Category: Quilting

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

Honeycomb Schnibble

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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.

Quilting, Schnibble, Vintage Sewing Machines

Newest Addition

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To my machine family that is.

I’d been watching this machine on Kijiji for months now and when I noticed that the price had come down to $55. I decided to check it out and if it was in good shape I would pick it up. I really needed a new table for a corner in the living room so it will have a home.

It has a lovely stitch too. Its a Singer 99K (1956) that makes 4 vintage sewing machines in my collection, one for each of my girls someday if they so desire. (I wonder if that will prevent me from giving a good home to future finds?

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My Little Schnibble “Happy Day” is coming along too. I have a spot in my living room above my Treddle that it will hang. For those of you who are not familiar with Schnibbles have a visit at Miss Rosie’s Quilt Co.

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

Quiet but Busy and Half Square Triangle Tutorial

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This week seems to have flown by, I was able to accomplish a few things in my studio as well as some very welcome walks out in the sunshine.

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I finally have all 30 blocks completed for Emily’s quilt. Now I have to decide on sashing. I would probably use a muslin if I’d had enough but I don’t and I can’t find a perfect match. So my next idea is to use one of the prints beside the blocks. I’ll lay it out next week and share some pictures and hopefully get some opinions.

I’ve been quilting a custom job on my longarm that is taking longer than I like, so for a little diversion I started another project using my Beach House Layer Cake.

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I’m ready to piece these 25 blocks which will be part on my next Schnibble.

While trimming my half square triangles, I was thinking that some people might not be aware of the Quilt in a Day Ruler that I use. This is a tool that makes trimming these a breeze:

in this example I used two 5” charm squares right sides together, and drew a diagonal line.

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I sew a very scant 1/4 inch seam on both sides of the line and then cut along drawn line.

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Using the ruler, in this case I’m making 3 1/2” squares so I line up the stitched line with the 3 1/2” line and trim

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Press open and trim the dog ears if you desire.

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In my opinion this ruler is worth more than its weight in gold!! I hope that it helps you too.

Quilting

Time to finish what I start

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I’ve spent several hours in the last two days stitching down bindings. I was so close to finishing this one last night but I was just too tired. I have learnt that things go so much better when I’m well rested.

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I’m also almost finished binding Opening Day the rest are finished.  (From top to bottom: Sunny Trails, Aviary Quilt (pattern from Heather Heather Mulder Peterson’s book Livin’ Large), Opening Day, and Finally Elizabeth is finished.

Well actually I have some sleeves to sew on some of these quilts as well as Megan’s Gypsy Rose as they will all be displayed at our upcoming Quilt Show.

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I’m still working on Emily’s quilt, it’s taking more time than I’m used to and I’m constantly fighting the urge to start something else but I’m determined to complete this quilt before summer.

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

Sunny Trails Continued and some etc..

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I’ve been busy working on Sunny Trails and the top is now ready for quilting.

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its such a sweet little quilt. Hopefully someday I’ll have a granddaughter to give it to eventually. The only thing I’d suggest if you choose to make this pattern is that it would probably be easier to put the blocks together if you press the seams open. I still prefer to press to one side.

I had enough fabric left over to make these 9 patches

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I have another layer cake on order so I think I’ll make another quilt and use the scraps with these 9 Patches and make a schnibble pattern.

But first I’ll finish piecing Emily’s quilt.

Erik and I watched Great Balls of Fire on DVD last night. It was a good movie, colourful fellow for sure.

 

 

I spent the afternoon with my Mom. I had bought my parents tickets to see the Tommy Hunter show (his final tour) but my Dad had a carving workshop this weekend so I went instead. For my Canadian Readers you know who he is. He really put on a good performance and said that he’s decided to retire while he can still perform. He’s 74.

The Tommy Hunter show was on the CBC for 27 years, many of those years during my childhood. This clip was with Johnny and June, I was fortunate to see them live as well. I always loved the Johnny Cash show.

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

My Kind of Day

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It was sunny out today, but surprisingly chilly I think I heard that it got to –17C overnight brrr considering its supposed to be spring.

Anyways I spent a good part of the day doing what I set out to do today and I’m happy to say I have all the blocks except 2 small parts completed.

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The reason I say except for 2 small parts is that the grey pinstripe I chose to use is directional and I made a mistake in placement so I had to fix my problem and I’m now short 2 3.5” pieces. Thankfully I have a good quilting friend who has come to my rescue and I’ll be able to finish up the last block in the next day or so.

