wendysquilting

Blogroll, Moda, Moda Bakeshop, Thunder Bay, Uncategorized

Baby Baby (Quilts that is)

August 31, 2011January 25, 2024 wendysquilting

I know my last few posts look like all I’ve been doing is playing outside this summer, which I admit due to our very short summer I try to play outside as much as I can, I really have been quilting too…

One of the challenges that I set out to do was to use 2 Lily and Will by Bunny Hill charm packs to make 2 baby quilts. One for a girl and one for a boy.

Adding some background yardage, here are the results

I used the Baby Pinwheel pattern from the Moda Bake Shop to make the second quilt, the first is an adaptation of the Funny Farm pattern from the book Fat Quarter Fun by Karen Snyder.

Moda, Quilting, Schnibble, Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Honeycomb Schnibble

August 31, 2011March 6, 2021 wendysquilting

I really wish I had taken pictures in progress of this Schnibble. It was fun working with the Summer House collection by Lily Ashbury for Moda and thankfully I had the Creative Grid 60 degree ruler to use.

I found the Honeycomb Schnibble to be the most challenging of the ones I’ve made so far. I started by laying out my colours on the design wall after cutting and then sewed one row at a time so that I wouldn’t get any mixed up. I also found that Mary Ellen’s Best Press was indispensible when working with so many bias pieces.

Fishing, Friends, hiking, Life, Summer, Travel, Uncategorized

Fly in Adventure!

August 30, 2011September 2, 2011 wendysquilting

This was our second trip up to Pickle Lake for some visiting and fishing.

We drove from Thunder Bay (which is along Lake Superior) to Pickle Lake which is a 7 hour drive. Hwy 599 isn’t too bad though there are parts that are gravel and I’m not sure I’d want to be driving it late at night.

After spending a night at the base camp visiting with our friends Dwight and Karen who own and run North of 51 Outposts

We flew out in the morning to Bow Lake (Northstar Air)

Thank you to Pam our great pilot (who is the same age as my eldest daughter..when did they start letting kids do all these jobs?)

nice smooth landing! The gear on the dock belonged to the fellows who were leaving, ours was being unloaded. Our pilot Pam not only flies but loads and unloads the plane..though the guys pitched in.

then we were left on our own…..

The second day we portaged through the bush to fish on the other side of the rapids, it was work carrying in everything we needed. (It made me think of some of the things you see on the Biggest Looser) But the fishing was great and well worth it, I think Erik would agree even after carrying our limit of walleye on a stringer through the bush! (thankfully there were no bears looking for easy pickings!)

We had a great couple of days of fishing, and eating Pickerel aka Walleye.

Uncategorized

A little fun for the big kids!

July 30, 2011 wendysquilting

We took a little time out this week for some fun! A road trip to the Wisconsin Dells for a day at Noah’s Ark on a nice hot sunny day. It was HOT but very bearable on the water rides.

Nothing like relaxing on the lazy river

But so much fun to ride on America’s longest water coaster. We went on this one twice but I could have gone several more times.

This is one that I can’t bring myself to go on..

after our day at the water park, we went out for a late snack at the Cracker Barrel for a little hash brown casserole, fried apples and biscuits…and of course coffee YUM!

We woke up to the sound of thunder in the morning and a grey day. After a visit to the outlet mall. (and a purchase of some sketchers “shape ups” we were on our way back to Duluth MN.

Don’t ask me why I didn’t take any pictures, but we did stop and visit a lovely quilt shop in Chippewa Falls WI http://www.cottonclubquilting.com/ I picked up a few patterns to try out.

We’ve been wanting to check out the Willard Munger State trail after hearing about it from friends last winter. It was so hot and humid that we only rode for about 1 1/2 hrs but the trail was great and we’ll be back to do a longer stretch perhaps in the fall.

Uncategorized

More Summer Days…..

July 18, 2011 wendysquilting

We spent Canada Day weekend in Fort Frances visiting friends, normally I go a bit overboard on the picture taking but the evening before we left I missed a step and as a result spent the weekend hobbling around thankfully it wasn’t too serious. I was still able to go fishing..thanks Ken for taking us.

I love our lakes in Northern Ontario, we still have so much unspoiled beauty. Many of the lakes in the north haven’t been built on but are crown land, so people can use them just not own them. The above picture though is at Rainy Lake which has many cabins and homes built on it.

Our friends neighbour Carol is also a quilter so I did have a little quilting talk on our trip. We were talking about our little Janome Jems and she mentioned her thread holder that she bought years ago at Fanny’s Fabrics and said it was the perfect size for travel etc.. but hasn’t seen them sold for years. If anyone reading this knows where one can be found I’d sure like to know.

Yesterday our temperature soared up to a Feels like 45C which is about 113F which is crazy hot for here esp when you don’t have AC in your house. Thankfully my studio is in the basement where it usually stays pretty cool. We also grilled some Lake Superior Salmon that was extremely yummy!

I also spent the day at Erik’s making full use of his pool, some shade and a good book! I’m reading the series by Marie Bostwick, I’m on the third in the series or four. (Thanks Luci)

and I’ve been playing in my studio as well turning a couple charm packs into a baby quilt, I can hardly wait to see this little one finished.

