted (FMQ) finishes. Gail, of Quilting Gail, made a lovely baby quilt from her Lone Star left-over pieces. She FMQ loops and some swirling flowers. If you didn't see it, do check it out!

A lovely baby quilt with left-over pieces.

Sandra from mmm quilts made the Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt and also launched the pattern for it this week! Each house has a different 6" star for its side wall and each star got some lovely custom quilting. The sashing is a ribbon candy design while the outside border is finished with a floppy feather. If you are falling in love with this quilt, you're in luck because you can now buy the pattern! Visit Sandra's post for more details.

Sandra's Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt

It's now your turn!

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Off the Grid Sampler

Hi! I hope that you are surviving December and all of its potential craziness 😎. I'm trying to stay Zen but it's not easy! Something that does help is embroidery and other slow stitching projects. Here is an ongoing project.

Creating my own Off the Grid Sampler

This sampler comes from a September class with Sue Stone from TextileArtist.org It's taken me a while to get going but now I'm enjoying it a lot and looking forward to trying out stitches.

Off the Grid Sampler...so far

I'm using two layers of fabric for the embroidery. The top is a Kona cotton and the bottom is a very light cotton that I've used for backing various slow-stitching projects. I've numbered the different shapes in the pattern so that I can keep track of what stitches I've used.

Pattern and numbering to keep track of stitches

Here are a few pictures at various stages. I won't be listing every combination here unless it's something particularly interesting.

Sampler

The image below has some interesting trellis stitches with Tencel perle (section 6), double buttonhole stitch (section 5), and feather stitches in black as a filler (section 7). In sections 3 and 9, I was playing with the placement of running stitches. It's not quite what I want yet but I'm sure I'll figure it out!😊

Closeup of some stitches

The French knots below are nice and fluffy because I'm using the Tencel Perle.

French Knots within a border (section 16).
I'm still working on the border part.

My two furry helpers

I was dog sitting and asked my two helpers to sit next to the embroidery so that I could take their pictures. Twix, always wanting to please, sat for this photo while Taffy, the independent one, promptly lay down on it to sleep 😁

Twix is always happy to pose for a picture.

Taffy taking a nap on the sampler

What I learned

I was hoping to make a lovely colour-coordinated sampler but I soon gave up and am using a variety of interesting threads without being too concerned with colour. It's going to be a scrappy sampler 😊.
When I was at my brother's place, he saw my embroidery floss, left the room and then came back with a plastic bin. It contains my niece's friendship bracelet supplies which I've now inherited. (Thanks Anna!) There is some wonderful embroidery floss in there and a few interesting beads and buttons.
There was also a whole bunch of friendship bracelets that she made. I had a few of her bracelets and now with these new ones, I really want to make a "collaborative" piece. I will also include some of my daughter's bracelets. So many ideas 😉
I'm enjoying trying out combinations of stitches on this sampler. The fun part is that if it doesn't really work the first time, I can use different threads to try again.
My motto for this sampler is: It might not be pretty but it will be useful!
I was happy to try out some stitch combinations from memory. I wasn't of the name but checked them out in my trusty Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery by Sharon Baggon.
The stitches I started in section 31 are buttonhole or blanket stiches but they are not going in the direction that I want them to. Unless it's really horrible, I'm not going to undo stitching, I'm just going to work around them.😊(that's the Zen part!)

Related links

Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery by Sharon Baggon
Sue Stone's website

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun parties. Why not check them out? Slow Sunday Stitching, Patchwork & Quilts, Peacock Party, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Finished (or Not) Friday, Put Your Foot Down, Off The Wall Friday,

Thursday, December 08, 2022

Sun flames, swirls and rail fence blocks

Hello and welcome to Week 410 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm glad that you stopped by. I free motion quilted (FMQ) some flames and swirls to the sun in the middle of the Version 2.0 quilt.

Flames and Swirls

Last week I finished the Free Motion Mavericks post by showing you the Sun that I stitched with the walking foot in the middle blue section of the quilt. The section is not quite finished but I did add flames extending between the sun's points and then swirls in the middle of the sun.

