Tag: Life

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

August 2025…

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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…

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Life versus Busyness and Balance

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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.

I actually have 10 blocks finished now…

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Yellow and Quilting…a sweet baby quilt

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This sweet baby quilt recently left my studio quilted bound and ready for gifting!

A popular design with many of my customers Waterworld was chosen for the quilting. I was also tasked with providing the binding fabric which made for a fun dive into my stash! The backing (not sure why I didn’t get pictures) was a lovely soft pink flannel.

I love how happy and sunny this little quilt is and how happy I felt working on it esp knowing that it would soon be gifted to a little one.

It also brought back a memory of an early quilting instructor who said not to use yellow in your quilts or if you did to only use a small amount because it was a colour that could easily overpower the rest of the colours!

That bit of advice seemed strange to me as it’s one of my favourite happy colours!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Fishing and Quilting

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Our Grandson Grayson has really caught the fishing bug this summer much to our delight!

He and his sister Kaija were here last week and in an unusual turn of events Grayson asked to sew with me and Kaija asked to shoot targets with Pappa.

Grayson has sewn with me before and really enjoys quilting his projects. The project that he had in mind was to make a phone case with some fish fabric that he knew was in my stash.

We used a solid black cotton and after fusing it to the foam, he quilted it with a fun variegated thread. We used Heat and Bond to on the fish fabric so that he could cut out the fish he wanted on his pouch.

I attached the binding and he helped with the Velcro closure.

My favourite thing about sewing with our grandchildren, aside from the new skills that they learn, I love the one on one time which is a great opportunity to learn from them and listen to what’s going on in their life ❤️

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Tulip Quilt

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This customer quilt was pieced as a birthday gift for her daughter who loves tulips! She chose the pantograph Daisy Swirl. Such a beautiful addition to this already lovely quilt!

My customers fabric choices for her quilts truly make my heart sing! This was hers as well

Back to the Tulips adding a different flower instead of just looking for a Tulip design added more of a flower garden look along with some curves to help soften the angular lines. Just a personal thought of mine 😊

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Sweet Winnie the Pooh Quilt

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While recently reading bedtime stories to one of my granddaughters (3yrs old) I asked her if she knew who Winnie the Pooh was she said no so I read her one of the books…so much silly fun!

Anyways, this was a fun, happy customer quilt that was quilted by me this summer…

We chose the pantograph Popcorn for its fun light puffy like clouds appearance. Again as I have mentioned before, when quilting a child’s quilt I like a little more density which I feel adds to the durability of the quilt.

The backing as you can see it a delightful rainbow of colours, a wonderful compliment to the quilt top.

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Colour and Play and Quilting

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How much fun is this quilt!
As a quilt maker myself I am almost always drawn primarily to scrappier quilts, the more fabrics the better! I also love the improv piecing! When this quilt first arrived and was added to my queue it was a challenge not to drop everything and just work on it! I did however make it wait its turn.

The quilting design New Wave that was chosen worked perfectly adding an extra layer of playfulness and fun!

As if that wasn’t enough fun and excitement in a quilt, the backing added even more delight with both colour and the tumbling blocks!

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

My Studio Makeover

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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 Flannel Log Cabin Quilt!

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When this gorgeous Log Cabin quilt was picked up yesterday, its maker mentioned how much she loves this quilt and that she always gives her work away and doesn’t have any quilts!

She decided that it would make a perfect Father’s Day gift for her husband! I agreed!

We chose the quilting design Ground Cover and thread colour Mocha both complemented her quilt perfectly!

The extra blocks that were made while piecing the top were added to her backing , making this quilt even more amazing! Pieced backs can add a bit more challenge when quilting but it’s definitely worth the extra effort.

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Graduation Quilt

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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.