Tag: APQS

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Bear in a Tree (quilting and life)

wendysquilting

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.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Lovely Quilt

wendysquilting

I often don’t have the name of the pattern used to piece the customer quilts that I work on and this is one of them.

My customer chose the quilting design Lovely for her quilt…hence the name. I agree, it’s a lovely quilt 😊

Sometimes and in this case I see a design used by another quilter and add it to my collection, and in this case it came from my quilting friend Louisa. https://louisaenright.com

Louisa has been inspiring me in many ways for several years now!

We both quilt and often share design ideas. She is also my friend who really inspired me to play with Tara Faughnan, who if you follow me know that I have a lot of fun playing with colour palettes and patterns from.

Back to this quilt, the design was chosen by my customer and was a perfect choice adding the softness of curves to strong angular piecing.

I chose the thread colour, and especially love that the design shows so beautifully on the back of the quilt.

Like most quilts that I work on her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

An Irish Chain Quilt

wendysquilting

Green is a colour often associated with Ireland aka the Emerald Isle. So what better colour to use for an Irish Chain Quilt!

This one was lovingly pieced by my customer as a gift for her daughter. (who loves green!)

We chose the quilting design Nocturne Feathers, a fairly new addition to my collection and an additional design by Bethanne Nemesh.

My customer and I met at the local fabric store to find a backing for this quilt and we found a perfect brighter green for the backing ☘️

As a side note, if you are purchasing backing yardage it’s a good idea to have an idea of how much you will need for your quilt as sometimes staff at a fabric store perhaps aren’t quilters so aren’t aware of the calculations. Shops that specialize in quilting generally do know and are a great resource. I am also happy to help with the calculations so you end up with the right amount.

Her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Storm at Sea

wendysquilting

This is the second quilt from my customer who also made the Log Cabin quilt in my previous post. Her piecing is certainly inspiring and also encouraging as I too hope to be piecing well into my eighties!

We chose the quilting design Bayside. I have different sizes of this design and used the larger one for this quilt. It has a wave like appearance (playing on the storm at sea) with a lovely density for a quilt that will be snuggled under.

I absolutely fell in love with this quilt top and backing…I do love blue!

The binding was provided by the quilt maker and so her quilt was trimmed and binding attached ready for hand stitching at pick up!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Log Cabin Wall Hanging

wendysquilting

It’s no secret to my family and friends that I love the colour blue and this blue and white log cabin really made my heart sing!

Not only was this quilt perfectly pieced, my customer proudly told me that she is 88 yrs old. Blue is also her favourite colour…she drove here in her beautiful blue Subaru…a very inspiring woman for sure!

I chose the quilting design Waterworld which added the density I prefer for a wall hanging … not only that it really adds fun visual appeal..

My customer provided the binding ready to attach so not only was her quilt trimmed but with the binding attached it was ready for some relaxing hand stitching to complete her project.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Crimson Christmas

wendysquilting

This Chrimson Christmas (pattern and kit by Krista Moser) was taught at a local quilt shop.

My customer chose the quilting design Bayside, it is what I call a non descript design meaning it’s a perfect background allowing the piecing design front stage! The poinsettias deserve front stage don’t they?

Side note…I love my ikea cabinets

Her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Betty’s Globe Quilt

wendysquilting

My very dear friend Betty had me quilt her Globe Quilt (pattern and fabric from Zen Chic by Moda which had been gifted to her by her son and daughter in law)

I stitched the globe itself with ruler work using the angles to accentuate the 3-D effect of the globe itself and freehand fun in the background.

In addition to the quilting, Betty had me bind the quilt and add the hanging sleeve before sending it back to her daughter in law as a surprise!

The quilt has arrived and Nicole shared this picture of the quilt yesterday!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

My Studio Makeover

wendysquilting

While Erik was off on a recent fly in fishing trip, I used the first few days to make some changes and re-organize my Longarm Studio.

A big thank you to my Dad and brother who came over and put my new IKEA Alex cabinets together for me.

My pantographs now have a new home and are wonderfully organized! There is even room to add more!

All of my thread, rulers, and other long arm supplies are all organized and it looks all neat and tidy. It was all organized before however I had wanted a more streamlined look.

The drawer units that were replaced have a new home and purpose, they are now under the table of my long arm and they now hold a lot of my fabrics and are sorted by colour, these fabrics will eventually find their way into scrap quilts.

I spent some of the time cleaning, sorting and purging it’s amazing how things can accumulate. Though I will add that there wasn’t as much to purge as I suspected there were things that just needed new homes as in my daughter’s homes!

I am vigilant when it comes to caring for my APQS Millennium longarm and I spent a little time on her as well, the motor brushes were replaced. I love how well these machines are made and that they are designed so that the owner can maintain them themselves!

Of course as soon as I finished organizing another quilt was loaded and completed on the longarm!

While I did use my time alone to get a lot of quilting done on the longarm there was also some play time as well…the garden was planted and my JUKI and I spent many hours together playing!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Graduation Quilt

wendysquilting

I had the pleasure of working on a very special quilt that created by my customer with so much love for her graduating Granddaughter.

The quilt top includes her favourite colours as well as books due to her love of reading, two of the blocks have her initials pieced. The backing was chosen for her love of flowers.

I chose the pantograph Garden Frills. I love the density of this design for a quilt that will follow the graduate to University in the fall and will hopefully be well used! The quilting softens the straight line piecing on the top and plays so beautifully with the backing fabric.

I was given the task of both choosing the fabric for and completing the binding for the quilt. With so much happening visually on both top and back I chose a complimenting dark green solid for the binding.

Her quilt was ready for gifting when it was picked up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Woven Star Quilt

wendysquilting

This stunning quilt made with rich looking metalic fabrics was made even more amazing with the use of left over fabrics from the top, pieced into a fantastic quilt backing.

I chose the quilting design Swirl of Thorns along with a Mocha coloured thread that plays so nicely with the high contrasting colours in the quilt. Swirls also add a fun dimension against angular piecing.

this quilt was trimmed and ready for binding when it was picked up.