Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Celebrating 12 Years of Blogging

Hi and welcome 😊. Today is my blogging anniversary. Twelve years ago I wrote my first post. It was probably read by my family and friends. I didn't care if anyone else was reading it, I just wanted to record my quilting journey. And what a journey it's been. I want to thank all my readers for sharing this with me.

Twelve Years Ago!


My first post! 😊

Scrappy Purple Placemat


It's still a work-in progress (WIP). 

Purple placemat - almost done!

It started with a couple of blocks made up of squares and rectangles. I then found the batik triangle and a great strip to work with it. That made a lovely triangle block.

Original blocks sewn together

This block was larger than I needed, so it got chopped up! I always feel empowered when I do that😁

Only half of this block made it into the placemat

At the bottom, you can see my first two blocks and half of my other block. I then decided that long, slim lines would be nice.

Original 2 blocks sewn together with half of the other block.
Long slim strips added after the blocks

On the top of those original blocks, I stitched many wonky blocks. I love it when the fabric is a weird shape within the block.

A few wonky blocks thrown in!

A couple of wonky blocks inside this block

Once the major blocks are stitched together, it's a matter of adding strips of fabric to make the placemat wide and high enough. I needed a couple of extra inches on the top, so just added the one batik fabric strip. The right side also got a few strips sewn in.

Blocks assembled to the right size

I'm sorry that the pictures are not in order. I didn't take many photos as I was putting things together. Most of the photos were taken tonight with the placemat partially FMQ.

What I learned
  • On 12 years of blogging
    • It's amazing what I've learned in 12 years!
    • I now have a format that I follow and that works for me.
    • I often refer to my previous blog posts when I'm making something that is similar.
    • I do wish that I had a better labeling system but as the search function in Blogger works well, I can still find things.
    • One of my goals is to post at least as many posts in the year as the last year. I started my first year with 8 posts (when I had no idea what to say!) I'm now writing about 68 posts a year. At this time I can't imagine writing more, but who knows. I write when I have something to share.😊
    • I try to update the look of my blog, at the very least the header, once a year (which I haven't done yet).
    • I plan to update my "Projects from Books, Mags & Patterns" page to include other media such as YouTube videos, etc.
    • I will also be creating more specialty pages for things such as Hand-made books.
    • I love the wonderful community of quilty friends that I've made through the years. It's so great to be able to share my passion with others who "get" it😁
    • Thanks so much for being there, for reading, commenting etc. I appreciate it so much 😍
  • Purple Placemat
    • This purple placemat is much more of an improv piece than my other placemats. It seems that my improv piecing is getting bolder. What fun!
    • I love alternating between larger fabric pieces and tiny ones. 
    • Too many tiny pieces make the whole too busy, so adding strips vertically and horizontally pulls it together.
    • It's funny how the last piece of FMQ has influenced this piece. When I started FMQ the placemat, I was drawn to quilt the same gentle curves that I had quilted on my girlfriend's quilt. 
    • After I realised what I was doing, I started to change it up by more intentional in my quilting.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check them out after you link up below? Put your foot downNeedle & Thread Thursday


Free Motion Mavericks


This is week 475 of Free Motion Mavericks' linking party. Last week was very busy with some wonderful quilting going on! Let's check them out.

Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts has created another beauty! Her latest quilt is called Lula May and it was created as part of the Ambassador's Choice with Island Batiks. Below is a photo of her quilting.

Lula May by Preeti

Preeti used her favorite squiggle stitch with her walking foot.

Next we have Denise of A Quiltery with her amazing quilt that she created for the Give It A Whirl block hop. Those pinwheel look great among the many, many nine patch blocks.  

Denise's pinwheels surrounded by many lovely nine patch blocks

A picture of Loki with a close-up of the FMQ

We have another participant of the Give It A Whirl block hop. Gail of Quilting Gail has created a whole quilt of pinwheels - some in colourful fabric while others are FMQ. What an wonderful fun quilt!

Look at Gail's intricate FMQ pinwheels

Here's a close-up of Gail's FMQ pinwheels

Deb, A Scrappy Quilter, has fashioned two cuddly little quilts for the grandkids to use around the campfire. They are made from many baby sleepers.

Boy sleepers used to make another cuddly little quilt by Deb

A sweet cuddly little quilt made by Deb

Kathy of Hazel's Daughter blog made a beautiful runner for Project Quilting 15.6: Irish Chain. If you're curious about her Irish Chain variation, read up on it here

Variation on the Irish Chain by Kathy

A close-up of the quilting by Kathy

Sandra of mmm quilts finished FMQ her Rainbow Fish Stay At Home Round Robin (SAHRR). Her quilt and her FMQ are amazing!

