Wendy’s Quilting and Life

The little collection that grows

September 28, 2011December 4, 2013 wendysquilting

One of my daughters, Mary is so not helping me stay away from searching for Pyrex!

When we are out running errands she’ll say oh you know Mom we should pop into Value Village…and that’s all it takes. I do admit that I am having so much fun sharing this with her, and she assures me that she loves my Pyrex and will take some as needed.

I’m still on the lookout for the original piece that I’d like to replace, but in my travels I’ve added 2 more covered casserole dishes, 2 egg cups, 2 kitchen dishes and a delphite blue divided dish and as you can see a vintage egg beater.

and from Kijiji and help from my friend Jaki I was able to obtain a still brand new in the box set of Autumn Harvest bowls to add to Erik’s collection..well kind of if you know what I mean (I’m going to share)

I love these pieces and I intend to use them. This set of bowls cost me $12. I don’t think you can buy 3 new bowls for that price.

and speaking of Erik, I couldn’t resist taking this picture of him Apple Picking on Sunday, it’s not my favourite shot but I promised not to share that one.

Last year we weren’t fast enough picking all of the apples and a bear really did a number on the other apple tree, which didn’t produce this year.

birthday, Blogroll, Family, Fishing, Friends, Summer, Uncategorized

My Birthday Weekend

September 13, 2011September 13, 2011 wendysquilting

I love my Birthday, I consider it a celebration of life……years ago I decided that one day just wasn’t enough. So Although my Birthday is at the end of June I always say it’s not over until Erik and I have gone fishing and camping in September and he has to grill a smokie for me on the campfire.

Well my birthday is officially over…..I guess

We enjoyed a spectacular weekend of perfect weather. Two nights with campfires both nights were warm with a clear sky.

Three days of fishing

We caught our limit of Lake Trout……..Yumm!

and Bass

and then while Bass fishing I caught this (thankfully after 15 minutes of fighting with it Erik brought it in!) For those who don’t know it was a Pike (39” long and 14 lbs)

I love September fishing especially when we get great weather, I was also able to take a couple of swims……the weather has changed and we may only get a few warm days here and there before the cold air starts to settle in for the next several months.

Thank you Erik for another awesome Birthday Weekend!!!

Blogroll, Moda, Moda Bakeshop, Thunder Bay, Uncategorized

Baby Baby (Quilts that is)

August 31, 2011January 25, 2024 wendysquilting

I know my last few posts look like all I’ve been doing is playing outside this summer, which I admit due to our very short summer I try to play outside as much as I can, I really have been quilting too…

One of the challenges that I set out to do was to use 2 Lily and Will by Bunny Hill charm packs to make 2 baby quilts. One for a girl and one for a boy.

Adding some background yardage, here are the results

I used the Baby Pinwheel pattern from the Moda Bake Shop to make the second quilt, the first is an adaptation of the Funny Farm pattern from the book Fat Quarter Fun by Karen Snyder.

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

Honeycomb Schnibble

August 31, 2011March 6, 2021 wendysquilting

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.

Fishing, Friends, hiking, Life, Summer, Travel, Uncategorized

Fly in Adventure!

August 30, 2011September 2, 2011 wendysquilting

This was our second trip up to Pickle Lake for some visiting and fishing.

We drove from Thunder Bay (which is along Lake Superior) to Pickle Lake which is a 7 hour drive. Hwy 599 isn’t too bad though there are parts that are gravel and I’m not sure I’d want to be driving it late at night.

After spending a night at the base camp visiting with our friends Dwight and Karen who own and run North of 51 Outposts

We flew out in the morning to Bow Lake (Northstar Air)

Thank you to Pam our great pilot (who is the same age as my eldest daughter..when did they start letting kids do all these jobs?)

nice smooth landing! The gear on the dock belonged to the fellows who were leaving, ours was being unloaded. Our pilot Pam not only flies but loads and unloads the plane..though the guys pitched in.

then we were left on our own…..

The second day we portaged through the bush to fish on the other side of the rapids, it was work carrying in everything we needed. (It made me think of some of the things you see on the Biggest Looser) But the fishing was great and well worth it, I think Erik would agree even after carrying our limit of walleye on a stringer through the bush! (thankfully there were no bears looking for easy pickings!)

We had a great couple of days of fishing, and eating Pickerel aka Walleye.

Uncategorized

A little fun for the big kids!

