Thursday, May 09, 2024

Odds and Ends on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to week 581 of Free Motion Mavericks.

Fibre Fling finds

Last Friday and Saturday was the Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Artists' Fibre Fling 2024. I was there for most of the two days, spending my time at the Membership table. I had a chance to meet with fellow members, potential members and see all of the wonderful work of these very talented artists.

If you didn't see it, here are my two pieces at the show.

My tulips and birds at Fibre Fling

Over 30 potentially new members signed up for more information on OOTB. The show is a great way to promote our group.

Every year, I purchase a couple of pieces from fellow artist and blogger, Connie at Connie's Textile Art. Connie has started stamping on her hand-dyed fabrics. I plan on making next year's Agenda with one of these (or maybe both?)

Wonderful stamped fabrics

I saw the dark fabric below and fell in love! Then I looked at the fabric piece behind it and gasped😮 It's really that wonderful (and the photo doesn't do it justice!) I'm not sure what I'll be doing with these - they are going with my other Connie fabrics until I figure out what to make with them.

Gorgeous printed fabric 😍

There was also a raffle next to the membership table, so I spent a lot of time talking with potential ticket buyers. Of course I had to buy some. There were about a dozen different textile art pieces, each with a box to hold tickets. You had to choose where to put your tickets - that was the most difficult part! I put one of my tickets in a box that I knew was very full, but a girl can dream.....except that some dreams do come true! Look at what I won - an original Nancy Garrard! I'm going to have to find a special spot for this one in my home!

Changing Seasons by Nancy Garrard

I also treated myself to a small felted piece by fellow artist Laura C. I just love the pops of turquoise, cherry and lime. It also has lots of interesting hand-stitching and beading.

A lovely felted piece by Laura

While I was at Fibre Fling, I had time to finish embroidering my Noon Sun for my outdoor hanging sculpture.

Noon Sun - part of my outdoor hanging sculpture

What I learned

Fibre Fling was a lot of fun, but as an introvert, it took a lot out of me!
As you can see, I've got one finished piece of my outdoor hanging sculpture.
I haven't done any kind of quilt or stitch work since the show - I need to re-boost my battery. I have done some gardening. The manual labour was difficult but good 😊I now have 3 rhubarb plants in my side garden.
Now that I've played with the big garden tools, I'm ready to tackle the last corner of my garden, where there will be a small fountain and meditation area...wish me luck!

Free Motion Mavericks

We had a busy party here last week! Thanks to everyone who linked up 😍. Here are the projects that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Vicki from Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made this Delectable Teal Mountain runner. Isn't it gorgeous? You may want to check out her post to see her lovely FMQ feathers.

Vicki's Delectable Teal Mountain runner

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts outdid herself by making and quilting three quilts for the Pantone Quilt Challenge. This year's colour is Peach Fuzz. To see the Pantone Quilt challenge announcement and all of Preeti's quilts, go to the links beneath each quilt.

Here is Blush by Preeti

Preeti's Peach on Earth

For something different we have Preeti's Mica in
Island Batik fabrics

Next we have Frédérique's Anaho - a wall hanging that she started in 2009 and finished last week. Those will perspectives are so cool!😎 Check out her post of her process and story behind the quilt.

Frédérique's Anaho

Deb from A Scrappy Quilter quilted this charity quilt on her domestic machine. The quilt was supplied by her guild and she did the rest! Deb quilted it with giant waves to help the geese stay up!

Deb's quilted charity quilt

It's now your turn!

Wednesday, May 01, 2024

April's Yellow Table Scrap Challenge

Hi! This is just a quick post so that I can participate in the April Table Scraps Challenge. 😊 If you're looking for this week's Free Motion Mavericks' post, I published it on Tuesday, in time for the April One Monthly Goal (OMG) deadline. Yes....I may need to plan better next month!

Sweet Yellow Cuddle Quilt

Yesterday, I started playing with yellowish scraps but had no idea what I was making (as usual...as my daughter mentioned!) I'd be insulted, but she's correct 😀

Yellow Cuddle Quilt

I wanted to make a few different improv blocks with my scraps. So these became a rail fence and a nine patch. I made quick borders for two 3" squares and that was the improv part which I bordered with very yellow fabric. Now what?

Improv blocks in the cuddle quilt

I took out my yellow fabric bin and found two lovely pieces of fabric to use for the rest of the quilt. The first was a yellow fabric with small spirals and the other one was a lovely multicoloured Kaffe Fassett fabric with yellow in it.

Kaffe Fassett and yellow spirals fabrics

As you can probably tell, I took very few pictures during the make. It was all about getting it done!

Here is the back, also pieced.

Back of the cuddle quilt - you can see the quilting 😊

FMQ the Cuddle Quilt

I started by FMQ feathers around the yellow borders of the improv section.

FMQ the feathers around the improv block

An apple in the fruit block

FMQ a sail boat

FMQ house, trees and car, as seen from the back

FMQ pencils and hearts as seen from the back

I FMQ leaves in the binding and had a great time FMQ the Kaffe Fassett fabric 😍.

