I have often thought about making myself a design board. Tara showed us how to make easy ones as part of the introduction to her block studies and I had planned to make simple and fast ones like that.
Then…the other night I came across a YouTube video by Gina Tell and I just couldn’t resist giving it a try!
I already had some foam board, and oh so many batting scraps and left over bindings.
Gluing the batting to the board and sewing on the binding was easy. I did use a glue stick to hold the binding onto the back as I used the duct tape to finish the board. The white duct tape came from the dollar store as did the foam board.
Yes I am having fun playing! After spending my day working on the longarm and preparing today’s quilt for loading, the evening was mine!
I had initially only cut a couple of strips from each colour that I am working on, so had to start with some prep work!
Next Kudos to https://www.madaboutpatchwork.com as I joined Tara Faughnans Block Studies this season later than some and her palette for this month had sold out and I wanted them. I have been ordering from Mad About Patchwork for a while and their service is outstanding!! The package is always like getting a present…they often include a little gift as well! I do love to use Kona for my solids and this shop reliably carries all of their colours!
Also added a totally impulsive purchase just for fun!!
So last night, when my work for the day was finished, I gifted myself the evening to press and cut into the palette and begin playing! More on that soon.
My friend Louisa posted more of her work this morning that keeps inspiring me to gift myself playtime.
We have been gifted, in my opinion anyways with an extra long stretch of summer weather! With that though the bears in the area continue.
As much as I love walking out here and especially on my own at my own pace…though I love running into my friends and visiting too…I know myself and an encounter with a bear would be hard to overcome.
Instead I am playing at other ways to work on my fitness and yesterday my Dad gave me a step!
For many years when my girls were small I took step aerobics 3 times a week and loved it! Now I have a step and found an instructor that I like on YouTube. We have a treadmill and I can use it but I find it boring…
I have always loved fitness and know how important it is as I age and if I am going to be able to do all the things that I hope to do in these next decades of my life I need to be fit!
I am also reading this book…which really encourages retired people to consider exercise their new job….though I am not retired!
My Dad has adopted healthy living and fitness into his life even more so these last years and at 88 yrs he has spent his summer actively enjoying golf and his bike and is always reading, learning and trying new things.
On another but related subject I had been on the fence about joining Tara Faughnans Block Studies Collective this season.
My biggest issue was the time as I am a full time longarm quilter and I love piecing and have no shortage of projects or fabric for that matter.
So what made me decide to jump in? At my brother’s 60th birthday dinner on Sunday I mentioned it and the response was so positive, have fun and keep learning, go for it! The Block Studies Collective is about play and exploration, playing with colour, all things that I love.
Also winter is coming and with that a lot more time for quilting! Tracking shows that my palette arrives tomorrow so last night I pulled some scraps out and played at the end of my day! So many ideas and so much fun!!
On last thing about this season…a friend and I were saying to each other how tired we feel making the what’s for supper decision these days… I have been making that decision for most of my adult life. She had recently started ordering Hello Fresh. Two of my daughters have used it before and enjoyed it so…
That one was a favourite among several favourites, it’s been a fun change. We only eat in restaurants and very seldomly when we travel, and this has added so many great prompts for future meals!
This fun quilt recently left my studio quilted,trimmed and ready for binding in plenty of time to hang for Halloween!
The quilt did present a challenge in that the witches legs hang freely. Using the quilting design Frite-nite I carefully worked around the legs not loosing any of the fun design.
A quilt that was pieced as a Block of the Month turned out beautifully! It’s full of different designs and colours and was a delight to quilt!
I quilted it using the quilting design Nocturne Feathers by Bethanne Nemesh. I love the flow and density of her designs and as a result offer several of hers.
I have been professionally quilting for others for over 20 years and have collected many designs and am always adding more for my customers to choose from. If you have a design in mind and I don’t have it I will help you to find it and add it to my collection.
This quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up!!
With a request for a baby quilt this one began with a cute but older baby print with baby blocks, rattles and such. Adding the read solid prints to the mix that played nicely with the print resulted in a super cute baby quilt! With the added bonus for my customer of using up fabrics from her stash!
She also pieced the backing from her stash adding more sweetness and fun!
Her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up!
The story of this lovely Christmas quilt really makes me smile!
It was pieced by a longtime and expert quilter, which I could tell by her piecing. I have quilted other quilts of hers as well.
Sadly (and of course not why it makes me smile) she began developing dementia as this one was being completed and is no longer able to quilt.
The part that makes me smile is that her family has chosen to finish her quilts so that they will be used and enjoyed.
There was a lot of bulk in some of the areas where the corners met and I didn’t want to add any distraction to the piecing/design of the quilt with the quilting. I chose the pantograph Bayside for its soft flow…I also love how it plays so nicely with the candy cane backing!
This quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up!
I love summer and this year we had, at least in my opinion, lovely weather.
Unfortunately for the bears and for our community the weather we had did not produce a great crop of berries for the bears!
So what is a hungry bear to do, especially when it’s time to fatten up and get ready to hibernate…they do love apples and so we had a visitor. The city and area has had far more visiting bears than usual!
Neighbours up the road from us have had a Momma and her three cubs hanging around for a few weeks. I suspect this one is one of the cubs and spent the day returning to our tree despite our presence.
We usually wait until after the first frost to pick the apples but choose to pick them that day…so it’s back to making apple juice again.
On the quilting front this Bear in the Tree quilt recently left the studio. It was quilted using the design Star Swirl and I stopped around the appliqués in order to allow them to pop. (They were outlined and minimally quilted in order to keep the density similar to the background)
The quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up.
One very beautiful Sunday morning my daughter Katie and my brother and I set out for a hike at Sleeping Giant Provincial park which is about an hours drive from here.
It’s a park and area that holds many cherished memories of mine and was so wonderful to spend the day enjoying with family!
We are surrounded by amazing nature and these mushrooms caught my eye so I am including them in this story just because!
Living so close to Lake Superior, I wonder how many people just take the lake for granted. I have always been amazed by its beauty and strength along with its ever changing views.
After our hike we had lunch at store at Silver Islet https://silverisletgeneral.ca another very special place in my heart.
One of my earliest summers in Thunder Bay I was gifted with stays with a friend and her family at Silver Islet and I have so many very happy and interesting memories from that time in my life.
As we were driving back along the narrow road looking at the different mining camps, I mentioned the cemetery that my friend and I visited all those years ago as in close to 50 years ago….just as we were talking about that my daughter noticed friends of theirs coming to shore in their dingy…their sailboat docked nearby.
They invited us to see where they are building their summer camp and would we like to visit the cemetery!!
The cemetery is located within the provincial park and due to that and rules of provincial parks the cemetery has been left to nature. It used to be maintained by the campers association. Still it was so interesting to see again.
My daughters friends have built a sauna/guest house first which you can see in the background of my picture of their wood burning hot tub.
I love that they are building to include the natural stairs!
One last picture from the day…sometimes the weeds produce amazing beauty!
Wendy’s Quilting and Life 