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!
Life was so busy in August with a trip to the Dells and a week with grands that my morning walks fell my the wayside and then this month began and it’s been busy with quilting and other distractions.
Finally yesterday morning I decided enough and was free to lace up and head out. I will admit to being a little leery beginning my walk in the fog…there was also something almost magical about it though and the air felt so soft.
The colours are changing…
The fog was lifting as I turned back onto our road…and then I was greeted by a neighbour who lives up the road from us who wanted to let me know their was a Sow and her 3 cubs in her yard (that I would be walking by on my way home).
The bears it turns out have been hanging out there and in that are for the last four days…enjoying her apple tree. The bears are hungry and not scaring off.
I did see one on my way home but decided not to stop, though I probably could have gotten a picture. Now to decide if I wait a bit before I resume my morning walks or add a bear banger or air horn to my walking pouch.
There has been an unusually high amount of bears in town lately, apparently the berries have not been plentiful this summer.
In other news a friend of mine shared a coupon to try out Hello Fresh…we both have been feeling a little more than bored with cooking. In fact one of my daughters has been using Factor meals and I love the idea of how quick and healthy those meals are!
Those are the first two that I have made and I am impressed so far. They were a little more involved than most dinners I make, so other than not shopping for supper ingredients it’s not a big time saver. It’s just a nice change for a few weeks I think…
Yesterday I picked Liam up from school…High School! It was a true de ja vous feeling from picking up one of my daughters from there when and before Liam was born! (At one point all four of my daughters attended different schools!)
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!
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.
August felt like it passed in a blink of an eye…it really didn’t though and was a full and fantastic month of yes quilting but also family, friends, travel, fun, great weather and laughter!
This is one of the quilts that left the studio trimmed and ready for binding and in the busyness of August it wasn’t photographed fully. It was true eye candy so I am sorry to have missed its photo shoot as it’s always fun to share!
That said, it’s also a reflection of summer and allowing myself time to enjoy life!
Nothing shows more, how quickly time passes by than grandchildren! Those who follow me will remember Liam. Look at him now!
He is really going somewhere with his soccer…which is partly why I don’t see him as much. He has also just started high school.
Liam’s sister and our youngest grandchild celebrated her first birthday…
Liam joined us for our annual Wisconsin Dells trip. Two more families joined us this year making it a busier and fun filled week!…
After the Dells we had a solid week of grand-parenting!
Minka spent the last week of August with me…she is so creative so of course we had a lot of fun playing together!
That Friday evening was spent with Minka and her Sister Romee…after dinner we walked over to my Dad and brothers for a visit.
The next morning we were off to Lac De Mille Lac for a weekend at Erik’s oldest family camp. It was a fun and full weekend and great way to finish us a fantastic summer!
Grayson has been wanting his Pappa to come for a few years now to go fishing and finally this summer it happened! They caught fish and Grayson learnt to clean fish and I taught him how I cook it!
Now that the kids are back to school and this Grandma is rested up, I will start sharing more on the quilting side of life!
How was your summer? Our weather shifted this week from hot to needing the furnace on…
I love waking up very early and I especially love very early morning walks esp in the summer!
Just before I woke up this morning I had a very realistic dream that my daughter who lives in Texas was suddenly here, we had such a nice visit in my dream.
After, when I woke up I of course wished she was here and could join me for my walk…and just as it was putting on my shoes guess who called and joined me!!
Life can feel so busy and it’s so important to remember to take time for oneself.
I have been really busy with quilting for others which I am extremely thankful for, I love my job!
Quilting is also my beloved hobby and I wasn’t finding time for me…my friend Louisa suggested that I carve out an hour or so a day just for me and my quilting and guess what? Not only am I more productive with my own projects but also my customer quilts as well!
I am currently piecing Small World by Tara Faughnan along with my Postage Stamp quilt.
Wendy’s Quilting and Life 