This first picture isn't as pretty but does show the FMQ well. Between each point in the sun is a flame. I was very nervous about stitching in such a large area so I drew a few flames on the paper template that I had created. It only took a few to figure out that I wanted the flame to start outside of where the Sun's points intersected.

Sun with flames and swirls

After finishing the flames, I FMQ just inside the circle of the sun. It was much more wobbly than the original Sun stitched with the walking foot but I just wanted to highlight the circle. I then started stitching the swirls. That went fairly well since each swirl wasn't that large. The design also allowed me to stop often to get my barring.

Another look at the Sun, the flames and the swirls

When I finished the FMQ, I started cleaning up the threads in the back. I discovered that when I had used the walking foot and had jumped to the next flame, the stitching was starting to come undone😲. I thought that I had added a few stitches in place but obviously not enough. The easiest thing to do was to FMQ over the original circle and take a detour over the small triangles where the sun's points intersected. This helped to highlight the Sun's circle as well as stitch over those threads that would have undone.😊

Making Rail Fence Blocks

This week I also made rail fence blocks for Cynthia's (Cynthia Brunz Designs) charity quilts . At the end of November, she asked if quilters could send her some dark blue and brown or tan rail fence blocks. You know how I'm accuracy challenged, so I thought that making blocks would be easier than making a whole quilt.

I might have been mistaken in my assumptions 😊! Getting those rail fence blocks to finish at 5½" x 5½" took a lot of hard work but was probably a very good exercise for me. Of the 14 blocks that I made, 12 are good enough to send to Cynthia. Two were a whole ½" smaller, so I kept those and made two mug rugs. I did learn a lot and I'm including that below.

First mug rug

Second mug rug

Two lovely mug rugs

I quilted them differently, with the walking foot, to see the effect. The top mug rug was stitched more or less in-the-ditch, while the mug rug below was stitched perpendicular to the piecing. It really gives a different effect.

What I learned

Drawing the sun flames on the large paper template was a great idea. It helped me understand the scale of the flames and figure out where to start and finish them relative to the points.
I used a Frixion pen to draw the first flame on the quilt. After that I was confident that I could do it without the marking.
I was a bit upset when I saw that the thread at the beginning of the Sun's points were unravelling. I just ignored it while I finished up the swirls and then realised that FMQ over them would solve the problem. That is what I do when I come to the end of my bobbin thread. I just stitch over a part that is already stitched and then keep going - so that's essentially what I did. I checked the back of the quilt, and it's going to be fine 😊.
As for the rail fence blocks, I was very careful in the sewing and pressing of the blocks, so the problem has to be in the initial cutting of the fabric.
I did as Cynthia suggested and made the block length longer so that I could trim them, but my problem was with the width. After trimming a couple of blocks, that's when I realised that I had a potential problem. From then on, I was very accurate in my sewing. I'm really happy that only two blocks didn't make it.

Free Motion Mavericks

We are starting to have a real party with FMQ and other posts. Remember, you don't have to do FMQ to link up!

Karen made a lovely personalized ballerina quilt for her granddaughter Livia. She did some lovely FMQ flower swirls. It's really lovely.

Karen's lovely quilt for Livia, her granddaughter

Melva finished her Pieces in the Garden Row Quilt by FMQ 5" clam shells. The quilt is based on the story of a "Bride's Quilt" and was her November OMG. Find out the significance of the various blocks by visiting her post. It's really lovely in front of the small chapel/shed.

Melva's Pieces in the Garden Row Quilt

Rebecca is wowing us all with her mixture of digital quilting, FMQ and ruler work on her Jingle quilt. Here is the border that she is FMQ. Amazingly enough, it turns out that FMQ is faster than both the ruler work and the individual digital quilting!

The borders are FMQ on Rebecca's Jingle quilt

We also got to check out Raewyn's finished big Boxer floor cushion cover. The kids are going to love playing with this cushion!

What a great big Boxer floor cushion cover!

It's now your turn 😎

Sunday, December 04, 2022

Mindful stitching with natural elements

Hi! I hope that this weekend finds you well. I have a slow stitching project to share with you today.

