Leslie is a local Arist who brought me her queen sized hand pieced landscape quilt depicting a scene of the Rockies. This quilt lived with me and on my design wall for some time until one day it had spoken with me enough to start. This quilt and I went on a journey so to speak, an adventure. It was for the most part fun to work on though also challenging as I wanted to be sure to capture Leslie’s vision and also bring movement and capture the light of her work.
Category: Wendy’s Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario
Quilting and Life
I have often said that life is full of twists and turns which has been true of mine. I have still been busy quilting for my wonderful customers and I am so thankful for them ESP for their patience when I have needed it.
I have been busy working as a respite worker which I love. I have been working in a respite home where we give 24/7 care for adults giving caregiver much needed rest (shift work). It is a joy to be able to make such a positive difference in people’s lives. I don’t think that people really know how illnesses such as dementia impact the life of the caregiver unless they have experienced it or know someone who is.
I also relocated a couple of years ago and recently my longarm has joined me. My new studio offers a large window and the daylight is very welcome. Living with my machine means that my turn around on jobs is much much faster!
I have been busy these last two years quilting, I just have been negligent about blogging. I hope to get a better routine about that too.
Some recent customer quilts insclude Susan’s stunning tumbling block quilt
Cecilia’s Quilts
Carol’s Quilt
On the Quilting Side of Life
Alva never fails to amaze me with her use of colour and the different patterns she finds and makes as in finishes too! I quilted this for her using the Pantograph Leaf Pile.
Lorraine is another prolific quilter, I love the colours that she used in this quilt. It was quilted using the pantograph Waterworld.
Revisiting Summer Wind a Low Volume Quilt
Several years ago on a little March Break trip across the border, my youngest daughter and I saw a fabric line in a shop that we had to have along with a pattern that the fabric had been made into. The fabric line was called Seaside Rose of Three Sisters for Moda fame and Katie and I collected a lot of it. I have made several quilts with it over the years but my favorite still is the one I made with Carrie Nelsons Summer Wind Pattern (I have made a few more with the pattern since in a few different colorways).
I have noticed lately that many people are making what are now referred to as Low Volume Quilts and realized that this one falls into that category though it was made so long ago. It is so soft and gentle looking and maybe that’s what drew me to the quilt in the first place as it was made during a very difficult and hard time in my life’s journey.
On another note it sure is nice to see green grass even sprinkled with dandelions even if only in pictures…we still have about 3 feet of snow…
Alva and her Ricky Tims inspired Bed-runner Quilt
Alva has been both my friend and quilting mentor for over twenty years now. She has also been a major cheerleader in my Longarm Quilting career, entrusting me with the quilting of many many of her incredible quilts over the years.
This latest quilt was inspired by a pattern in one of Ricky Tim’s magazines Quilt Life, the pattern itself by Wendy Hill. Alva had the templates made and then played with ideas for awhile before allowing this project to be what she’s referred to as her latest insanity! Notice all of the Y seams!
We chose a Pantograph called Helix by Patricia Ritter, to give even more movement to this piece. I chose Superiors Bottom Line thread as I did not want the thread to take front stage just the spiral affect.
I am really hopeful that yesterday was our last snow day, but I must admit that I love photographing quilts against a snowy background.
Thank you again Alva for allowing me to work with you to make your vision come to be!
Fanciful Flowers
I had a dream
Yesterday I received an email from WestJet a Canadian Airline with an offer that I could fly from here to Hawaii for 300. if I bought the ticket within the next 48 hours. Well I’m not going.
Though I guess my subconscious thought I should and I dreamt last night that I was there, oh there were so many people there. What was I doing though? Collecting Fat Quarters that’s what! Towards the end of the dream I decided to go swimming and ended up floating down a river and dreaming in my dream about more fabric, suddenly it occurred to me that I’d have to find a way to bring my enormous pile of fat quarters home and I woke up.
Now that I’m awake and ready to start the day, it’s time to load a quilt on the longarm and get quilting and continue on with the fun I’m having with Lucy’s Crab Shack…
more to follow
A Little Show and Tell
When Terri first sent me pictures of this quilt as she was working on it, I fell in love with it. I love her colour placement and that this quilt was made from her stash fabrics. The Echinacea flowers were appliqued using very soft brushed flannel or was it velvet, what ever it was the dimension that her fabric choice made was perfect. I used a Panto by Nicole Webb called Fro Fro.
these pictures were taken in MARCH in my back yard! Our weather has been so mild this year and the grass was actually dry. Very unusual for this area.
Helena brought me her Oriental Lantern with instructions to quilt it how I wanted to…



























