Tag: Life

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Quilty Surprise! Part One

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For those who don’t know, I recently returned from our annual spring RV trip. There is so much to share about our amazing trip, however today I want to share one of my personally most exciting days of the trip. This says a lot considering all of the adventures!

The day began with the plan to visit the John Wayne Birthplace Museum. Erik researched most of the trip…

On the way into the little town where it’s located, I noticed a quilt barnboard sign and thought to myself maybe there’s a quilt shop….

The museum was interesting and I do really recommend it to John Wayne Fans or if you are interested in learning more about him.

Well the tour of the little house where he was born was very interesting…his family only lived there a short time, but the house stood strong over many years and owners. When the final owner a bachelor passed away his family offered the house for sale to the state…

Seeing quilts, always makes my heart sing! When I asked the tour guide if there was a quilt shop in town she lit up! Winterset Iowa is the home of the Iowa State Museum! Not only that but three doors down from that was a quilt shop! It is also the home town of Marian Fons of Fons and Porter Fame!

This is all located in one on the nicest towns that I have ever visited, and was really nice to walk around in!

I found a perfect bench for Erik!

The Museum!

The Museum is a story of itself so I will share that in Part 2!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

The Yard Moose

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Yes it’s been awhile 😊 and with good reason. I will share that with you soon.

First things first to catch up on some quilting…

The Yard Moose was such a fun quilt to work on! We chose the pantograph Ground Cover… after all moose are often in the bush just peeking out…or maybe hiding.

How perfect is this backing fabric with splashes of colour matching the quilt top!

Jan’s quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up and it wasn’t long before she sent me this picture of her finished quilt.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

McKenna Ryan Quilt…

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What a fun pleasure to quilt my customers quilt made with the pattern Said the Night Wind by McKenna Ryan!

I absolutely adore this designers work especially all of the amazing details. My customer carefully stitched around each appliqué and added gold glitz to the star!

I chose the quilting design, Star Swirl, it is a fun design that adds soft swirls and movement to this wonderful winter scene.

I love that Father Christmas is cross country skiing!

Of course her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up!

I do love the North, no I am not crazy about being outside in bone chilling -40C especially when the wind is blowing…that to me is perfect make a pot of soup and stay in and quilt weather.

There is something so magical though watching the snow fall and breathing in fresh crisp air!

My view from the Longarm room this morning…it didn’t capture the snow-falling though.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Farmhouse Quilt

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I am so appreciative of all of my customers to entrust their quilts to me to be completed. I have many quilters whom I have been quilting for many years!

This customer has relocated to Manitoba and we have still found ways to work together!

We chose the quilting design Star-swirl for this King sized quilt. It measured 114” square which I was able to easily accommodate on my 12 foot frame! Have I mentioned how much I love my APQS Millennium before?

The backing is a perfect match to the pink in the batik fabric that is in the top and looks amazing together in person.

We had an extremely cold week here and I was grateful to have to spend some of my time hand stitching the binding on this quilt!

So not only was this quilt trimmed and ready for binding it was completely finished and ready for gifting with plenty of time to spare before the wedding is taking place.

I offer Professional Quality Longarm Quilting Services!! Let me help you finish your quilts!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Quilting Makes a Difference!

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When this quilt was picked up, my customer exclaimed how much the quilting makes the quilt! It truly does bring the elements together.

Choosing the pantograph Rhapsody played on the florals in this quilt along with having curves and swirls against the straight lines in the piecing added a softness to the appearance of the quilt.

I love the elegance of this quilt, that really showcases some of the beautiful floral prints that can accumulate in our stashes over time. Of course you can use any prints to crest a similar quilt.

Her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up. Which is always a complimentary service that I offer and is never refused.

Let’s talk about finishing your quilting projects!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Love and Quilting and Grands!

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Let me start with a Liam update…he is officially much taller than me and more so every time I see him it seems.

He is also a big brother to our youngest grandchild Lydia. He is an amazing big brother and absolutely adores his little sister.

I wanted to make Lydia’s first quilt pink as I have made for 3 of our other granddaughters. Kaija asked to help make hers and hopefully we will have time to work on that soon.

My daughter Mary, Liam and Lydia’s Mom has many of the quilts that I have made along with ones from my Mom. So I decided that her first quilt would have Minki for the backing so that it would be perfect for tummy time.

These quilts are super fun to make and in this case I also added a striped fabric for binding that I cut on the bias. (My kind of fun!)

I used the pantograph Two of Hearts for the quilting, it just adds so much more love!!

Sometimes I do slip in some time for personal quilting!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

2025 Happy New Year!

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There are so many things to be grateful for as this new year begins to unfold!

Family and friends to begin with! Erik and I were gifted with time with both over the holidays!

Grand days as I like to call our days with caring for and spending time with the youngest members of our family are full of fun and adventures. Our weather wasn’t cooperative in a lot of our normal outdoor activities so we found other ways to have fun, Erik turns the garage into all kinds of fun and of course there is always crafting in the house!

I enjoyed a wonderful visit with my dear friend Betty! She is an amazing role model and might I say Model as well.

She turned 90 in November (Liam shares her birthday) unfortunately due to the postal strike her gift from her daughter in law was delayed … however it has arrived and Betty looks awesome in her new Jean Jacket!!!

Betty continues to sew and quilt almost daily, she encourages and cheer on her friends and family! She and I always have the most amazing conversations too 🥰

I wish all of my friends, family and customers the very best this new year!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Merry Christmas!!

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Our day will be quiet and relaxing followed by dinner at my Dads.

Our big celebration was held on Sunday, a tradition that I began as the grandchildren began to arrive.

We host our Christmas brunch on the Sunday before Christmas… this year we had 21 of us together 9 children it was a fun filled day of yummy food, opening of gifts and snow play!!

It was our newest granddaughters first Christmas.

Missing were my eldest and her family who live in Texas, and my youngest daughter and husband who are away for Christmas this year, also Eriks middle daughter who was working out of town they were all here in our hearts though!

I wish you all a lovely day and am so thankful for those who visit and read my blog as well as my wonderful customers who entrust me with their quilts and allow me to share them with you!!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Stunning Star Quilt

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December has been another busy month in my studio. I absolutely love being able to help other quilters finish their projects!

Seeing the pantograph Nebula on another recent quilt that I quilted, the same design was chosen for this quilt by its maker and it was also a perfect fit.

Choosing the thread colour for this quilt created a question of contrast. Had I chosen the cream colour matching the lightest fabric the contrast would have been too strong over the darker colours.

When that happens, in some areas of a quilt your eye will be drawn to the contrast that shows a small awkward looking amount of the design instead of a lovely flow over the entire quilt. I chose a softer tan that played beautifully over all of the fabrics.

The backing fabric is such a beautiful butterfly print, adding a fun surprise on the back and in perfect tones to blend with the quilt top.

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Winter! A snow day and quilting!

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It’s looking very promising that we will have a white Christmas!

Erik plowed the driveway and yard last night and this morning our driveway has disappeared. Thankfully my commute to work is down the stairs!

My great start to the morning! This pretty quilt will be trimmed and ready to go this morning!

This project for a customer is almost ready for pick up! It’s a treasured tree skirt make by its owners Mom years ago that needed some updating, repairs and quilting and of course binding. I chose the backing and binding, and absolutely love the red and white stripe fabric cut on the bias for its binding!

It’s so beautiful where I work, play and live! We are located within City limits and yet have an out in the country feel. There is always plenty of parking for my customers and never ever any parking meters to deal with 😊