Mindful Stitching with Natural Elements

I'm still doing the TextileArtist.org Stitch Club workshops, and this one was great to incorporate into the mindful stitching that I've been doing for the last few years. The workshop was "Using natural materials in embroidery" with Claire de Waard. Here are the two meditation blocks that I created based on the workshop.

Using natural elements in my meditation block

Using leaves and onion skin to make a meditation block

In the workshop, we learned to preserve natural elements such as leaves, onion skins and flower petals to incorporate into embroidery pieces.

I had a great time foraging for the natural elements in my back yard. This was before all of the leaves and flower petals fell to the ground. I love the image below, however they weren't all used since some things didn't dry as well as others.

Foraged in the back yard

The first step after gathering was to dry everything. I placed them on sheets of printing or freezer paper and then covered them with weights. I learned quite a few things at this point that I'm including in the "What I learned" section below.

Onion skins and rose leaves dry well

From tiny lotus leaves to larger burning bush leaves

The flower petals change colours depending on the type

Tiny flowers that dried to a pink-brown

Once they were dry, the next step was to glue them to paper so that they keep their shape and don't become too brittle to stitch through.

This is a little harder than you might think because if the material is too dry, it becomes very brittle. In that case, you can soak the material in water for a few minutes, then dry it and glue it to the paper.

Onion skin in the water

Onion skin dried and clued onto paper

Sometimes it was hit and miss, but since I had lots of natural material, I could afford to loose a few. After I incorporated the leaves and petals into my meditation blocks, I realised that they are still very fragile. Talking with artist friends, I found out that you can also add gel medium or Mod Podge over the leaves, with or without the paper underneath.

I added a layer of Mod Podge on some of the leaves to see if it would help. It did make them less brittle. You can see the "natural material" stitched in the middle of this unfinished block. They are petals from a white rose. They are more pliable but the paper underneath it pops up every time you bring the needle up. I think that it might be more effective to just use the Mod Podge without the paper behind it.

Stitching through rose petals covered with one layer of Mod Podge

I am keeping the Mod Podge covered natural material in a new Coptic Journal that I made this week. I'll be writing a post about this later.

Envelopes in my Coptic Journal to keep my flower petals

Keeping a leaf and onion skins that have a layer of Mod Podge

This is the tin where I keep my glued "natural material".

Lots of natural material to play with

Another way of keeping smaller flower petals is to glue them under plastic to create sequins. In this case, I bought a sheet of sticky plastic. I cut two circles of the clear plastic and then sandwiched the flower between the two sticky sides. You can see below the little clear flowers that it creates. I kept some round while I cut between the petals on others. In the top picture of this post, I incorporated one of these flowers in my block.

Making little clear flower sequins

What I learned

Placing the leaves and other material on the sheet to dry is a great idea but it works best if the sheets are not piled one on top of the other. It turns out that the material can mold if there is too much humidity. It's best to place one sheet down, cover it and then place a weight (a heavy book) on top and keep layering this way.
It might also have worked better if I hadn't left the sheets there for a few days. That would have aired the natural elements better.
I got a bouquet of flowers for my retirement/birthday and the petals of the pink roses really dried beautifully although they didn't keep their shapes.
Some of the natural material didn't dry well. You have to experiment to see what works.
The next natural material that I get, I'll try to just use a few coats (on top and underneath) of Mod Podge over them. I think that this shows promise.
The clear flower sequins didn't always stay together. The next time, I will add a drop of glue over and under the flower.
I made the first sequin while the flower petals were still pink. Unfortunately, a few minutes later it had turned more brown-pink.
I'm working on adding layers to my art, including the meditation blocks. It's so much fun and can be very effective! 😊

Thursday, December 01, 2022

Fun and Games on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to week 409 of Free Motion Mavericks. Can you believe that it's already December? I'm happy to say that today I woke up to the Sun and everything covered with a dusting of snow 😎. I hope that it will stay. I like it much better than what seemed to be never-ending rain we had yesterday! I guess it's a reminder that all things, good and bad, come to an end.😊

Free Motion Quilting Games

Version 2.0 is becoming a very collaborative quilt. My son sent me pictures of two of the games that he plays. They have now been incorporated onto the quilt.

