Tag: Quilt

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

October…Quilting and Life

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How lovely is my view from my long-arm studio!

We have been gifted, in my opinion anyways with an extra long stretch of summer weather! With that though the bears in the area continue.

As much as I love walking out here and especially on my own at my own pace…though I love running into my friends and visiting too…I know myself and an encounter with a bear would be hard to overcome.

Instead I am playing at other ways to work on my fitness and yesterday my Dad gave me a step!

For many years when my girls were small I took step aerobics 3 times a week and loved it! Now I have a step and found an instructor that I like on YouTube. We have a treadmill and I can use it but I find it boring…

I have always loved fitness and know how important it is as I age and if I am going to be able to do all the things that I hope to do in these next decades of my life I need to be fit!

I am also reading this book…which really encourages retired people to consider exercise their new job….though I am not retired!

My Dad has adopted healthy living and fitness into his life even more so these last years and at 88 yrs he has spent his summer actively enjoying golf and his bike and is always reading, learning and trying new things.

On another but related subject I had been on the fence about joining Tara Faughnans Block Studies Collective this season.

My biggest issue was the time as I am a full time longarm quilter and I love piecing and have no shortage of projects or fabric for that matter.

So what made me decide to jump in? At my brother’s 60th birthday dinner on Sunday I mentioned it and the response was so positive, have fun and keep learning, go for it! The Block Studies Collective is about play and exploration, playing with colour, all things that I love.

Also winter is coming and with that a lot more time for quilting! Tracking shows that my palette arrives tomorrow so last night I pulled some scraps out and played at the end of my day! So many ideas and so much fun!!

On last thing about this season…a friend and I were saying to each other how tired we feel making the what’s for supper decision these days… I have been making that decision for most of my adult life. She had recently started ordering Hello Fresh. Two of my daughters have used it before and enjoyed it so…

That one was a favourite among several favourites, it’s been a fun change. We only eat in restaurants and very seldomly when we travel, and this has added so many great prompts for future meals!

Life should be fun!!!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Happy Halloween…Quilt

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This fun quilt recently left my studio quilted,trimmed and ready for binding in plenty of time to hang for Halloween!

The quilt did present a challenge in that the witches legs hang freely. Using the quilting design Frite-nite I carefully worked around the legs not loosing any of the fun design.

How perfect is this backing fabric!!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Block of the Month Quilt

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A quilt that was pieced as a Block of the Month turned out beautifully! It’s full of different designs and colours and was a delight to quilt!

I quilted it using the quilting design Nocturne Feathers by Bethanne Nemesh. I love the flow and density of her designs and as a result offer several of hers.

I have been professionally quilting for others for over 20 years and have collected many designs and am always adding more for my customers to choose from. If you have a design in mind and I don’t have it I will help you to find it and add it to my collection.

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Disappearing Nine Patch Baby quilt

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With a request for a baby quilt this one began with a cute but older baby print with baby blocks, rattles and such. Adding the read solid prints to the mix that played nicely with the print resulted in a super cute baby quilt! With the added bonus for my customer of using up fabrics from her stash!

She also pieced the backing from her stash adding more sweetness and fun!

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Christmas Quilt Story

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The story of this lovely Christmas quilt really makes me smile!

It was pieced by a longtime and expert quilter, which I could tell by her piecing. I have quilted other quilts of hers as well.

Sadly (and of course not why it makes me smile) she began developing dementia as this one was being completed and is no longer able to quilt.

The part that makes me smile is that her family has chosen to finish her quilts so that they will be used and enjoyed.

There was a lot of bulk in some of the areas where the corners met and I didn’t want to add any distraction to the piecing/design of the quilt with the quilting. I chose the pantograph Bayside for its soft flow…I also love how it plays so nicely with the candy cane backing!

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Lovely Quilt

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I often don’t have the name of the pattern used to piece the customer quilts that I work on and this is one of them.

