Tag: machine quilting

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Quilt from Great Grandma!!!

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It is no secret that I love quilting! Not only did I make my first quilt over 40 years ago…I made longarm quilting for others into a business just over 22 years ago.

I also have a stash of fabric that will keep me happily making quilts for years to come along with new projects that catch my eye. Thankfully I have people in my life who claim my quilts before I even finish them!

I have quilted three quilts in the last couple of months made by Great Grandmas!!! It’s so encouraging to see how beautifully made these quilts are and how much fun these quilters are still having making quilts!

This quilt made with all flannels will be so wonderful for tummy time and snuggles too! The quilting design Popcorn is so light and fluffy looking it reminds me of clouds which is why it was chosen.

I have made many quilts for babies that have ended up thread bare due to love and use and that is always my hope when I quilt these quilts for others!

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

Something that I saw this week and feel that’s it’s worth sharing …

I often laugh with friends that we are just having fun playing with our sewing toys…however maybe our personal sewing time isn’t merely an indulgence, it may also be part of a healthy, mentally stimulating life!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Snuggly Scrap Quilt

wendysquilting

When I was a young girl I was first drawn to quilts that were made with many different fabrics…to later find out that they had a name and originally many were made out of necessity.

Today, many of my customers are making quilts from their stash or from scrap bins ie left over fabrics from other projects.

I personally have a few bins dedicated to scraps and have a lot of fun using and sharing them! It’s often a walk down memory lane from previous projects and gifts from various friends and from my travels.

This customer quilt was pieced using fabrics gifted to her from her niece. She is a fairly new quilter and did a fantastic job making her blocks with so much variety! Framing blocks that are busy with a solid sashing works so well.

My customer chose the quilting design Forest Floor for her quilt. It is a gift for her nature loving son.

Many of my customers do not have a plan for the quilting design when they come to me and ask me to choose or find some suggestions for them. It is a fun part of the process and I have many designs to choose from!!! If I don’t happen to have one that they would like I find it for them. there is never an extra charge for bringing in a new design.

Choosing a nice soft flannel for the backing made this quilt wonderfully warm and snuggly ready for the upcoming cooler months!

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Fright Nite Quilt

wendysquilting

This recently completed Halloween quilt left my studio this week.

My customer did tell me that as a new quilt maker she had some challenges making her quilt and pointed out some issues that she knew that it had.

It did have some fullness which she told me made adding the border was not easy.

When she picked up her quilt, it was quilted squared and trimmed ready for binding and no one would know that it had any fullness or issues.

With having so many years of experience quilting for others I know how to work with quilts that might have some issues and I am able to quilt them out so to speak 🥰

I am always happy to help quilters solve piecing issues that they may have as I was so well mentored in my early quilting days it’s a gift that I love to give to others.

Now back to this fun quilt!!!

How delightful are all of the prints!! It was so much fun working on this quilt and knowing that my customers son will love snuggling under it!

How perfect is the backing!

I am adding a picture of the quilting design with name and credit below as the fun design doesn’t show well in the pictures.

Fright Nite by Lisa H Calle
Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Here Kitty Kitty Quilt

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Jan pieced this wonderfully fun kitty quilt as a gift for her kitty loving friends!

She used up scraps from her batik collection which made it even more fun to make.

When deciding on a quilting design my eyes were immediately drawn to the curling of the kitties tails…which led me to swirls and the design definitely added another layer of fun!!

She chose Minki for her backing, this fabric so plush and soft and has some stretch to it. So it is important when loading it onto the longarm to attach the selvage edges to the leaders and carefully advance the backing to minimize the stretching while quilting. It can be bit of a challenge but having years of practice helps me turns out beautifully.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Great Grands and Quilts

wendysquilting

This summer some of my jobs were very special quilts to work on! Great Grandbaby quilts! (though they are all special of course)

I always consider it an honour to quilt for my customers. As a long time quilter both piecing and long arming I am well aware of the time, love and cost of creating a quilt.

One of my Granddaughters (the one who made her first quilt last week) told me that I have the best job ever! She said that I get to help people finish their quilts and that I get to help people like her how to make quilts!! I do love being a Mom!! Being Grandma is over the top fun! 💗

This is one of the great grand baby quilts that I quilted…

We chose the quilting design Tickle Two with its fun swirls and feathers. It’s a design that offers a great density for a quilt that we hope will be enjoyed for years to come.

My customer is a long time piecer and it’s always exciting to see what she has made and this visit she told me what she is up to now!! I am pretty excited to see this one too.

Her quilt was not only trimmed it had the binding attached so that it was ready for her to stitch it down by hand!!

My Granddaughter is correct!! I do have the best job ever!!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Heart and Home Quilt

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There is something about September that many of us begin thinking more about being cozy and warm at home…

Well living in Thunder Bay we begin to wake up to chilly mornings and have less day light than the last two months so it’s a little hard to ignore the new season arriving!

This recent quilt job was made as a wedding gift and was a true pleasure to work on.

We chose the quilting design Two of Hearts which perfectly added a touch of more Love to this beautiful quilt!

This quilt will no doubt add warmth and coziness to the newlyweds home!

