I know I haven’t been posting much this summer, despite having so much to share. I’ve been busy in my studio though, here’s a little peek.
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Stillwater Minnesota
Summers been flying by way too fast, Erik and I began by celebrating his birthday with a trip to Stillwater, and then backtracked to Duluth for the Minnesota Quilters Quilt Show…
Circles
Thanks to Cheryl Arkison I have been playing around with circles in my imagination. (Too busy to play these days).
Thanks to a fun sew in that I was invited to yesterday I was finally able to try Cheryl’s technique for inset circles that she teaches in her Craftsy Class.
Now that I’ve tried it more ideas are flowing…time to schedule more play!
Who else is playing with circles or wants to?
The Quilting Part of Quilting (why this longarmer loves to quilt)
My quilting journey has taken me through so many phases, styles, patterns, loves, likes and dislikes. It really all started when I watched “Little House on the Prairie” and fell in LOVE with their “blankets”. When I said to my Mom how much I loved them, she casually remarked “oh those are just quilts and only poor people make those” I guess that growing up on a farm during the depression influenced her opinion at the time. My Mom now quilts too.
So It began with a love for the scrappier looking quilts and I made several, some were hand quilted and some simply machine quilted on my old singer. Fabric sources were hard to come by at that time.
Over the years I’ve used many different patterns, and for the most part stayed in the soft to pastel line of colours, and really enjoyed the emergence of the “Moda” fabric lines. Lately I have been emerging from that box as future posts will reveal!
When my Longarm arrived I joined the Moda University Kit club at the Fatquartershop and made and quilted many of those quilts and proudly gifted them to family. I have several Fatquartershop block of the month quilts in various stages of completion and I’ve also been busy these last 8 years quilting for others.
It’s always so much fun at our Local show to see my customers quilts on display! Here are a few of them from last weekends show.
When I first started Longarm Quilting for others, it was to supplement my income allowing me as a single parent, to be at home while I raised my four daughters. There were always just enough quilts coming in to help make ends meet! I am so grateful to all of my wonderful friends/customers who have entrusted me with their quilts.
Quilting, including Machine Quilting is a passion of mine, while making some income quilting for others is a great thing it is not the entire reason why I run my business.
My customers make quilts for so many reasons and bring them to me to add another dimension to their work, I love bringing their vision to reality. I take pride in my work, the tension has to be perfect, the design perfect for that quilt, quality threads that will withstand many many years of use and above all the satisfaction that my work meets up to the piecers as well as my own expectations for quality work.
I have met other Longarm quilters and for the most part we tend to be a group who do not compete but instead share information and encourage each other which is something that has always been a part of quilting isn’t it.
Of course the best part of quilting are the friendships that are found and grown, don’t you agree?
Thunder Bay Quilt Show
2013 Thunder Bay Quilt Guild’s Quilt Show will Close tomorrow. The months leading up to this show are busy ones for everyone and we longarm quilters are no exception. It’s such a pleasure seeing my customer quilts displayed as well as my personal quilts all completed and hanging.
These are my four entries in the show.
Flower Power
Picnic (which is my adaptation of Angela Walters pattern found on the Moda Bakeshop site) it was quilted freehand.
Wolf Song
Tumbling Block Flowers
Flower Power
In my last post I started to share pictures of the beginnings of one of the quilts I made for this years Quilt Show put on by my local guild Thunder Bay Quilt Guild.
The pattern for this quilt is from href=”http://www.romanianquiltstudio.com/english/patterns.htm”>Geta Grama, I first saw a picture of one of her quilts on Pinterest and I needed to know more. I’ve been breaking out of a “safe” colour zone in the last year and my mind has been full of ideas! I had already bought Kaffee Fassett charm squares to play with and when I found this pattern I just knew they’d play well together.
Alva’s Monet
This week I had the pleasure and privilege of quilting one of Alva’s beautiful quilts. I’ve quilted many for her and I’ve loved them all but this one… I suggested that she just forget about it and leave it with me!
No such luck though, thankfully I can enjoy the pictures and I know where it is so I can visit.
I am the one who bought the pattern, after seeing this quilt on Joen Wolframs’ craftsy class and ordering the pattern. So who’s to say I won’t end up with one myself one day, after all there is no law against having too many WIPS at a time. The pattern is called Memories of Monet.
Quilt Pick up Day
Yesterday was the day for a few quilts to go home. My Grandson was here when my customers were here, and there was one quilt he particularly liked while I was showing it to my customer…thankfully she loves little ones and feels that her quilts are to be enjoyed so she was happy to see how much Liam loved this one.
He even thought it might be a good place for a picnic!
LABYRINTH
Some quilting jobs like to spend more time on the frame than others..this was one of them.
The pattern is called Labyrinth and the kit was purchased from Keepsake Quilting. My customer made some changes to the fabrics that came with the kit and also added more borders as she doesn’t care for square quilts.
I was able to play on this quilt and used some new to me ideas that I have learnt thanks to Angela Walters, Craftsy classes as well as her books.
Anyhow here is my show and tell:
I really need some time to finish my design wall so that I can hang and photograph my quilting. One day soon. For now these will have to do!
Have a great and wonderful day!!!
Wendy
This and that!
Happy Birthday to my beautiful first born daughter Sarah!! She is so beautiful through and through!
I’m fighting a cold and spent a lot of my day sleeping trying to kick it to the curb. Not much energy so I spent my waking hours making blocks for this fun little quilt.
I want to add more green into it but I’ve been working with my stash till this point, any suggestions?
Wendy’s Quilting and Life 