My customer chose the quilting design Lovely for her quilt…hence the name. I agree, it’s a lovely quilt 😊

Sometimes and in this case I see a design used by another quilter and add it to my collection, and in this case it came from my quilting friend Louisa. https://louisaenright.com

Louisa has been inspiring me in many ways for several years now!

We both quilt and often share design ideas. She is also my friend who really inspired me to play with Tara Faughnan, who if you follow me know that I have a lot of fun playing with colour palettes and patterns from.

Back to this quilt, the design was chosen by my customer and was a perfect choice adding the softness of curves to strong angular piecing.

I chose the thread colour, and especially love that the design shows so beautifully on the back of the quilt.

Like most quilts that I work on her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

An Irish Chain Quilt

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Green is a colour often associated with Ireland aka the Emerald Isle. So what better colour to use for an Irish Chain Quilt!

This one was lovingly pieced by my customer as a gift for her daughter. (who loves green!)

We chose the quilting design Nocturne Feathers, a fairly new addition to my collection and an additional design by Bethanne Nemesh.

My customer and I met at the local fabric store to find a backing for this quilt and we found a perfect brighter green for the backing ☘️

As a side note, if you are purchasing backing yardage it’s a good idea to have an idea of how much you will need for your quilt as sometimes staff at a fabric store perhaps aren’t quilters so aren’t aware of the calculations. Shops that specialize in quilting generally do know and are a great resource. I am also happy to help with the calculations so you end up with the right amount.

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Freehand Quilting and a Modern Runner

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If you have been reading this blog for sometime or following me elsewhere you may recall the tree runners that I quilted a couple of years ago…

Well this summer I had the opportunity to add my quilting to another of this customers work. This time for a more summery runner that will be displayed on her table in a cottage that is being built in Quebec.

Some quilting jobs I find the need to marinate ideas for a while and this was one was one of them. My ideas usually wake me in the middle of the night and then I know! This job was no exception.

I knew that my customer wanted my freehand quilting in the background. It is a fun way to quilt once you get past the beginning which can feel a little intimidating!

When discussing this type of quilting with others, I always say that it’s the whole picture that others see not just the early beginnings and small areas of your quilting, if that makes sense.

Playing with design ideas and doodling on a white board with a plan really helps. Sometimes I will even write a list of de-sign elements that I want to include in my quilting. Other than that I let myself play.

I do however start with a little practice piece on the side.

Before beginning this runner I added faux trapunto under the flowers…I loaded batting as a backing onto the longarm and then outlined the flowers with stitching…this is where water soluble thread could be used however not wanting to wet a customer project I used regular thread.

All of the batting was trimmed away from the flowers.

This along with minimal quilting on the flowers allowed them to pop a bit especially with the background fill around them.

I will share pictures when they arrive of this runner bound and photographed in its home. For now I share this video of where my work I left off.…

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Storm at Sea

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This is the second quilt from my customer who also made the Log Cabin quilt in my previous post. Her piecing is certainly inspiring and also encouraging as I too hope to be piecing well into my eighties!

We chose the quilting design Bayside. I have different sizes of this design and used the larger one for this quilt. It has a wave like appearance (playing on the storm at sea) with a lovely density for a quilt that will be snuggled under.

I absolutely fell in love with this quilt top and backing…I do love blue!

The binding was provided by the quilt maker and so her quilt was trimmed and binding attached ready for hand stitching at pick up!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Log Cabin Wall Hanging

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It’s no secret to my family and friends that I love the colour blue and this blue and white log cabin really made my heart sing!

Not only was this quilt perfectly pieced, my customer proudly told me that she is 88 yrs old. Blue is also her favourite colour…she drove here in her beautiful blue Subaru…a very inspiring woman for sure!

I chose the quilting design Waterworld which added the density I prefer for a wall hanging … not only that it really adds fun visual appeal..

My customer provided the binding ready to attach so not only was her quilt trimmed but with the binding attached it was ready for some relaxing hand stitching to complete her project.