It's a good thing that our last post's mission to Mars was postponed because there was a wonderful event last week as the Perseverance Rover landed on Mars. It was a huge success and is now immortalised in the Pinwheels & Stars baby quilt.

A Safe Landing on Mars

I never thought that I would be interested, but it's amazing what NASA has done since I was last interested in space (which was Armstrong's landing on the Moon which I watched at my Uncle's cabin in the woods). In my last post at the end of ...

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, Week 318. I'm afraid that this week's trip to Mars has been postponed.

 I've taken a couple of days of vacation time this week since it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere exotic or even local for a while. What a treat to sleep in and stay in my PJs for most of the day

Happy New Year and welcome to my first Free Motion Mavericks' linking party of the year (week 314). I hope that you are a doing well so far. I've been doing a lot of slow stitching but did find time to start work on the centre panel of the Pinwheels & Stars baby quilt.

Earth as seen from space

In late fall, I finished FMQ the pinwheels and stars on the baby quilt and the next step is to FMQ the centre panel - in colour!

 My first resolution is to try to keep up with the dates in my calendar - sorry I'm late to the party Carla

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, week 308. The stars on the Pinwheels & Stars Baby Quilt are done. In this post I'm going to wrap up the free motion quilting (FMQ) of the stars and plan the next part of the quilt.

FMQ star designs

At the end of July, I proposed seven possible FMQ designs for the six stars on the quilt. By November, here is what I ended up with. If you missed any of the posts, the links are in Related links below.

Making plans for the negative space

I designed the quilt so that the centre ...

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, week 306. It's been a month since I last free motion quilted (FMQ) a star. Today I'm going to show you the last two star blocks on the Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt. 

Swirl Hook Star

The first star today is the Swirl Hook Star based on Angela Walter's 4 Ways To Machine Quilt Star Blocks (see Related links below). 

In the last star post, I mentioned that I had been practicing my Swirl Hook. Of course I hadn't practiced it since then, but as soon as I started drawing it ...

Welcome to another Free Motion Mavericks linking party (Week 304). Last week I learned how to create an abstract piece using paper and then adding free motion quilting (FMQ). 

Creating an abstract template

As you may know, I've been fully immersed in TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club 2020. We've had some amazing teachers and workshops. Last week's teacher was Sabine Kaner. To help us create an abstract piece, she had us crumple up a piece of paper and then draw the lines that the crumpling had made to create an abstract piece. 

FMQ with variegated thread in ...

Welcome to week 302 of Free Motion Mavericks. It was a wonderful 300th celebration and I want to thank everyone who came by, left comments and of course posted their favourite Free Motion Quilted (FMQ) projects.

Simple FMQ Star

This is probably the simplest star to quilt although when it's simple there is also the expectation of accuracy...which is expected of other quilters and sometimes achieved be me

Happy 300^th to Free Motion Mavericks! 

300th Linking up Party

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, week 298. We are getting ready for the 300^th Week Linking Party on October 1^st. It's going to be a virtual trans-Atlantic party to remember. You can read all about it below!

FMQ a sparkling star

This is the third star that was free motion quilted (FMQ) on the Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt. I love how it turned out!

Lots of sparkling diamonds in this star block

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, week 296. Have you noticed the number? We are getting near 300 weeks! Make sure that you come back on October 1 to participate in the 300th Linking Party. We'll have virtual balloons, cake, tea and loads of fun.

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, Week 294. I interrupt my regular programming (I've always wanted to say that!) to bring you a free motion quilted (FMQ) finish!

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, Week 292. Based on my last Free Motion Maverick's post, I chose one free motion quilting (FMQ) design for one of the 6 star blocks in the Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt. 

First Star Block FMQ Designs

Star with curves

A curvy FMQ design that isn't too difficult

Welcome to Free Motion Mavericks, Week 288. This week I tried out different free motion quilting (FMQ) designs on the rest of the pinwheel blocks in the Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt.

FMQ the last three pinwheel blocks

Here are the final three pinwheel blocks. I didn't realise until I added the images here that all three blocks have FMQ in both the background and patterned fabrics.

Adding feathers

Close-up of the FMQ feathers

FMQ echoed leaves

FMQ three lines within each triangle

You may remember that I drew 10 different possible FMQ designs for these pinwheel blocks. Before ...

Hi. Welcome to week 286 of Free Motion Mavericks. Although I'm in the middle of setting up my new studio, I had planned on doing some free motion quilting (FMQ) today on the Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt - but I didn't find my supplies until it was too late - so you're going to see how last week, I embroidered using plastic bags

Welcome to week 282 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm now in the process of free motion quilting (FMQ) my Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt.

Pinwheels and Stars Baby Quilt

Welcome to week 280 of Free Motion Mavericks. I found a free motion quilting (FMQ) project to work on during my Free Motion Mavericks posts. Here it is!

Pinwheel & Stars Baby Quilt

Hi and welcome to week 278 of Free Motion Mavericks. I finally have some free motion quilting (FMQ) to share with you as well as a Big Mandala finish. Yeah!