July 30, 2011 wendysquilting

We took a little time out this week for some fun! A road trip to the Wisconsin Dells for a day at Noah’s Ark on a nice hot sunny day. It was HOT but very bearable on the water rides.

Nothing like relaxing on the lazy river

But so much fun to ride on America’s longest water coaster. We went on this one twice but I could have gone several more times.

This is one that I can’t bring myself to go on..

after our day at the water park, we went out for a late snack at the Cracker Barrel for a little hash brown casserole, fried apples and biscuits…and of course coffee YUM!

We woke up to the sound of thunder in the morning and a grey day. After a visit to the outlet mall. (and a purchase of some sketchers “shape ups” we were on our way back to Duluth MN.

Don’t ask me why I didn’t take any pictures, but we did stop and visit a lovely quilt shop in Chippewa Falls WI http://www.cottonclubquilting.com/ I picked up a few patterns to try out.

We’ve been wanting to check out the Willard Munger State trail after hearing about it from friends last winter. It was so hot and humid that we only rode for about 1 1/2 hrs but the trail was great and we’ll be back to do a longer stretch perhaps in the fall.

Uncategorized

More Summer Days…..

July 18, 2011 wendysquilting

We spent Canada Day weekend in Fort Frances visiting friends, normally I go a bit overboard on the picture taking but the evening before we left I missed a step and as a result spent the weekend hobbling around thankfully it wasn’t too serious. I was still able to go fishing..thanks Ken for taking us.

I love our lakes in Northern Ontario, we still have so much unspoiled beauty. Many of the lakes in the north haven’t been built on but are crown land, so people can use them just not own them. The above picture though is at Rainy Lake which has many cabins and homes built on it.

Our friends neighbour Carol is also a quilter so I did have a little quilting talk on our trip. We were talking about our little Janome Jems and she mentioned her thread holder that she bought years ago at Fanny’s Fabrics and said it was the perfect size for travel etc.. but hasn’t seen them sold for years. If anyone reading this knows where one can be found I’d sure like to know.

Yesterday our temperature soared up to a Feels like 45C which is about 113F which is crazy hot for here esp when you don’t have AC in your house. Thankfully my studio is in the basement where it usually stays pretty cool. We also grilled some Lake Superior Salmon that was extremely yummy!

I also spent the day at Erik’s making full use of his pool, some shade and a good book! I’m reading the series by Marie Bostwick, I’m on the third in the series or four. (Thanks Luci)

and I’ve been playing in my studio as well turning a couple charm packs into a baby quilt, I can hardly wait to see this little one finished.

Life really is good!!

Christmas, Family, Uncategorized

Challenges and Change

June 7, 2011June 8, 2011 wendysquilting

Once upon a time, my girls were happy to drive this and I was ok with it

now my youngest drove off in her new

All bought and paid for and now insured…..and most importantly to her licenced to drive without her Mom. Congratulations Katie for reaching such a big milestone in your life…but please be careful you are driving my baby around in that car!

The weather was lovely this morning but the rainclouds came out this afternoon, so my friend Alva and I decided to play inside and work on this

A group of quilters from our guild recently attended a Ricky Tim’s conference and after borrowing Alva’s book from the conference I am determined to play with many of his techniques. Thank you Alva for a fun afternoon and for sharing your batiks with me!! I’m not finished with this piece yet.

After I finished piecing my convergence piece I decided to finish up an applique piece that I started with my small group. I’m not really finished with it yet so it’s still a work in progress but its been fun…

(Alva also gave me a hand with fabrics on this one, I haven’t gotten started collecting Batiks because I know what will happen…)

I also asked Alva for advice on my Schnibble and she suggested a change that I quite like

I will have to change some of my 4 patches but I do like this layout better. What do you think?

Christmas, Family, Schnibble, Uncategorized

Decisions

June 3, 2011September 25, 2012 wendysquilting

Another little Schnibble (Plan C) I’ve been working on. It’s been living on the design wall like this but today started changing it around

and right now it looks like this

I think I like the second version best but I’m still playing any suggestions or opinions?

and on to really important news

Its Graduation season and my Daughter Emma had graduated with her degree in Psychology and is continuing on working towards her Masters. Emily has always loved school and is an excellent student! I’m so proud of you Emily!!

Erik has 2 daughters graduating this year, his oldest is now an RN!! way to go Shilo and his second daughter Ashton graduated today with a diploma in Dental Hygiene but like Emily she is continuing her education and will be entering the Education Program University.

We attended Ashton’s grad this morning.