Family – Page 4 – Wendy’s Quilting and Life

Change

April 28, 2009 wendysquilting

Change, seems to be the theme to life these days. On the quilt front I’ve noticed that my fabric choices have changed, almost everything I’ve done this year has had red in it and I love everything I’ve made this year. Maybe I needed that extra punch that red adds to a quilt.
The pattern I’m using is Gypsy Rose from the book Fat Quarter Five by Heather Mulder Peterson, the Fabric is Picket Fence by Cloe’s Closet that I’ve had for a few years, it was a Moda University Kit that I really didn’t love the pattern so its been patiently waiting. I’m almost finished the 31 blocks, I’m not sure where this quilt will live but so far I really like it.
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I’ve already shown my Hello Betty top, which screams red to me, it makes me think of picnics and fun times with little ones

And I’ve finished my first Schnibble from Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co Hot Cross Buns in the Patisserie collection by Fig Tree Quilts

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and the mail came today, I’m planning a couple of quilts for my older girls with this fabric, 2 of whom have their own places and the other will soon have her own home, The pattern I’m using is in Heather Mulder Peterson’s book Livin’ Large, her website shows the quilt in 2 versions one says Faith Hope Love that was the quilt Emily would like and separately Sarah saw Live Laugh Love and that’s the one she loves. Marys will be a surprise. The girls already have quilts but thankfully they love them and are always more than happy to receive more.
Seeing the girls become young women is very exciting but challenging as well. I guess this is the stage of parenting that I have to trust that I’ve done my job well and let them spread their wings to become who they are meant to be. Katie will still be home for a while and it will be a big change for both of us when Sarah really does fly, the house is already quieter and for Katie she’s always had big sisters around, she won’t really be the baby when its just the two of us.

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Another change was announced last week that one of our Local Quilt Shops Patchworks is closing, the owner wants to retire. I attended the last Thimbleberry club meeting Monday which was sad, alot of those ladies really enjoy the smaller group and sharing. Our local guild has a membership of 200 or so. That shop opened when my girls were little and I have so many memories. Patchworks really helped to bring Quilting to Thunder Bay.

One more change, its a big and exciting Happy change too
Spring is coming and with any luck the deer will not help themselves before I see the blooms this year. (the little white curls are shavings of Irish Spring soap which is supposed to help deter the deer as well as the cat if anyone has any more ideas to naturally keep them out I’d love to hear about it)
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Blogroll, Family, Life, Moda U, Quilting

April Showers……Snow Showers that is

April 5, 2009April 5, 2009 wendysquilting

March went out with a Roar and April began after a 50cm snow storm, heavy wet snow. The driving was treacherous and the kids had yet another snow day. I’m really hoping that’s it for the winter weather. The forecast is for temps above 0 for the rest of the week and even for sunshine!!! Maybe spring is going to show up after all it is April!

I’ve been busy this week with a customer quilt that I’m really enjoying its called Rosebud Lane.

The feathers don’t show up really well but I’m so pleased with how they’ve turned out, they are freehand.

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Which left very little time for piecing but I did get all of the blocks done for my Hello Betty quilt as well as the sashing ready.

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There is just something about the depression era fabrics that I’m drawn to, I still have a collection of basket blocks that I made when I really didn’t know what I was doing yet. That is one of my quilting goals this year to finish one of my oldest UFO’s. One thing I’ll have to accept is their imperfection. I have a depression era solid yellow that I’m planning to use as the sashing this quilts been in progress for almost 20 years. Some of the fabrics in these blocks were from the first time I ever ordered quilting fabric…it was a medley from Keepsake Quilting and the beginning of my stash.

And speaking of stash here is another addition to the stash, I have a couple of cakes and jelly rolls but didn’t add them to the picture I’m not sure what I’ll make with it but I’m enjoying the thinking about it stage. I’m at that stage with a few collections right now.

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I started the Bunny Tales BOM,
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I know I’m way behind but I’ve also never done hand applique and I’ve chosen this quilt to learn. I did the first block but I’m not happy with it so I’ll start over, I think I know where I went wrong so hopefully I’ll get it right. I’ve watched several youtubes on technique so with any luck.. I’ll have something to show sooner than later.
I’ve also started another embroidery BOM from Willowberry Designs
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This one is also a late start and I’m almost finished the first block. I’ve started doing handwork on my lunch breaks at work, I can get a fair amount accomplished if I try.

My oldest is officially finished University all except the ceremony. She starts her first career job on the 14th so she’s taken the opportunity to visit Jeremy in Texas this week. When she finished her job placement on Friday she was given an Easter Lily that was still all buds and asked me to take care of it for her 🙂 It’s blooming Sarah!

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

Sunday

March 23, 2009March 23, 2009 wendysquilting

I am not very good about labeling quilts but I’m trying to turn over a new leaf so for now on I won’t let a quilt leave me without a label. This one was very simple, I traced the circle portion of on of the BOM’s that I’m working on from Gail Pans site, that I showed in the previous posting to this one. But I really wish I would have had time to embroider it.

I meant to get more quilting done this weekend but between being really tired and having to get my taxes together and plans for today..well I might still get a couple of hours in tonight.

If there are any Canadians reading my blog you will know who Rick Mercier is. He’s a reported for the CBC and travels about and does “reports” pretty funny stuff. Anyways not very long ago he visited Thunder Bay to experience a few “local” things. Thunder Bay has a large Finnish population, so he visited The Hoito which has been one of my favorite places for years. The food is all homemade kinda old style and very yummy in the way only comfort foods can be. So he went there to learn the fine art of making Finnish Pancakes, we make our own here. And then he joined some fellows and went ice climbing which is something that I never ever plan to do myself and then finished that day off with a good old fashioned Sauna. I found the episode on you tube:

The weather was a bit chilly today with the wind but we still made it out for our hike, its a conservation area not far from Eriks and is a 4.5 km loop through the bush, so relaxing and a good workout as its very hilly. I took a few pictures to show that the snow is melting. There is another snow storm in the forcast for up to 10 cm, I ‘m really hoping thats wrong its supposed to be spring!!!

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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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