FMQ meandering flowers in the swirls block

April's Yellow Table Scraps Finish!

April's Yellow Table Scraps Finish - a cuddle quilt

What I learned

I can make and quilt a scrappy cuddle quilt in a day and a half!
I really had no idea where I was headed for this piece but I'm glad that making a cuddle quilt is an option for a quick finish. I'll be dropping it off a the Community Projects table at our guild meeting in May.
I loved FMQ the Kaffe Fassett fabric since it was all about following the fabric lines - my favourite FMQ technique!
I also learned that a 2" wide binding is not wide enough for a double binding! I ended up using it because I only had a little bit of that flannel fabric. I knew that it would be tight but it was the perfect finish.
I stitched the binding from the front and then finished it from the back with machine stitching.
Ironing the binding before stitching it on by the back helped.
The binding came out ok because I used some very yellow thread that more-or-less blends in, but I would rather not do that again!

Related links

My last cuddle quilt

Irish Chain - Project Quilting, Challenge 6 of Season 15, March 24, 2024
Scrappy Play on Free Motion Mavericks, March 21, 2024

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including the April Table Scraps Challenge link up. Sew & Tell, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Oh Scrap!,

Project details

Yellow Cuddle Quilt

Made for the CTQG' Community Projects for the Intensive Care Neo-Natal or Post-Partum Units

Size: 22" x 22"

Material: commercial cotton

Technique: scrappy improv piecing, free motion quilted

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Spring Tulips in 3D on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome! I have a very Spring-like finish this week. My 3D Spring Tulips 🌷is finished! This was my April One Monthly Goal (OMG) and the piece is due to be dropped off on April 30^th for the Fibre Fling Show this weekend. No pressure 😁!

Spring Tulips is finished!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I was inspired to do this piece, but it sure is cool and I learned so much! It was all about playing and trying things out to see what worked. I love the problem solving aspect of these types of projects.

Spring Tulips is finished!

Let me quickly take you through the process of making Spring Tulips 🌷.

Background and Vase

I made a couple of sketches from tulips I had bought. It was mostly to get a perspective of tulips in front and behind, as opposed to little soldiers in a row.

Drawing tulips in a vase for perspective

I made the tulips, first trying out templates but quickly just winging it (as usual). Once the tulips, stems and leaves were affixed to my background fabric, I cut out a paper shape of the potential vase. This helped guide the making of a translucent vase using Sulky Solvy water soluble stabilizer.

Vase outline in paper

To make the vase, I used a layer of thicker Solvy topped with hand-dyed pink silk organza. On this, I added thread, snippets of cotton, organza, etc. I covered this with a layer of very light Solvy and free motion quilted it (FMQ). The thread choice is very important here since it's what really shows up.

Layers of silk organza and snippets stitched over Sulky Solvy

On of the side
pieces

FMQ over such a large piece worked well, but I did figure out that on smaller pieces, the regular sewing foot was better.

To make the vase wide enough to contain tulips, I ended up stitching 2 pieces to attach to the sides of the vase. I sure used up a lot of thread on this project!

Once I washed off the glue from the Solvy, I sewed on the sides and then attached the vase to the background. I didn't sew down the bottom of the vase until almost the end since frankly I had not idea how I would do it!

Here is the vase with the background tulips after they were FMQ.

Attached vase, FMQ background tulips and
playing around to make tulips.

FMQ the Background and Making the Tulips

It took me a couple of attempts to figure out how to make the free standing tulips. I found some tutorials on YouTube but didn't want just quilted tulips, You can read more about this in my last post (see Related links below).

Getting organized to make the 3D tulips with petals, stems and leaves

I finally remembered to take a couple of process pictures while making my final tulip. Three of the tulips have hand-dyed cotton as a background while the other two are stitched on the silk organza.

Making the tulips on layers of Solvy, fabric, snippets and thread

After stitching them, I separated each petal and removed the glue from the Solvy in warm water and hung them to dry.

Drying petals for the last three tulips

Yesterday I put all of the tulips together by hand-stitching. There was a lot of pricking by the needle to make these but there is no blood on the tulips - promise!😁

While I was doing all that, I faced the background and then FMQ it. I was also wondering how to finish the bottom of the vase since I didn't want it to be floating in the background. I was inspired to attach the bottom of a doily under the vase.

FMQ the background and
adding a doily for the vase to sit on.

This is when I added an extra leaf to the background to hide some white space without adding extra tulips.