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

It’s always my pleasure to help you bring your quilts to completion! Contact me for more information.

wendysquilting@gmail.com or 807-251-4261

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Summer, September and Quilting

wendysquilting

Well I honestly am not a person who loves the beginning of the “ber” months!

I love summertime, extra time with family and especially grandchildren. I love our long daylight hours…I know that the shorter days are coming and I know that means cooler temps and putting summer clothes away again.

It’s been a fun and good summer in most respects. I however do not recall a worse fire season so close to home and with it people who lost their communities of homes along with summer homes. We had a long stretch of smoke in the air which was a clear reminder of the destruction and devastation.

I have given myself a gift of less social media this summer and more time truly enjoying being outside enjoying nature, walking, biking and hiking.

And, of course time in the studio working on customer quilts!

This one, a temperature quilt was a fun project that I completed with both quilting and binding. as I mentioned, it’s been a busy summer and I neglected to get my usual pictures of this quilt. I chose the binding for it and really loved the finished look. As did my happy customer 😊

She chose the quilting design Bayside. It is such a popular design and works with so many quilts!

I will be sharing more of my summer quilting jobs in the coming days.

So now that the “ber” months as I often hear them referred to as are here. I want to remind you that if you need a quilt completed for Christmas or a quilt you would like to display in this years quilt show that it’s a good idea to let me know soon even if you are still working on it as I will add you into my queue.

I haven’t had very much time to play with my own personal piecing projects though one finished project was truly so much fun that I have to share!

The project was started and completed this last Monday when my 6 yr old granddaughter dove into one of my scrap bins! We set up a sewing station. I did all of the cutting, she did all of the pressing and sewing and after I loaded her quilt onto the longarm she did all of the quilting!

It was so much fun sharing my love of quilting with her!

Let’s talk about finishing your quilting projects! wendysquilting@gmail.com or 807-251-4261

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Little of This…a fun scrap quilt!

wendysquilting

Marilyn’s quilts are always so inspiring! Her use of colour and design in her quilts make my heart sing! I do love scrap quilts!

Tying all of the colours together with a darker slashing and final border seems to both pop the colours and tame them at the same time. To my eye anyhow.

How fun is her addition of squares on the top and bottom of the quilt.

I chose the quilting design A Little Bit of This with its soft lovely flowing density it added a perfect additional layer to her fantastic quilt!

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Quilting and Life…this and that

wendysquilting

I do for the most part use my work days working on customer quilts and often continued on during the evenings as I do enjoy longarm quilting a lot!

Truth be told, I pretty much love every aspect of quilting and have from the time I first discovered quilting as a child.

Quilting is definitely a passion of mine. So as I was finding myself feeling a little frustrated that my personal projects were often left to the wayside and after mentioning that to a very prolific quilting friend of mine. I made a change.

She initially suggested carving out an hour a day just for my own piecing. I followed her advice and once I started allowing myself me time, my frustration disappeared and I began to see progress!

Not only was I able to reach the victory lap stage on my postage stamp quilt. (I always like to stitch a 1/8” stay stitch around the perimeter of my quilt tops that have piecing on the edges)

I was also able to make headway on my Small World quilt.

The biggest change that I made was to allow myself to piece in the evenings, not all evenings but enough.

Every evening for the last week or so I have worked on this project.

And last night I put the final seam in the piecing of the top. Once I trim it I will be ready to add the victory lap and photograph the top.

There is an additional reason that I wanted to reach this point in my piecing…I was a little generous with myself with birthday gifts to myself and I am itching to start these new projects along with a couple more projects…

June seems to have flown by! It’s my most favourite month of the year, I love all of the extra daylight we northern people are gifted with.

Speaking of being northern people I have another quilter that I love following. Her blog is definitely worth visiting if you enjoy quilting, learning about quilting and scrap quilting! She lives in Finland.

I enjoyed this post of hers this morning…

https://tilkunviilaaja.blogspot.com/2026/06/101-things-you-probably-did-not-know-about-quilting.html

There are often posts on social media about the quilt police and while I agree that we should encourage and cheer each other on in our quilting journeys, I also think that we should kindly share information about techniques and reasons behind them that help new quilters find success in their projects.

On the life side of things, I continue to work on what I called project Wendy. I have shifted some of my time on the treadmill to outside walks again and my bike is back on the road!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Funny Quilt Story

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The maker of this quilt is a prolific piecer she is also what I would call an advanced piecer! She loves a challenge and often chooses patterns that many would run from!

This quilt however was one she decided that she wanted to use up a couple of layer cakes that were in her stash. She chose to make hour glass blocks or half square triangle blocks depending on how you look at the quilt.

When her husband initially saw the blocks that she was making he said they were ugly and it would never be on his bed!

Thankfully his comments did not detour her plans!

When she brought the quilt to me she told me that she had named it the Ugly Duckling Quilt. She also asked me to quilt a duck somewhere one the quilt…so I did.

Can you see it?

The we chose the quilting design Finesse. This design added a layer of elegance to this stunning quilt.

The backing in its rich purple colour couldn’t be a more perfect match!

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

Also, her husband changed his tune regarding it being ugly.