I am all about savouring some projects! This quilt has been one of those that it seems can’t be rushed. When I first learnt about this Jen Kingwell Pattern it was the possibility of making it really bright happy and scrappy.
The recommended borders just didn’t suit me and so I took a little more time to ponder and finally decided to piece more monkey wrench and 60° triangles for two corners and will complete the rest with checkerboard piecing.
So it shouldn’t be too much longer before this top is completed, I have the backing waiting and quilting planned out.
My Longarm and I have been busy which is where most of my quilting time is spent.
I love Saturday mornings not that they are really any different these days from other mornings…I love to start my day slowly with a fresh cup of coffee.
Did you know that you can buy a smart coffee cup and that you can set the temperature on your phone? The coffee stays the same temperature until your last sip!
I still love my coffee in my special to me mugs…but someone is retiring in 6 weeks and has always wished that his coffee would stay hot…
Onto my stash…I have been slowly re organizing my beloved collection…one of my daughters who loves to live minimally suggested not long ago that I purge my sewing room! I told her that I am still regretting the fabric that I parted with when I moved!!!
My friend Marlene recently gifted me with fabric that I have always wished I had bought more of! It just makes me smile.
Quilting has been one of my main passions for most of my adult life however most of that time was full of responsibilities of caring for family and earning our living.
Sometimes a couple things need to be added to an order to reach free shipping 🤓
My Longarm quilting has been and will continue to be for others and occasionally myself…all of those quilts have added to the non stop inspiration!
So my stash stays, it grows and I happily and excitingly accept gifts of peoples scraps that would otherwise go to waste…because I can see that as seasons change so do seasons of life and I am finally at the stage that I have been preparing for!
Life was full and busy this week, Liam really enjoyed our field trip and kept me on my toes keeping him fed! He tells me that I make the best food!
I really cherish these days that we share together. He will head back to the classroom the week after next. So far anyways as Ontario is closed to all but essential…
I had planned to buy cards to mail my swap blocks with however…that was a cannot buy item when I was out the other day. I have cards here to use and thankfully we could still buy stamps!
Sisterhood Quilt Swap blocks ready to go.
It’s been a rainy several days …not a lot of sunshine. This customer quilt has reminds me of our colours soon to be out the windows!
Today I am taking a class with Daisy Aschehoug of https://warmfolk.com ….more on that soon.
Have you ever come across someone’s quilt that not only the top caught your eye but the back as well?
Early this winter my brain really needed a break from all of the world happenings and so I started reading new to me blogs. There were some that I ended up reading from their start to their most recent posts…oh the inspiration out there!
Louisas design wall when I found her held two scrap quilts that looked like a lot of fun to piece. One was her gaggle of geese, she has a tutorial on her blog to make these geese one at a time which is very helpful when using scraps.
I really love the top and those who know me know that I love piecing flying geese and have a wonderful collection of scraps…so this style quilt is on my to do list. I also couldn’t help myself but to source the backing that she used.
I started by checking with my friend Donna who owns and runs a Quilt Bus that she named Fuelled by Fabric.
Donna normally travels with her bus/quilt shop all over North Western Ontario with her wonderful bus full of fabric and goodies! She found the fabric and ordered a bolt which led to a trip to her shop in Pass Lake…
While ordering backings, Donnas husband wanted to choose one and below is the result…it is interesting I can’t wait to see the quilts it ends up on!
Last December 31st I spent the day working on my Winter Village quilt adding the Silhouettes. With the plan to quilt the top New Year’s Day. I actually met that goal. 2020 was off to a great quilting start!
Winter Village
Like most years I had some ideas of what I wanted to work on over the coming year and was looking forward to a couple of retreats I had planned to attend.
Retreat meals are the best, it’s like being a child called to dinner! No decisions of what to make, food is ready and no dishes afterwards. Just yummy food and good conversations.The morning view from the retreat house looking over Lake Superior.
do hope 2021 will once again allow for retreats!