I know that this quilt is a copy of one that I saw, but I love the fabric and I love the pattern so I will now have one too. I highly recommend  Sunny Trails and will make it again and probably with stash.

Moda Bakeshop, Quilting

Sunny Trails Quilt

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I fell in  love with the Sunkissed Collection (Sweetwater for Moda) and was doing really well restraining myself. That was until I came across this pattern on the Moda Bakeshop site

I love this pattern and esp the fabric. I am always drawn to yellow in quilts so this one drew me right in. I’m already thinking of other fabrics I’d like to see this pattern done in. If only I didn’t need to sleep, then maybe I’d have more time to to make all the quilts in my mind.20110121_11edit

The pattern is by  Corey Yoder and her blog is at littlemissshabby.com  (I will warn you that her blog could be very dangerous if you are not looking for a new project to start!) but what candy for the eyes!

I think I ordered the fabric that very day, then I had to wait because I’d decided to have the fabric shipped to my house instead of the border, the wait was a little more than 3 weeks!! If I’d had it shipped to the border I could have had it in 3 days. (lesson learnt)

It is snowing here today…..so I’ll go spend the afternoon with my Sunny Fabric!

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

Sunkissed

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My much anticipated mail has finally arrived, this collection is so wonderful. It’s bright and sunny and reminds me of some of the clothes I wore when I was small.

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March can still be a grey month here the weather does let up and the snow starts to melt, but that means lots of puddles and all the mess left behind from the sanded streets and walks.

I’ve made more progress on Emily’s quilt, the final round of ribbons are ready to be sewn. This quilt will take a backseat while I work on the Sunkissed top but I still plan to have it finished by the end of the month.

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Blogroll, Family, Quilting, Uncategorized

Another 2 days of doing what I want

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Yesterday was the day to tackle the half square triangles. There are 144 2 ½” and 12 6 ½” hst’s in this quilt. I’m not crazy about all the trimming but it doesn’t take too long and it’s definitely worth the effort.

The quilt is starting to take shape now; I have all the main blocks finished now and had the time today to sew the centre and first round together. Now I’ll need to take over the living room for a bit and lay the whole quilt out. I’m hoping to have the top finished before I head back to work Tuesday.

This is the
second time I’ve made this pattern. The first time it was offered as a kit from Fatquartershop.com, it was my first of many purchases and they remain one of my favourite online shops. My only gripe with them is that they make it too easy to splurge!

Any ways here is that first quilt, Elizabeth by Carrie Nelson aka Miss Rosies Quilt Co. made with the Wuthering Heights Collection (that I still love and have a little stash of) This quilt was quickly claimed by my daughter Sarah and it will soon be returning to Texas along with the rest of her quilt collection. She also has a charm quilt made with the same collection.

Elizabeth is a fun quilt to piece which is why I’ve always wanted to do it again. The new quilt will be a wedding gift for one of my daughters friends who is getting married in July.

Yesterday morning I dropped of a quilt to one of my customers. She invited me up to her sewing room and then showed me one of the quilts I did for her recently. She wanted me to see the quilt rack that her son in law made for her, that was in her bedroom. Then I noticed the quilt on her bed and my first thought was oh that’s nice I wonder who quilted it……oh my, my memory is failing me. I wonder if that happens to other longarmers as well?

I did spend some time working on the black and white quilt that I posted yesterday, it’s almost halfway finished.

I probably won’t be back in my studio until Monday and hopefully I’ll be able to spend the whole day again.

Have a great Easter!

Family, Life, Quilting

Another Wendy Day

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I didn’t spend as much time in the studio on my play day 3 but I did manage to get a quilt loaded on the longarm and the squares cut out for the half square triangles needed in my latest quilt.

 

My daughter Sarah asked if we could go for groceries together in the morning which we did. I think I’ve mentioned before that she’s an amazing cook. Well when we brought the groceries home she suggested that we clean out the fridge first, the two of us working together made pretty short work of a fairly big task and when we were done she put the groceries away and made us a lovely lunch and later made Mexican for Supper (a healthy version I might add)

 

I had planned to sew all evening but the girls talked me into going to the show with them.

It was opening night for The Last Song; this movie is a big time Chick Flick! If you are going to see it make sure you bring along some tissues!

 

 

All in all it was a great day!