Magic and Skyrim images on Version 2.0

Skyrim Compass in the lower black stripe and
squares, rectangles and circles in the tan stripe above it.

These are the images that I worked from. I drew out those beautiful Celtic knots and then FMQ in the various designs (in red below).

Skyrim Compass

Images of the various designs

It helped that the block that I was FMQ was fairly close to the edge.

Drawing the outline in
chalk pencil

Adding the designs to the Compass

After I FMQ the Magic designs in the square, I added swirls to fill in the space.

Magic designs added to the quilt

Filling the space with lots of swirls 😊

Adding the Sun

The largest space on Version 2.0 is roughly in the middle of the quilt. My mother had quilted the Sun. You can see below that I've started that section. It's rather intimidating!

Adding the Sun in the middle of the quilt

I started by creating a paper pattern of the space that will be occupied by the Sun. It's roughly 45" wide and almost just as long, but in a very awkward shape.

Drawing out the Sun

Template of the Sun area

Since there were a lot of straight lines and one very large circle, my friend suggested that I might want to use the walking foot. Although it's not as fun as FMQ, it's a lot more accurate on straight lines. It made for a lot of twisting of the quilt but it worked out very well. Next will come the fun FMQ part, although it's still intimidating since it's on such a large area. Oh well, one section at a time 😊!

What I learned

I really enjoyed FMQ those Celtic knots for the Skyrim Compass. They are so pretty! It took me a while to figure them out but after that it was simple to quilt.
Working with the yellow Golden Threads quilting paper made it easier for me to FMQ the designs accurately-ish!
I used the designs that my son had provided for the Magic game, but it wasn't really enough to fill in the space, so I Googled it and found a few interesting designs that I could add to it. It was great learning more about the game. I can see why he loves it!
I thought that I might have overdone it with the swirls but my son said it was awesome, so I guess it worked!
It was a great idea to use the walking foot to quilt the Sun. I hope that it won't be too obvious when I add my own FMQ around it. I have to remind myself that it's a huge quilt and that these kinds of things won't stand out within the whole.
I'm pretty proud of myself for drawing out the Sun. I used the largest plastic lid that I have :-) and then actually used a protractor (I had to Google the name!) to measure the angles to draw the Sun's rays. The Sun is one of those things that I can't seem to FMQ, even on a much smaller scale.
Next will come the rest of the Sun. I also have to finish a few of the areas such as the Travel Adventures, the First Nations and scenes of Canada spaces.

Related links

Last few Version 2.0 posts

Travel Adventures on Free Motion Mavericks, November 11, 2022
Places & Communities on Free Motion Mavericks, October 20, 2022
Birds on Free Motion Mavericks, October 06, 2022
Wildflowers on Version 2.0 with Free Motion Mavericks, September 22, 2022
First Nation Space on Free Motion Mavericks, June 16, 2022
More on Version 2.0 with Free Motion Mavericks, April 07, 2022

Version 2.0

December's One Monthly Goal (OMG)

Finishing the FMQ will be my December OMG. I really want my son to have his quilt to keep them warm this winter 😊

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the December OMG. Remember to link up below before checking these out!😊Midweek Makers, Design Wall Monday, Needle & Thread Thursday, Patchwork & Quilts, Off The Wall Friday, Put your foot down, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2022,

Free Motion Mavericks

Thanks for linking up last week! We have two wonderful but very different FMQ quilts to share with you! Quilting Gail had a lot of fun graffiti quilting her partial log cabin quilt. I love how the FMQ turned out - you can feel the fun in those stitches 😀. Check out Gail's post to see all of the lovely graffiti quilting!

Graffiti FMQ by Gail of Quilting Gail

Rebecca of Rebecca Grace Quilting is working hard at FMQ her own Jingle Quilt. It's very structured and very beautiful! You'll want to check out the images if you haven't visited yet!