Here's a close-up of some of the quilting by Sandra

Sandra's Rainbow Fish in front of a local mural

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Irish Chain - Project Quilting, Challenge 6 of Season 15

Hi and welcome! A quick and short post to join in the Project Quilting (PQ) 15.6, Irish Chain. 

Scrappy Irish Chain Cuddle Quilt


Scrappy Irish Chain cuddle quilt

It's done with less than an hour to spare. And now I'm quickly writing up this short post 😎!

Cuddle quilt ready to be handed in to my local guild

This is where I left off on Thursday - the flimsy of the Irish Chain cuddle quilt. Of course, I got involved in other fun scrappy projects and only remembered yesterday that the cuddle quilt needed to be finished by Sunday noon! 

Scrappy cuddle quilt top

Here's the cuddle quilt, with the Irish Chain blocks stitched-in-the-ditch. I wanted to make sure that they would show up well. I also attached the binding by machine at that time. 

Stitching-in-the-ditch around the 9 patch or Irish chain blocks

Since I still had a couple of hours left, I free motion quilted (FMQ) in the large white blocks. It needed to be simple and quick. My daughter suggested the sun, clouds, etc. So that's how I started. Here are a few of the blocks.

FMQ a sailboat on the water and a fish

FMQ a house, tree and flower

FMQ Sun

FMQ an evergreen tree

FMQ a tree and tulips

FMQ Moon

I thought that I was finished but then added some swirls and loops in the small border. 

Thanks so much Trish and Kim for another great Project Quilting year!

What I learned
  • I should have started quilting this piece last night but I was near the end of a book and decided that the listening to the audiobook is what I wanted to do. I'm retired, so I can do that!
  • Of course this morning I sort of regretted my decision but oh well, it was a great book! 😊
  • The Irish Chain piecing went well and I'm happy with my accuracy - it's really not bad!
  • It was less fun FMQ in a hurry but that's ok. The cuddle quilt is done and looks fine. I'm sure that the baby will be happy!
  • This is the last of Project Quilting, Season 15. I did join in 4 of the 6 challenges. The hourglass challenge was started but I forgot about it. I hope to finish it some day (another mini UFO)!
Related links
Linking parties

Project details



Scrappy Irish Chain cuddle quilt
made for Project Quilting 15.6
Size: 22" x 22"
Material: commercial cotton
Technique: piecing, stitch-in-the-ditch with walking food and free motion quilted



Thursday, March 21, 2024

Scrappy Play on Free Motion Mavericks

Hello and welcome 😊. I've been busy this week playing with squirrels and scraps, two of my favourite things! I haven't free motion quilted (FMQ) these projects yet, but it'll be soon. 

Project Quilting - Irish Chain


I came upon Project Quilting (PQ) on Sunday while perusing quilty blogs. Of course, I had forgotten 😕 But it's all good since this week's theme is the Irish Chain. I've always wanted to make an Irish Chain quilt so I decided to make a cuddle quilt to give to Community projects through my local guild. These lovely, tiny quilts go to the Intensive Care Neo-Natal or Post-Partum Units. Our next in-person guild meeting is in April, so I'll be able to drop it off then.

Cute scrappy cuddle quilt with Irish Chain

I took out my cut-up scraps bin and found the 2" squares stash. I had more than enough fun fabric to make the nine patch. I used some white-on-white fabric for the 5" blocks. (I can never have too many white-on-white fabric!)

Here are a couple more pictures so that you can better see the fun scraps. I couldn't use the strip piecing method because these were 2" squares, but I was careful when piecing and they came out more or less accurate. Yeah! I even pieced everything so that the squares would all face the same direction.

Closer up of the left side of the cuddle quilt

Closer up of the right side of the cuddle quilt

I used a cute light purple baby fabric border to make the quilt fit to 22" x 22".  I'm really looking forward to FMQ it this week (before Sunday).

Purple Placemat for the Table Scraps Challenge


The March colour for the Table Scraps Challenge is purple and the theme is bird. While I was playing with scraps, I took out my purple/blue bin of scraps. I took a few out and started sewing them together. I love this part😊. Once I had three blocks, I checked my bin again for different fabric.
Which blocks do I sew together? I love the triangle and the fish!

