wendysquilting

Spring Fever

March 6, 2009 wendysquilting

I’m ready to start putting the borders on the Figs and Plum quilt. I had hoped to have them on tonight but I decided to get working on the customer quilt first tonight. I’m hoping to have the quilt all finished and bound by Monday or Tuesday which means of course the customer quilt needs to be finished. Today I did get the borders cut out.

img_2681-small It was raining today, so some of our snow started to melt. Of course it makes everything look a little gray and grimy outside. This has been a long and very cold winter which might explain abit of my shopping last month…

It all kinda started with the Quilt I’m making for Eriks mom, he suggested I make it bigger and so I had to order more fabric

img_2682-small and I made sure that I’d have more than enough just in case.. I also ordered enough of a coordinating fabric for the backing.

And because my Daughter was in Texas for a couple weeks and could bring home my order I added a few things..

I have always loved red white and blue together and I just couldn’t resist the Flag Day Farm line so I didn’t. I am Canadian but I have to admit that I’ve always wished they’d add a little blue into our flag.

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I had to add the snippets charms to my order so I’d get free shipping (well I really only needed to add one pkg of charms but that wouldn’t be as much fun right?

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I might want to make a BOM quilt that I’ve been looking at online .

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and then there were these goodies that were on sale…

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I also bought a couple of tablerunner kits from one of our local quilt shops one for my Mom and one for me. I’ll show mine when I get it done.

and then to be fair a few goodies from the other quilt shop in town. After all if we don’t support our shops and our industry what might happen?

img_2687-small Well thats my reasoning anyways. I also read that Kimberly and Kevin owners of the Fat Quarter Shop are expecting Twins….

One more hour til Friday!!!

Uncategorized

Wow that went fast

March 3, 2009 wendysquilting

the weekend that is. Why is it that those two days of the week have to go so fast?

I love the weekends and this one was full

img_2669-small I got quite abit of the Figs and Plum quilt done. I finished piecing the half square triangles on Friday night and cutting the 4 1/2 squares Saturday morning. Then I asked my youngest and her friend to lay the blocks out for me while I worked on a customer quilt. Saturdays are full days here, I like to make a pot of soup for my weekday lunches, catch up on the laundry and housework and get as much quilting done. But Saturday night is always for Erik and I. This week we had tickets to see B J Thomas. He put on an excellent show. His music has great memories attached for me.

We also celebrated my Moms Birthday on Sunday night. I made lasagna, and my oldest made Salad, and appetizers and the girls all helped with set up and clean up. Well not all of them, unfortunately with Emily in Edmonton she wasn’t able to make it. Anyways Happy Birthday Mom!!

birthday-sisters-08-small My mom is on the right with her sister, my Auntie.

I spent the evening working on the quilt top and also got quite abit done on the custom job on my machine. There really are not enough hours in the day.

Uncategorized

Emergency Quilt

February 28, 2009 wendysquilting

When I first started my Longarm Quilting business I remember other longarmers talking about Emergency Quilts. You know the ones that need to be quilted yesterday and most agreed that there really wasn’t such a thing.

Sometimes though life has some twists in it and although I am busy, with quilting for others and also a few projects underway I have to slip in an emergency quilt. You see one of my co-workers needs a comfort quilt and she needs it yesterday. Of course that’s how I feel, and I only wish that a quilt could really make someone all better. About a year and a half ago I lost one of my favorite Aunts to brain cancer and now my friend is in her own battle with it. She is too young and her kids are too young to loose their mom. Life is just not fair!

Anyways I’m taking a break from my piecing projects this week to make a comfort quilt that will hopefully bring some softness and warmth during this very difficult time.

img_2667-small-2 My plan is to make a label and press it on freezer papers so that my coworkers can write her messages . I remember using pigma pens to do this in the past. Has that wheel been reinvented? Are there any better pens to use?

Blogroll, Family, hiking, Life, Moda U, Quilting, Winter

A Sad Tale and My Quilting Update

February 23, 2009 wendysquilting

We were going to take our usual Sunday afternoon hike today but first Erik wanted to show me something in the back of his property.

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He’s had a stand of Pine trees that he’s been really proud of, they really are beautiful trees.

Last week when he went back there he notice that almost all of them had been stripped of the bark which means they will all die.

While we were looking at the trees……look what else we saw

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Yep, thats the culprit. This porcupine has been a very busy critter. Its amazing how much damage such a small animal can do and so thourough too check out these branches:

even-the-branches-small Some of the branches are so small you’d think it would have fallen out of the tree.

On a brighter note heres a shot I took from the back looking towards the house. I love the little playhouse.

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The wind was really bitter today so we skipped the long hike. I sure hope spring is planning to come soon.

On the quilting front I accomplished quite abit on the custom job on my machine, I still need a full day or so to complete it but its coming along. I’ve been spending alot more time piecing these days, I need to remember not to let life get so busy that I don’t make time for my domestic machine and making quilts.

rosy-checks-trimmed-blocks All trimmed and ready to be sewn into a top

hello-betty1 And my Hello Betty Quilt I have 44 half square triangles trimmed and another 44 to trim and another 88 to make…

This week will be a full one so hopefully I’ll still be able to tuck in some sewing for me time and get the customer quilt done and delivered. I want to be able to do it all but with a full time day job its pretty challenging.

