Hi and welcome to week 412 of Free Motion Mavericks! Are you ready for the holidays? At least my tree is up! 😊🎄🎅
Filling some empty spots on Version 2.0
Last time I shared with you my birds, and my plans for the Sun. I'm so glad that my daughter suggested that I add clouds around the sun - it's within the theme and takes up space without being dense or too showy. Yeah! I also added a few stars and a rainbow.
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| The best image I could get was from the back |
Here are a picture of the front.
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| FMQ a rainbow and clouds. |
Mining is in the family
While I was at it, I finished the last tan stripe. On my mother's quilt, it was hand quilted mine heads. I added a few more details.....because I can 😀. Mining is a huge part of the economy of Northern Ontario and Kirkland Lake, where my mother and I grew up, was renown for its gold mines. My maternal grandparents moved there and my grandfather and most of my uncles were miners.
Here are some of the images on the tan stripe.
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| A prospector's pick, "Mining" and a mine head |
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| Mine head and train carts that carried the ore |
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"All that glitters is not Gold",
another prospector's pick and gold bricks |
The end of the stripe includes the words "Mile of Gold" since this is what Government Road in Kirkland Lake was called. It included very successful gold mines from one end of the town to the other. If you want to read more about it, see "Related links" below.
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| "Mile of Gold" |
Finishing up various parts
I added some lovely bird feathers (as opposed to quilted feathers) in the First Nation area.
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| Finishing the First Nation area with bird feathers |
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| The finished First Nations area |
In the black stripe with music, I finished it off with a few extra notes 🎶
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| Adding notes to finish the Music stripe |
Finally, in the blue Travel Adventure section, I added a buffalo (we saw many at our campsite in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park), camping tents and a dragon 🐉. These images are all from the back of the quilt since the blue is difficult to photograph at night.
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| The addition of tents and the book "Eragon". |
I had to include the dragon from the book "Eragon" in the Travel Adventures area since this was the first book that Stéphane read for pleasure (as opposed to being bribed to read). We are a family of avid readers and I was despairing that he would never take up reading. It just took the right book and a lot of driving time to get him hooked!
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| A buffalo - as seen on the back of the quilt |
What's left
- As you saw above, I just have to add a few finishing details to the Travel Adventures section.
- In the tan middle stipe, I have to finish the Canada scenes. I left off with some scenes of the North after finishing the West. I'll finish up the North and then head East from Ontario to Newfoundland.
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| Northern scene in the Canada stripe - from the back |
- The original black border had a quilted cable. I have the stencil that my mother used but I've made the border wider, so I'll have to figure something out. It doesn't have to be the same, but it would be nice if it was close to it. However....it would be so much fun (and quicker) to quilt feathers. 😊
What I learned
- Taking the time to mark and then baste around the Sun was probably overkill but it did give me the time to work through what I wanted to FMQ. I went over a few of those lines but it was good to know roughly up to where I needed to stitch.
- I used to really dislike basting but as I've used it more, I find it easy to stitch and worth it. It could also be that I'm doing more hand-stitching, so it's now just part of the process.
- I love how the Sun area came out. I'm glad because it really is the highlight of the quilt.
- If you ever want to FMQ actual bird feathers, just do a search for "hand drawn bird feathers" and don't even mention free motion quilting. I found a few images that were perfect and it took very little time to get the feel for drawing and then FMQ them.
- The quilt has been an ongoing project for about 4 years. It's also my December One Monthly Goal (OMG). It sure would be nice to finish it before December 31 (of this year!!!) 😊
Related links
Linking parties
Free Motion Mavericks
Thanks so much for linking up! We had three FMQ quilts last time 😍.
Nancy of Grace and Peace Quilting put together blocks that she and her Japanese friends made in
honour of Lucy Boston. It was great to read about Lucy Boston; her quilts and her life and see the lovely blocks that everyone made. Nancy FMQ them with a matchsticks design. You'll want to see this great runner!
DonnaLeeQ made a wonderful
fire truck quilt for her older grandson who is going to study at the Fire Academy. What a great quilt for the beginning of his new career!
Quilting Gail finished her
Spicy Block of the Month Quilt. She got to quilt it in my favourite designs...Wild Quilting! Make sure to see the back of the quilt when you visit.
It's your turn!