Life really is good!!

Christmas, Family, Uncategorized

Challenges and Change

June 7, 2011June 8, 2011 wendysquilting

Once upon a time, my girls were happy to drive this and I was ok with it

now my youngest drove off in her new

All bought and paid for and now insured…..and most importantly to her licenced to drive without her Mom. Congratulations Katie for reaching such a big milestone in your life…but please be careful you are driving my baby around in that car!

The weather was lovely this morning but the rainclouds came out this afternoon, so my friend Alva and I decided to play inside and work on this

A group of quilters from our guild recently attended a Ricky Tim’s conference and after borrowing Alva’s book from the conference I am determined to play with many of his techniques. Thank you Alva for a fun afternoon and for sharing your batiks with me!! I’m not finished with this piece yet.

After I finished piecing my convergence piece I decided to finish up an applique piece that I started with my small group. I’m not really finished with it yet so it’s still a work in progress but its been fun…

(Alva also gave me a hand with fabrics on this one, I haven’t gotten started collecting Batiks because I know what will happen…)

I also asked Alva for advice on my Schnibble and she suggested a change that I quite like

I will have to change some of my 4 patches but I do like this layout better. What do you think?

Christmas, Family, Schnibble, Uncategorized

Decisions

June 3, 2011September 25, 2012 wendysquilting

Another little Schnibble (Plan C) I’ve been working on. It’s been living on the design wall like this but today started changing it around

and right now it looks like this

I think I like the second version best but I’m still playing any suggestions or opinions?

and on to really important news

Its Graduation season and my Daughter Emma had graduated with her degree in Psychology and is continuing on working towards her Masters. Emily has always loved school and is an excellent student! I’m so proud of you Emily!!

Erik has 2 daughters graduating this year, his oldest is now an RN!! way to go Shilo and his second daughter Ashton graduated today with a diploma in Dental Hygiene but like Emily she is continuing her education and will be entering the Education Program University.

We attended Ashton’s grad this morning.

birthday, Family, Grandson, Longarm Quilting, Uncategorized

Quietly Busy

May 26, 2011May 26, 2011 wendysquilting

Its been extremely quiet here this last week, all of my girls have been away. Of course Sarah is always away now that she lives in Texas. Emily, Dave and Katie drove down for Jerry’s first birthday. I’m waiting for more birthday pictures…

This was one of Jerry’s first pictures as a cowboy

and a year later at his party!

Yesterday I finally re-quilted my original Summer Wind quilt. I really wish I’d taken some pictures of it to show why I decided to re-quilt it. I had used a panto that wasn’t as dense as I like and also used a wool batting, when it was washed it just did not like it. It is my summer quilt for my bed so I use it and I still love it so it was worth re doing. Thankfully I have a friend who offered to un-quilt it for me. I had been a bit concerned about the stitch holes from before but they have all but disappeared.

I used a Robyn Pandolph backing that I absolutely love and suits this quilt perfectly.

a little sneak peak of some quilting for the Circle of Friends Quilt Shoppe (opening soon)

more to come…

Bloggers Quilt Festival, Blogroll, Family, Fig Tree Quilts, Moda, Summer, Summer Gypsy

Bloggers Quilt Festival

May 14, 2011October 24, 2023 wendysquilting

I made this quilt using a pattern called Summer Wind, I had originally made it with a different fabric collection and in a different season of my life. The first quilt was pieced in a 3 day marathon session, when I needed something to completely take my mind of some challenges that life was throwing my way. I had always intended to use the pattern again and when I found myself with a stash of Gypsy Rose from Fig Tree Quilts I knew I had my next Summer Wind Quilt.

When I first posted pictures of this quilt that I made for Erik’s Daughter Megan, the pattern designer Carrie Nelson commented that she thought its name should be Summer Gypsy, which I really liked and renamed the quilt.

One of the things I really love about this pattern is that you start in the centre and work your way out border after pieced border.

Megan has decorated her room about this quilt. She really has great taste in colours and has done an amazing job (I’ll see if she’ll let me share a peek)

I used a pantograph called here and there to quilt it. I think this design flows beautifully across the quilt and I personally think it looks like hearts which is another reason I chose it.

I’m adding this last picture to show you the quilt I made for Megan to go with her older bedroom, she chose the colours for that room herself too. It’s interesting how our tastes change over the years isn’t it.

Uncategorized

Strawberry Hot Cross Buns

May 13, 2011 wendysquilting

Yesterday we had summer weather, today we were back to jackets and chilly weather. I think we’ve skipped spring this year.

I’ve been piecing this little Schnibble called Hot Cross Buns by Carrie of Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co. this pattern is in her book Schnibbles Times Two.

Schnibbles Times Two: Quilts from 5" or 10" Squares

something that helped in planning this little top was choosing the centre squares, I placed them on my design wall in the order I thought I’d like then I took a picture and referred to it as I chose the crosses.

Both the book and fabric will be available at our new quilt shop “The Circle of Friends Quilt Shoppe” ( The shop will be opening in June)

I’m also working on some little quilts as in baby quilts.