My oldest daughter will be home from Texas tomorrow night….and with her my order from Fat Quarter Shop, I’m very excited to see both of them.

Blogroll, Family, Life, Quilting, Uncategorized, Winter

Favorites

February 21, 2009February 21, 2009 wendysquilting

Today was one of my favorite things. Working full time outside of my home makes me really appreciate Fridays. I also really do appreciate my full time job, the security it give my girls and I as well as the opportunity to be of assistance to others. I work for a government agency that puts in home care. Nursing, homemakers, OT/PT and some other services that for the most part are in place to enable seniors to remain in their own homes as long as possible. We also put the nursing services in so that people can go home from the hospital and recuperate in the comfort of their own home.

Still I do love Fridays!

My plan for tonight was to work on a customer quilt for the most part. I was supposed to be home alone all night but instead one was home for a visit and my youngest was home longer than she’d thought and had a friend over who also brought her mom along so we could meet. ( the girls are 14 and are abit horrified when we moms want to meet each other, but I really do like to know their friends moms if possible) Turns out her mom is making a quilt and has made a few in the past and wanted to see my studio. So I did not get as much work as planned but there’s always tomorrow.

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Duluth, we just needed abit of a getaway.This winter has felt extremely long and the trip did help. I woke up before everyone so I went for a little walk. Lots of snow and ice still but Lake Superior was open in Duluth, we are 3 1/2 hours north and the lake is still frozen here.

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Grand Marais is a little town a couple hours from here in MN. It is a cool little town so worth a visit. There’s a great Quilt shop there called Crystal’s. There are actually a few quilt shops on the way to Duluth and this time I discovered a new one called Behind the Seams….I was well behaved but oh that shop was full of my kind of fabric…

I was really well behaved partly because we didn’t want to go over our limit and pay duty and also because I went on a bit of a binge ordering from Fatquartershop.com and Hancocks this week. Next week I’ll share some pictures of my latest additions to my stash. I really have to ground myself from those sites for abit I think 🙂

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I did piece all the blocks for my Rosy Checks this week, I decided to piece a few every time I had a few minutes to spare and tonight I pressed the last few. I couldn’t resist laying them out to have a peek. They still need to be trimmed before I put the top together, but it felt so good to finish the blocks. I think Erik’s mom will really like this quilt.

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I’m ready to start my Hello Betty Quilt. One of the reasons I like the Moda U quilts is that I can just cut and piece. Sometimes I just need to use my tools and these quilts fit the bill for that, I get to use some to the newest fabric lines and they give me variety and I get to try some new patterns, some are easier than others and sometimes easy fits the bill especially when life has been challenging enough.

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My youngest daughter has been creative all of her life, always prefering craft supplies over toys. Making all her gifts and even making things to sell while she was in grade school. She made Rice Bags a couple of years (grade 5 and 6) and sold them to classmates and teachers, promoting them as gifts they could give. That little girl has a business mind. Anyways a couple Christmases ago she made me this pillow using my little scraps from the Wuthering Heights quilts I’d made and then wrote on the back of it. It is one of my most treasured items. Sometimes she’ll ask me to put it away (remember she’s 14 now) because her friends always read it and ask her if she made it.

She told me this morning that she thinks that paint is her medium. She just completed a semester of Art in Highschool and really enjoyed it, even though she found it hard and challenging she apprecitated how much she learnt.

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birthday, Family, hiking, Life, Quilting, woodcarving

Monday

February 10, 2009September 15, 2011 wendysquilting

I love the Christmas Wish BOM that I found at Gail Pan Designs I am going to make another block for the quilt but decided to make this one as a little valentines hanging for my little cubicle that I spend so much time in. It is bound and hanging, I used the pink version of the border fabric to bind it but didn’t get a picture of it before I took it to work.

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I thought it looked abit lonely so I also did this one. I have done any embroidery in years and I’d forgotten how relaxing I find it.

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This weekend I started cutting out My Rosie Checks Quilt kit that I picked up last weekend. I just love the colours and I’m itching to just get at this one and get it done but I’ll have to settle for a bit at a time a savor the journey. I have quilt jobs to do and that day job of mine really takes up alot of precious quilting hours. I am thankful for my job really I am I just wish I had a clone that I could sent there and put in the hours for me.

We celebrated my daughters birthday at my parents over the weekend

img_2559-small hmm is this really what 23 looks like?

img_2548-small I’ve been meaning to share some pictures of some of my Dads work, he started carving when Sarah was born or shortly afterward and is incredibly talented, if I do say so myself 🙂 My mom has painted many of his pieces and one day I’ll share some pictures of her many talents.

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img_2564-small-2 last year my Dad started carving whimsical houses. They are so cool and each one is different. His gift to the girls and I were our own collection each. 3 smaller ones to hang on our Christmas trees and one bigger one for display. These are some of the ones he as at their house.

He’s also carved many Father Christmas’ using trunks from Christmas trees waiting for the chipper. Great recycling eh?

