Tag: Quilt

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Busy Day in December!

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This memory popped up, Liam has always enjoyed quilts and quickly crawled into the middle of this customer quilt just as she arrived to pick it up! Thankfully she was delighted to see how much he liked it. (Liam is now 12yrs old)

I am currently quilting another half square amazing quilt by Marilyn… I have lost count however this may be the 5th or 6th this was taken on the weekend I did get a few more rows quilted after this picture…however….

Yesterday we had a fun filled day with our grandson 3 yr old Jaxson!

His Mom sent us this picture she took on the way home. He is big into dinosaurs and the puppet in his hands was a gift we bought last summer but when he first saw it, it was scary…yesterday he told us it’s not scary anymore.

After supper, I attended our local Quilt Guild meeting, we had 3 in person meetings and have now resumed Zoom meeting for the winter…I was thankful for that after such a full day.

We enjoyed guest speaker Jane Z Haworth

http://www.janehawortth.com

She did a wonderful and informative talk about her Collage Quilting…she was very inspiring.

The day also held a big surprise which I will share a little later when we have some daylight. Our hours of daylight are noticeably shorter each day right now, making me look forward to the Solstice.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

O Christmas Tree

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This Christmas tree quilt was made using a pattern and fabrics by Edita Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts. It was such a pleasure to quilt and enjoy having in my studio!

We chose the pantograph Rhapsody which played on the theme in many of the fabrics.

I like to choose a design that compliments the quilt not necessarily one that echoes the design. Thread colour and weight of thread also make a big difference in the outcome of the quilting.

I personally find it very difficult not to be inspired by the quilts that I work on! Edita’s quilts often have the small piecing that I love to do and the appliqué ❤️

I love the way the quilting shows on the back of the quilt!

Trimmed and ready for binding!

Let me help you to complete your quilting projects!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Marlene’s White Chocolate Quilt

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As we move closer to Winter solstice our amount of natural daylight hours become less and less add to that, that it seems that the sun is shy and hiding behind the clouds… making it really challenging to truly capture the true beauty of some quilts. I came close with this quilt.

Marlene’s White Chocolate quilt is absolutely stunning with its subtle soft colours and creamy backgrounds.

After looking at several options for the quilting, Marlene chose the pantograph Gravity. The fun oval design of this pantograph leans toward a modern look and really plays so nicely with this more traditional looking quilt.

The curves in the quilting soften the angular look in the piecing.

The backing fabric has a beautiful sheen to it and as it was brought to me as yardage, it was pieced by me, carefully matching the design. This is a complementary service that I offer.

Both quilt top and backing are always carefully pressed before loading onto my Longarm.

The quilt was trimmed after quilting and ready for binding when Marlene picked her quilt up.

Let me help you bring your quilting projects to completion.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Suzanne’s Nebula Quilt

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The Nebula Quilt designed by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts with fabric designed by Tula Pink is a glorious party of Colour!

Suzanne chose a soft flannel backing and Wool for her batting. A good quality wool batting from companies like Hobbs and Quilters Dream are wonderful to work with and add more loft to a quilt.

Wool is warm in the winter without added weight and also cooler in the summer. It does require a little more care when washing and I personally would not ever put a quilt with wool in the dryer. I actually hang all quilts to dry but that is a personal preference.

After looking through several options for a quilting design Suzanne chose Belly Bop, it is a fun and medium dense design that plays so nicely over these modern prints.

The super soft flannel backing has such a soft flowing design and really showcases the quilting.

The quilt was trimmed and ready for binding when it was picked up.

Let me work with you to bring your quilting projects to completion!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

November

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I am not entirely sure how December has arrived when I was just getting used to it being November!

The very best part of November in my books is that it’s Liam’s Birthday…he turned 12 last week.

My Dad hosted a family dinner in Liam’s honour, he smoked a turkey that Liam’s Mom provided and the rest of the dinner was made by my daughter Katie and I. Family dinners are so much easier when everyone helps!

I wish that I had taken a picture of his gift and reaction to opening it. You see he had requested money for an upcoming trip in February…this request was made in the summer. So to make it fun, I put 4 $1. USD bills in a peanut butter jar as a liner to look like the label…then filled a third of it with coins and wrapped more bills into the centre of the coins and topped the jar up with our remaining Halloween treats. The gift was a total success.

As his Grandma I have enjoyed his childhood so much, we have spent so much time together and he has truly brought so much joy in my life. These last months I have noticed how much he has grown and is definitely less of a little boy. I am sure by his next birthday he will be taller than I am, his life is busy with soccer and school and friends as it should be…though he has told me he still plans to be here in the summer and our annual trip to the Dells.

When my 3 year old granddaughter Minka let me know that she wanted an all pink quilt, I happily got on that…I am also making one for her sister. Pink is Minka’s favourite colour right now. The quilt is similar to Olivia’s baby quilt that I made last summer.

A night time shot of my design wall.