Adding an extra leaf to the background

Here is the final piece. It's so cool that the tulips can be re-arranged! 😎

Spring Tulips 🌷

What I learned

This piece was an incredible amount of work. I wanted to create a 3D piece and I did it!
I love being able to blend different techniques in a piece, from stitching on the Solvy, to appliquéing tulips in the background to making a vase with tulips in it!
I prefer not using an embroidery hoop when working with the Solvy. It's fine FMQ on a larger piece but it's very difficult on smaller pieces. When the stitching isn't as obvious, using a regular sewing foot worked much better.
I only FMQ the background after the vase was attached. In hindsight, it would have been a little easier doing it before! I just didn't know what to expect and it turned out fine.
Making each tulip was the most time consuming part. I got pretty good at pulling the stems and the leaves inside out. I stuffed the stems with small strips of batting (about ¼" wide). It was great to use up those scraps since I generally throw them out.
I used different methods to make the centre of the tulip. At first I added batting to it but ended up doing the last three without the batting. I'm not sure which technique was better.
Making these tulips showed me that there are many ways of making them and the final result is all good.
BTW, I just realised that there is only 30 days in April, so it's already the end of the month. Yikes!

The Out of the Box's Fibre Fling Show is on this weekend. If you're in the Ottawa area, please come and say hi! I'll be at the membership table for the two days. 😊 Spring Tulips and Home to Feed will be there too!

My 2 pieces at Fibre Fling 2024

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 580 of Free Motion Mavericks! My post is early because I just figured out that it's the last day of April and I need to show you my One Monthly Goal!

Last week we had a wonderful linking party! Thanks to everyone who linked up 😍. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting shared her gorgeous butterflies runner. Look at that lovely

FMQ and the ruler work in her background and borders.

FMQ and ruler work by Vicki on her Butterflies runner

What a great Spring Butterflies runner by Vicki

Gail of Quilting Gail has been busy adding hanging sleeves for her guild's quilt show this weekend. She also managed to create a cute baby quilt using Dr. Seuss fabric. She used black thread to help highlight the blocks.

Gail's Dr. Seuss baby quilt

Finally, Chris of Chrisknitssews made this lovely Flying Geese quilt. I love her ghost Flying Geese that she ended up FMQ within them to ensure that the quilt had an even consistency. It's really great!

A close up of the FMQ on Chris' Flying Geese quilt

Chris' Flying Geese quilt

It's now your turn!

Thursday, April 25, 2024

Cathedral Window Hot Pads at Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to week 579 of Free Motion Mavericks! Last week I made a crowd of hot pads 😁. I always thought that Cathedral Windows were very difficult. I watched the video, and it looked easy. Then I made a crowd of them and it turns out that they're not so easy! 😉

Cathedral Window Hot Pads & a Layer Cake

Many years ago, I got a great deal on a Layer Cake (10" squares from a collection of fabrics), in this case, Figures by Brigitte Heitland for Zen Chic and Moda. When I needed 10" squares to make Cathedral Window Hot Pads, I found my package of Layer Cake and started the production.

My first crowd of Cathedral Window hot pads

I made the first one for myself, since I was sure that it would turn out wonky...and it did, but not terrible. I got an air fryer for Christmas and I wanted to have a hot pad that would stay nearby. Don't they look good together 😀

My first hot pad - made to hang out with the air fryer

I'm afraid that I didn't take any process pictures but if you want to learn how to male these, I highly recommend a tutorial by Shabby Fabrics (see link below). The thing about Cathedral Windows is that it's all about how those windows look in the centre and in the corners. Here's an image from the video on how they should look. You can see that the centre and the corners of the Cathedral Windows are well defined and relatively pointy.

Look at those corners -
that's what they should look like!

Unfortunately, mine didn't all look like this. Some came out really good while others sort of continued into space 😁. I'm sure that my non-quilting friends won't mind but if I'm going to make these, I may as well figure out how to make them well.

Here are close-ups of the three that I made for a friend. Aren't these fabric amazing?

A white background with blue accents and yellow Cathedral Windows

I love this blue and yellow combination

There are so many lovely blues in this one

This is what they look like from the back

You may have noticed that the top blue hot pad on the right is double stitched around the Cathedral Windows. I was trying different variations of making these, and for this one, I managed to forget to stitch down the Cathedral Windows before adding the backing and turning it over (like a pillow case). It didn't make that much of a difference, except for the double stitched line.

Cathedral Window Hot Pads gift

What I learned

In theory, making Cathedral Windows is not difficult.
When I first watched the Shabby Fabric tutorial, the instructor said to be very careful with the centre of your Cathedral Windows. So I put all of my attention on the centre but sort of forgot the corners. Generally my centres do look good.
I'm still trying to figure out how to get some lovely bottom corners in my Cathedral Windows. When I figure it out, I'll let you know! 😊
Many people would like some of these hot pads, so when I make my next crowd, I'll be extra careful with my corners and take lots of pictures and notes so that I can get them consistently right.
I used my walking for making the hot pads. Now that I've gone back to piecing the Mystery Quilt with my ¼" foot, I've noticed that my accuracy is much better. I'll have to take that into consideration the next time I make these hot pads.

Free Motion Mavericks

Thanks to everyone who linked up their projects! Here are those projects that involved FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts finished a lovely 3 yard quilt named Charlie as part of the 2024 3YD Quilt Series with Material Girlfriends. She quilted it with flowers in the centre of the blocks, using "Every Leaf " templates by Amanda Murphy. I'm sure that the child who will receive it will love it!