Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Welcome June!

wendysquilting

I cut the grass yesterday for the first time this season. One of the many perks of my life with Erik is that I have a nice little lawn tractor to cut grass…it’s a task that I enjoy!

This years winter was exceptionally long and stretched well into what should have been spring.

May held many challenges.

I learnt a lot about sump pumps and am extremely thankful that Erik already knew…so one morning early in May when I said that the pump sounded like it was humming he flew into action replacing it!

With that under control we breathed a little easier, however a day or so later I discovered water coming into the cold storage room. Thankfully we work well as a team, and between the two of us we were able to prevent any damage. I am an early riser and Erik is more a night owl so we worked shifts. It was a week of shop vacuuming every 20 minutes for a few days and loads of towels on and off the line or in the dryer being rotated.

The sump pump ran non stop for 3 weeks. We had a lot more snow than usual this year and with several rainstorms and frozen ground many people had destroyed basements. We were lucky!

I still continued to work away on customer quilts though not very much time for personal piecing.

So I was happy to celebrate the beginning of June by cutting grass! It’s time to plant some flowers and make some plans!

Liam has one serious plan and it looks like this summer we can make that happen!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Carol’s Star Quilt

wendysquilting

Carol made this quilt for her son, I added my touch with the pantograph Star swirl.

Michelle Wyman designed the Starswirl pantograph.

When I first started quilting on my Longarm, I was a member of an online group called LACHAT it was a fantastic resource not only for longarm quilting but also friendships with so many likeminded people.

It had great forums for trouble shooting, how would you quilt this and show and tell along with a chat room that many of us regularly spent time visiting with each other. I bring this memory up as I am reminded of it when I use Michelle’s Pantograph as that is where I met her.

The owner of the site eventually moved in a different direction and closed the site. Many of the quilters are still active and it’s been fun to follow them on social media.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Althea’s Puppy Quilt

wendysquilting

This was a really fun quilt to work on, Liam doesn’t often as for one of the quilts he see’s me quilting but this was one of them. It was made to be raffled in support of a dog show club that she belongs too.

I used the pantograph Popcorn. I also bound this quilt.

How cute is this backing!!
Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

The Duluth Birthday Trip 2022 and a New Quilt-shop!!!

wendysquilting

Other than the last couple of years Erik and I travel to Duluth MN to celebrate his birthday. He has also been retired for a year.

This year we were able to travel. With all of the snow melting and rain the waterfalls and rivers were pretty spectacular, we make it a point to stop several times during the drive.

As soon as we cross the border we pull into the parking lot and enjoy the walk to high falls. https://www.exploringnorthshore.com/pigeon-river-high-falls/

After stopping at Rydens Border Store to pick up a few packages…we were back on the road.

Next stop was the DQ in Grand Marais….we almost always have to make an ice cream stop!

While back on the road, I was looking something up when Erik suddenly said oh there’s a quilt shop and asked if I wanted to stop….I answered “well I don’t really need to“…which was followed with…too late I am pulling in!!!

That’s when I met Sylvia, she opened her quilt shop just before the pandemic closed the border. She has a beautiful shop in Lutsen MN that is well worth the stop. I really enjoyed our visit and so much so that I forgot to take pictures inside the shop…so now you will need to go yourself and check it out!

Years ago we decided to stop using the expressway from Two Harbours to Duluth and instead take the scenic route along the lake… that’s when we discovered Russ Kendall’s Smokehouse. We almost always stop for a snack of smoked Cisco.

After settling into our hotel room, we set off for a walk along the lake, Duluth has done an amazing job with their waterfront and the weather was perfect! We turned around at the Lief Erikson Statue.

Another favourite treat is supper at Pizza Lucé for a delicious well deserved meal.

It rained all of the next day, which was ok because for the most part it was a shopping day.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Florence’s Quilt

wendysquilting

Florence was first asked by her daughter to make a king sized duvet cover, it was to be made with a quilt pattern. We had been discussing this project for a while…and one day she called to say that her daughter changed her mind and wanted it quilted along with two shams.

Her daughter chose the pantograph and it was quilted with silver gray thread that disappeared into the quilt. It was hard to capture the beauty of this quilt…it really turned out so much nicer than the pictures that I took…mostly due to lighting.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Girls can Fly!

wendysquilting

Many years ago while a young Mom I was blessed with meeting a new friend…she was and is a true answer to prayer.

My youngest was a baby and the next door neighbours had moved to the east coast leaving their 19 year old son their house…which became a party house and more often than not the parties would spill into the front yard waking me from what precious sleep that I was getting. I very seriously started praying for new neighbours.

One morning I realized that the prayer had been answered. We had a connecting driveway and one afternoon my third daughter knocked on her door inquiring what she was making for supper…because she didn’t like what I was making. Well, it turned out that my new neighbour was very much like me needing a new friend and came over to see if she and Mary could have dinner and make cookies as well….

Jaki became not only a good friend to my daughters and She became and is the sister that I never had as I have become to her. I am 10 years ahead of her on this life journey. I have adult children and she is busy raising teens.

Another really cool thing, at least to me is her chosen career when there were very few women flying. When we first met she was flying up North…a bush pilot! It’s has been so amazing watching her grow in her career but mostly as a woman who makes such a positive difference in this world especially in mine!

This article was recently written and shared with me…if you read through it towards the end you will read a little about my sister Jaki!

https://skiesmag.com/news/annual-girls-can-fly-event-returns-after-two-year-hiatus/

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Fun Scrap Quilts

wendysquilting

How much fun is this quilt…well it was for me. I love scrap quilts and this one made with the makers scraps from all of her other quilts just blended into a beautiful collage of colour.

Years ago I made a quilt by cutting a few strips each from many fabrics in my stash and divided them into dark and light piles and placed each pile into paper bags. My rule was…what came out was what I would use and made a log cabin quilt. That was a fun project and the result was a beautiful quilt that was fun to look at.

This quilt reminded me of that project…one I may just repeat sometime.

The swirl pantograph played so nicely adding to the fun of this project.