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One more picture, from the hike Erik and I went on yesterday. We came across a couple of partriges sitting on tree branches just above the trail. They are really funny birds, usually when I’ve seen them they are standing on a country road and they don’t move out of the way, they’ll stand just like statues and I’ve seen cars go over them and they’re still standing where they were unfazed.

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One more thing I’d like to share is another blog that I’ve been visiting. It belongs to Nicole and even though I’ve never met her she’s been (being) a bad influence on me 🙂 I love her quilts and her fabric and pattern choices…she is partly to “blame” for some of my recent shopping trips at fatquartershop.com. There are of course many more blogs that I love and spend far too much time visiting and getting so many ideas that I may need another lifetime to try.

Blogroll, Family, hiking, Life, Quilting, Uncategorized, Winter

January

January 24, 2009 wendysquilting

This week was the coldest so far this winter with Windchills in the -38 to -41C range. If you haven’t experienced those kind of temps and you don’t have to I don’t recommend it 🙂 Around here life just continues on, you make sure to plug in your block heater at night so your car in my case van will start and you adjust your driving to the conditions. Oh and you make sure you’re dressed for the weather and keep extra things like blankets, winter gear and safety kit in your vehicle. The Coldsnap started on Monday, also the day my daughters boyfriend came up from Texas. He flew into Minneapolis and rented a SUV and drove up here I think at first he was pretty suprised at how cold it really does get up here but the kids sure made the most of their visit. They took some pretty cool pictures in the city and area so I thought I’d share some:

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Go0d Northerner Hat! These hats are superwarm and this one came from Egli’s Sheep Farm about 3 1/2 hours west of here.

This was taken right at the water front, there are summer shots of the Sleeping Giant as well as the Falls in earlier posts, I think the ice really makes the Falls look interesting.

Kakabeka Falls:

The Forestry industry has taken a big hit in the last few years leaving thousands unemployed in Northern Ontario. This picture is of Bowater which is still running but after considerable downsizing.

These next pictures are of what we all call the Cheese farm. Its always so worth visiting for the Gouda Cheese they make and I always add some “squeeky cheese” aka Cheese Curds to my purchase. They also carry Dutch Licorice which is one of my favorite candies. The kids did bring me some home but I can’t take a picture of it now 🙂

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I used to walk by this place alot its about a mile from here down an old country road. I like to think that many years ago a young couple built this place and raised their family and lived out their years. Its been deserted for I don’t know how long now, in the summer the lilac bush in the front is always in full bloom, the lady probably planted it and at one time took great pride in how her place looked.

The barn I’m sure has seen much better days, It sure has character now. The oil tank is still by the house, at one time it would have been heated with oil.

On the quilting front, its been a busy month at work and trying to keep up with quilt jobs. I finished up this blue quilt, its a king size that the piecer wanted free hand quilted with an overall pattern and her embroidered blocks SID’d and simple quilting to tack the blocks down.

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This one was very fun to quilt with lots of free hand.

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Blogroll, Family, hiking, Life, Quilting

Sunday’s Backyard Safari

January 12, 2009 wendysquilting

No hike this weekend, the flu bug that’s going around has really been zapping energy, hopefully next weekend it will have taken a hike 🙂

I finished the borders on the baby quilt I worked on last week and hopefully I’ll squeeze this little quilt in soon and send it off to its new owner. I’m still trying to decide how I want to secure the eyes and mouth on the bugs, the pattern used buttons but I want it safe for a child so I fused fabric on but it will need to be secured.

I’m looking for a book that I used to read to my girls to send off with it. The ladybugs in the border reminded me of a story my girls used to have me read over and over, each page had a ladybug hiding and the last line would say ladybug lady bug where are you and the girls would all race to find it 🙂 sometimes I sure miss those cuddly fun days.

ladybug

I also have fabric leftover so I think I’ll put a little bookbag together too.

I also put put the binding on a valentines quilt thats been waiting, I knew I’d have it ready for Feb 14th eventually and looks like this years the year!

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I’ll share a picture of the whole quilt when its finished. This quilt was one of the Moda University quilts that I did for a while when I first had my longarm and before I went back to work full time. I wanted quilts that I could practice my quilting on and my plan was that I would try to sell them after I used them as sample of my work. But with 4 daughters who all love quilts they have all found loving owners. I’m thinking I’ll keep this one though.

One of the Moda kits that I haven’t done yet (I have 2) used Aunt Purdy’s Parlor collection. I just didn’t care for the pattern and I’ve been trying to decide how to use it. I really like the collection, any ideas? It will have to be a scrappy quilt but those are my favorites. The fabric reminds me of aprons.

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Although I didn’t make any New Years Resolutions, I have set a few goals for myself. One is that I work harder on my fitness goals, so far so good I’ve been using my eliptical trainer all month only missing two days because I was ill. Another goal is to finish up some of my UFO’s (true quilter goal I know) I also want to make a few new quilts as gifts this year along with keeping up with my customer quilting so……another of my goals is to oraganize my time more efficiently since I really can’t give up sleep or my day job.

Oh and one last goal, I’m hoping to stay on top of my blogging entries 🙂