Groovy purple, green and orange with lots of different purple

Finding more purple with other colours for a scrappy mix

The next part will be to start adding pieces to fit the length and width of the placemat. 

A paper scrappy collage


As if all of this wasn't enough, I started a Scrappy Journal Challenge with Vintage Page Designs. The challenge was last week but the videos are all available, and it usually takes me more than the 4 days to make the journals. 

Scrappy Journal Cover drying

I glued on most of my scraps and you can see it drying above. I'll be adding a few more images to the front of the journal, but I can do that later. I was also supposed to stitch it but completely forgot. I've learned a lot making this cover and hope to make another one soon so that I can make it better, based on what I learned.

I'm now stitching the four signatures to the book cover. The zig-zag pattern is a bit complicated but interesting once I got the hang of it. The cover that is drying above is made of one sheet of mixed media paper. It wasn't heavy enough so I had to glue a second sheet to it. The sheets were also a ½" short of what I needed, so I ended up having to trim my signatures. Like I said, lot of learning 😊 

What I learned
  • Playing with the 2" squares for the Irish Chain cuddle quilt went really well. I think that spending all that time on the Mystery quilt has put me in the right frame of mind. Yes, practice makes better!
  • I'm really looking forward to FMQ the cuddle quilt. I'm thinking of fun things to quilt in the middle white blocks. Oh what fun!
  • The purple placemat is coming along well. I realised that for my other placemats, I had only used square and rectangular blocks. I just had to add a triangle in the mix!
  • The next part gets interesting - making it all fit and look cohesive...and somehow adding a bird in there! 
  • I still haven't decided if I should make the placemat the same size as the other 3 (which are on the small side) or if I should make this one bigger and not have to make another one when I do make other bigger ones. I'll figure it out and you'll see the result when I post it. 😁
  • The scrappy journal has been fun to make. One of the options for the cover was to use a canvas fabric. I may do that the next time. It's either that, or pick up some heavier watercolour or mixed media paper (or both!!!)
  • I'll add more about my learning when I finish the journal and write a post about it.
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. I hope that you'll link up below and check these out! 


Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 574 of Free Motion Mavericks. 

Last week Deb from A Scrappy Quilter shared with us a repair job to a quilt that a very anxious dog chewed up! Here are the before and after pictures. Deb patiently removed 3 of the pieces and some quilting, replaced the pieces, batting and some backing and Voila! As good as new😊

Repair needed!

As good as new!

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Sunday, March 17, 2024

2 Colour Mystery Quilt and Updates

Hi and welcome. I hope that you're having a great weekend. I've been working on a few of my ongoing projects. Thanks for letting me share these with you. 😊 

Making HSTs (half-square triangles)


This week's clue for the Mystery Quilt was to create HST. Amazingly enough, it's one of the blocks that I'm pretty good at. I make them two at a time, and because there's always a little bit of wiggle room to square them up, they usually come out pretty accurately. 😁

That's a LOT of half-square triangles (48 and 24!)

Blocks and HSTs made, with a couple of extra cut pieces


I've never participated in a mystery quilt before, and I wondered how they would keep the finished piece a mystery. After all, once you make a block or two, you're bound to have an idea of what the quilt will look like. So, instead of making blocks, the mystery is prolonged by getting you to put minor things together like partial blocks and HST. It makes use of the production line concept.

FM Embroidering the Noon Sun


Making the second Sun for my hanging outdoor piece was much easier once I'd made the sunrise sun (see Related links below). The Sunrise Sun isn't quite finished but the FM embroidering is done. For the Noon Sun, instead of using a scarf, I used a long piece of yellow organza folded in half with a layer of yellow tulle in the middle.

Noon Sun free motion embroidered in 2 shades of yellow

I couldn't help it, I ended up embroidering past the 6" border. When I finished embroidering, I tried out an 8" hoop since it fit into it.

Trying the piece in an 8" hoop

I then placed it in the 6" hoop and loved the effect that the extra stitching has outside of the hoop. 