The best part of course is spending time with other quilters and hours upon hours of sewing and being inspired and encouraged by like minded friends!
If some one had told me that the spring and early summer would involve making hundreds of masks!!!One for Erik!
Due to heavy duty mask making, a machine a friend had mentioned she wanted to sell was added to my collection
I love having a truly heavy duty machine that sews through many heavy layers without pause!
As a treat this machine also joined in!
I have been wanting a Juki for years and this one just happened to find her way here!
Most of my 2020 sewing/quilting was spent on baby quilts and masks some Moda blockheads 3 which I will continue to putter on and see where that takes me.
My Longarm has been busy this year. As always I have been so thankful for the ability to help others finish their quilts!
I first started attending our local quilt guild when I was in my late twenties. I had been interested in quilting in my early teens but had no idea where to start, not knowing anyone who quilted.
Then I attended Quilt Canada when it was held here in Thunder Bay in 1992 and attended some classes. That is where I met my friend Alva who became my mentor.
I recently had the privilege to quilt a round robin style of quilt for a friend Bobbie who was in a group of quilters that were a very big part of quilt Guild for many years and helped to bring Quilt Canada to Thunder Bay.
It was a very interesting looking quilt and with permission I shared her quilt with a couple of groups that I belong to and was asked how it was made. So I questioned Bobbie and she shared pictures of her sisters quilt and progress. The rule was that each person started with a fat quarter and passed to the next Quilter who was to cut it horizontally and vertically and insert six inch rows of piecing:
Starting with Aileen’s fabric choice
Next Jean Tozer added her strips
Then Marjorie Hosegoods addition
Alva being Alva wasn’t one to follow the rules and decided to make two vertical cuts really changing the look.
Elaine Pond was next:
followed by Val:
And finished by Bobbie:
I loved spending time with these ladies and learnt so much about quilting and life from them. I remember the group of them liked to sit in the front row at guild and often would get the giggles like young school girls they really had fun!
I have quilted several Quilts for my customer/now friend Emily. In the last few years I have also been piecing and Quilting for her using up her stash sometimes supplementing when need be. She loves flannel Quilts.
Once I was settled into my new studio, I felt inspired to play with her fabric again. I love these bright pinwheels the print became the background. I had fun piecing the backing as well making both sides of this quilt fun. I really do have dozens of different pantographs but bubbles seems to be pantograph of the year!
Several years ago on a little March Break trip across the border, my youngest daughter and I saw a fabric line in a shop that we had to have along with a pattern that the fabric had been made into. The fabric line was called Seaside Rose of Three Sisters for Moda fame and Katie and I collected a lot of it. I have made several quilts with it over the years but my favorite still is the one I made with Carrie Nelsons Summer Wind Pattern (I have made a few more with the pattern since in a few different colorways).
I have noticed lately that many people are making what are now referred to as Low Volume Quilts and realized that this one falls into that category though it was made so long ago. It is so soft and gentle looking and maybe that’s what drew me to the quilt in the first place as it was made during a very difficult and hard time in my life’s journey.
On another note it sure is nice to see green grass even sprinkled with dandelions even if only in pictures…we still have about 3 feet of snow…
One of the panels in a recent quilt. I have had so much fun running my machine on manual and drawing with it! I’ve used monopoly for the top thread for the fish and Bottom line for background and bobbin.
When Terri first sent me pictures of this quilt as she was working on it, I fell in love with it. I love her colour placement and that this quilt was made from her stash fabrics. The Echinacea flowers were appliqued using very soft brushed flannel or was it velvet, what ever it was the dimension that her fabric choice made was perfect. I used a Panto by Nicole Webb called Fro Fro.
these pictures were taken in MARCH in my back yard! Our weather has been so mild this year and the grass was actually dry. Very unusual for this area.
Helena brought me her Oriental Lantern with instructions to quilt it how I wanted to…
Wendy’s Quilting and Life 