I have been collecting pink fabric for awhile now, I took advantage of Road17N’s Black Friday sale and ordered backing fabric and a couple more metres of pinks…what a great surprise to find more pink fabrics inside the parcel a few days later!

I really try to allow for an hour of piecing every evening after I finish working on the Longarm. I may have to add an extra hour in the morning in order to finish both quilts.

My presentation of my quilting journey went well at the November Quilt Guild meeting.

Welcome to December…

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Cathy’s Stretched Periwinkle Quilt

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Cathy took part in Joyce Gilmores quilting retreat in Terrace Bay this fall, she had let me know that she was making the quilt and as she already had a quilt in the queue when she told me she was going I had added this Christmas one along with her batik quilt.

If you let me know when you begin a quilt and would like to have me quilt it for you I will add you into my list at that point.

She has named her quilt Baby it’s Cold Outside.

It was a fun and happy quilt to work on and she chose the pantograph Rhapsody and a perfect one in my opinion for this quilt!

Cathy likes to have me attach her bindings for her so that they are ready for hand stitching when she picks them up.

She had this quilt completed finished for Monday and showed both this and her Batik quilt at the Guild meeting this week.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Disappearing Hourglass Quilt

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Monday…was my presentation of my Quilting Journey at the Thunder Bay Quilters Guild meeting. It is the last in person meeting until the spring.

It was really important to me, to show my quilts in person as I also like people to see and yes feel free to touch my quilts!

One of the quilts that I was asked about after my presentation was my Hourglass quilt. My friend Alva and I challenged each other to make them.

I made mine with Kaffe Fasset fabrics with a solid white background.

Alva’s in Batiks

Hers was quilted shortly after she made hers (using the pantograph Starswirl) this was the last quilt that Alva made, she had attached her binding herself, and it was the only quilt of hers that I hand stitched the binding for her as she was no longer able to.

I had to tuck mine away for a while.…

When I was ready, I quilted mine with the pantograph Rhododendron. it also began my run on Kaffe quilts that I made…which I did show some of on Monday.

We used the tutorial by Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt to make our quilts. It’s a fun, easy quilt to make and one that really showcases beautiful fabrics.

Preparing for my presentation, was a journey for me personally as I decided which quilts to show. I hope that new quilters noticed my progress from beginner to where I am now in my journey and it encouraged them in their own journey.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Joan’s Quilt

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This quilt left the studio yesterday. I love Joan’s quilts, every one of them is different and fun!

I chose the pantograph Tickle Too, it has some feathers and swirls that just added more visual interest in this scrappy quilt. I really enjoy hand guiding my Longarm Quilting Machine, after quilting for so many years it has truly become a friend.

Joan couldn’t remember the pattern that she used, other than she found it on Pinterest. Does any one recall the name of it?

The quilt was trimmed and not shown but the binding was also prepared and ready for binding at pick up.

The beautiful fabric with the large Hibiscus blooms deserved…in my opinion…for the be pattern matched.

It does take a little extra time to match the pattern when preparing the backing, however I feel that it is time well spent. This is a service that is complimentary for my customers.

Taking a little extra time to prepare a quilt for loading onto the Longarm helps me to achieve the beautiful results that I am happy and proud to show my customers.

Let me help you bring your quilting projects to completion!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Freehand Quilting and Practice

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This picture of a customer quilt from 2014 always makes me smile. I love the look of freehand quilting. There are many sources for learning freehand quilting now and at the time I quilted this quilt Angela Walters of Quilting is My Therapy was promoting her early books and inspiring many quilters.

This particular quilt was a lot of fun to put to use some of the techniques that I had recently learnt.

For the most part my quilting is done on my APQS Millennium Longarm which truly is such a wonderful machine .

However, I have always admired people who also quilt on their domestic machines and in the last couple of years have set goals for myself to work on that.

Another quilter who has inspired me is Cindy Needham and I have taken some of her classes over the years. She has some on Craftsy that I really enjoyed.

Lately after I finish working on customer quilts I will spend some time quilting using my Juki Haruka playing and practicing freehand quilting. I have been playing with small squares with 3” grids and loving the texture. These are some earlier examples of playing.

Just like when I was learning to quilt with my Longarm it takes what we used to call PPP practice practice practice!

My friend Ana Paula teaches so many amazing classes and one of them is freehand quilting if you want to learn and want a fantastic teacher I highly recommend her! She has also inspired me to spend time playing and growing in my freehand quilting fun.

http://www.canadapaulabrasil.ca

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Dancing and a Quilt

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Having a couple of granddaughters who are enjoying dance classes this recent customer quilt is a little more than inspiring. Time will tell.

We chose the pantograph two of hearts, which has been a very popular choice recently. The hearts really convey the love the maker Mom has for her dancing daughter.

The pretty pink fireside backing is a perfect match and has made this quilt perfect for snuggling as our temperatures continue to dip below freezing.

This quilt is trimmed and ready for binding.