I love how the stitching looks on the outside of the centre

I'm not thrilled with the inside of the hoop, but I'll add some hand-embroidery with 2 shades of yellow perle cotton to give it more texture and interest. I may also add some beads to make it twinkle outside. At this time, I'm thinking that cutting the sheer fabric outside of the hoop to make it move in the wind, could be cool 😎


I'll be embroidering the centre with perle cotton and possibly adding beads

What I learned
  • I'm thrilled that the production line of the HSTs went well.
  • It's funny how some quilting blocks are easy and other not so much. I think that I have a lot of experience making those HST.
  • I've also been playing with the embroidery hoop of Sunrise. I'll share this with you when I get it right - it's been an interesting journey!
  • I'm looking forward to embroidering the Noon Sun. I'll be linking this post on Slow Sunday Stitching and hope to play with it today.
  • I can't wait to start those clouds and birds, which is the next level of the hanging piece. That's going to take some ingenuity. 
  • Next week I want to start sewing together some of the panels for Hubby's panel quilt. Hopefully that will go well. 
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties, including Slow Sunday Stitching and Free Motion Mavericks😀. Why not check them out if you get a chance. Off The Wall Friday, Put Your Foot DownPatchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024



Thursday, March 14, 2024

Creating a sunrise on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to week 573 of Free Motion Mavericks. It feels like Spring, especially after the coming of daylight saving time and that wonderful daylight. I always remember my great-aunt at this time. She would joke that she was tired all summer, after missing her hour of sleep. That's how I remember that we loose an hour in the Spring. Thanks matante Marie! 😁 

FMQ a sunrise


I've started on my outdoor hanging sculpture for our Fibre 15 Outdoor "Impermanent" Summer exhibit. 

In progress - Dawn Sun

You may recall that I want to make a hanging piece based on the mindful stitching below. The Dawn Sun is the first. I tried using 2 strands of wire around my first version but it was flimsier than I expected. Because the suns are round, I was able to place this first one in an embroidery hoop, which I'll be able to paint. 

A Nod to the Great Pottery Throw Down (Season 1)

Top half of my plan - I still have to figure out the rest

I found many sunrise images on the Internet. It's not always easy to tell a sunrise from a sunset. Often the sunrise is softer and can be surrounded by pink and/or orange. Below you can see some yellow organza in front of Dawn Sun. I'll have to work with other colours and see what I get. Hopefully with the organza and the painted hoop, it will look like a sun rising at dawn.

Dawn Sun - adding organza will help make it look like a sunrise

Here are a couple of process pictures. Since I'm making 2 more suns, you'll probably see a few more 😀. I used an old scarf to free motion embroider on. I placed the scarf in a 10" hoop and then used a smaller 6" embroidery hoop to outline the circle. 

This first image is my first attempt. I free motion embroidered it and then added two 22 gage wire around it. I attached it to the small basket in front of my sewing machine as a guide for making the second one.

First attempt at a sun, using wire to keep it round(ish)

Marked scarf in the embroidery hoop

Free motion embroidering the outline, adding sun rays and
then stitching the inside of the circle

Some of the scarves and organza that I'll be using


2-Colour Mystery Quilt


In case you missed the post, I'm working on Canuck Quilting Designs' 2-Colour Mystery Quilt-Along. I learned a lot - mostly to check many times before cutting and sewing! I'm sure that it will go better this week - I just got the latest instructions in my inbox!

First blocks finished!









What I learned
  • I'm glad that I've started this project because there's going to be a lot of technical things to figure out as I go along.
  • One obvious thing that came to me is that if I use glue, it has to be waterproof or else things will fall apart. 
  • For example, I want to use Solvy water soluble products but if the glue completely leaves the piece because of rain, the end piece will become droopy. I can still use Solvy but I'll also have to use wire to keep the shapes.
  • I'll be using old scarves that I have or that I've bought as well as my stash of organza and other translucent fabrics to create all of these pieces. I'll be playing a lot to see what works best.
  • I just got the next clue for the mystery quilt - we're making HST. I think this might be easier - wish me luck!
Related links
Linking parties
I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check them out, after you link up below? Sew & Tell, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot DownOff The Wall Friday,

Free Motion Mavericks


Did you know that Preeti has a new pattern out and that her testers all posted their version on the same day? Preeti's newest pattern is called Rainbow Parade. I just love the placement of her colours. It's a really sweet quilt.
New pattern at Sew Preeti Quilts - Rainbow Parade

Frédérique of Quilting Patchwork Appliqué made a very different quilt - yes, it's the same pattern but the colours are so different! What a great way to show off this pattern's possibilities!

Frédérique's version - Parade

Denise at A Quiltery created another amazing quilt! For the Butterfly Garden-Log Cabin Blog Hop, her quilt background features log cabin blocks in a very pale batik. Add to that the yard light/birdfeeder, flowers, sun and butterflies and you have a real gem of a quilt. I won the pattern on Denise's site when it came out. I really want to make this quilt!😊 

Denise's Butterfly Garden quilt with log cabin blocks

It's now your turn!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter