Quilting – Wendy’s Quilting and Life

When I began piecing my Postage Stamp Quilt, my plan was that I could slowly work on it with no deadline. Just a fun easy relaxing quilt to make!

I wrote about it almost a year ago here https://wendys-quilting.ca/2024/07/20/postage-stamp-progress/

Well today, after many relaxing hours working on it over the last couple of years or so…I sewed the victory lap around the 6,480 1” (finished) squares!

One of my Granddaughters (she was 5 at the time) told me when it was about halfway pieced that I didn’t need to worry, that when I finished this quilt that she would have it for me 🥰. Last week her younger sister offered to help me finish the quilt…she is 4 yrs.

I still have a lot of scraps along with some finished blocks left over and block parts ready for piecing so this postage stamp journey won’t end but will continue. I have plans to make several more over the years!

This quilt isn’t in the queue yet…I do plan to eventually add it in though.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Beautiful Modern First Quilt

June 4, 2026 wendysquilting

One of the things I enjoy most about longarm quilting is seeing how the quilting design brings a pieced quilt to life.

For this quilt, we chose the quilting design Here and There. The flowing curves of the design provide a wonderful contrast to the strong geometric piecing. Rather than competing with the sharp angles of the blocks, the quilting softens them and adds texture and dimension across the entire surface.

The quilt is my customers first larger quilt and she did a fantastic job piecing both the quilt top and backing!

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

If you have a quilt top ready for quilting, I’d love to help bring it to life. Feel free to contact me at wendysquilting@gmail.com for information about my longarm quilting services.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Sunshine and a Special First Quilt

May 15, 2026 wendysquilting

Oh the joy of having sunshine flood my studio!

Spring has felt long in coming this year with many extra snow falls since our return and what felt like days on end of cold grey weather.

This quilt was pieced as a birthday gift for my customers daughter. The colours were requested by her daughter for her new house that they will be moving into.

This quilt was also my customers first large quilt and in my opinion she certainly did herself proud!!

When she picked it up she was really excited to see how it turned out and that she would have it finished in time to gift it!

We looked a several options for the quilting design and decided to use Bayside.

Often with angular piecing a curvy design works really well. Bayside also loosely mimicked the flow of the printed squares.

The solid backing fabric really show cases the quilting!

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Donna Jordon Quilt, pieced in Batik

May 12, 2026 wendysquilting

This recent quilt was a treat to work on! It was pieced using a pattern by Donna Jordon of Jordon Fabrics in Batik fabrics. She was a fantastic teacher with so many wonderful online tutorials.

Most of my customers ask me to choose the quilting design, which is something that I really enjoy and often know almost immediately what will work well on a quilt.

In this case I had a few ideas so I sent the three ideas to the quilts maker and she chose Nocturne Feathers a design by Bethanne Nemesh. (The third picture below)

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Winterset Iowa State Quilt Museum (part 1)

May 11, 2026 wendysquilting

Last year on our way home from our Winter adventure we discovered Winterset Iowa due to it being the birthplace of John Wayne. To my complete delight it is also the home of the Iowa State Quilt Museum and a wonderful quilt shop. https://wendys-quilting.ca/2025/04/

So I was more than happy when we found ourselves back in Winterset this year!

The display at the Quilt Museum was wonderfully captivating and of course inspiring and there was a quilt displayed that was quilted by Bethanne Nemesh whose work I have followed from the beginning of my long arm journey! (22 years!) I also love following the work of Victoria Findlay Wolfe.

This quilt was absolutely mesmerizing

When I first began quilting, I was always drawn to the texture that quilting adds to a pieced top. What a treat to have time to really enjoy the amazing work of these two quilters!!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Winter Vacation 2026 part 2

April 30, 2026April 30, 2026 wendysquilting

It made me a little sad to see the bikes loaded back up onto the motorhome! I truly see the appeal of cycling not only is it a great way to get and stay fit it’s FUN! It reminds me of the freedom as a child riding my bike!

Our first overnight on our way home was in Las Cruces New Mexico…the forecasted temperatures for Tucson were for 40C for right after we left, I happen to enjoy the heat more than Erik. Thankfully it wasn’t as hot in La Cruces but hot enough that we really enjoyed the pool!

And the Sunset on our after supper walk!

We spent a couple of nights at the Santa Rosa Lake State park, we stayed there last year as well and really enjoyed hiking around the lake along with our after supper hikes.

Our daytime hikes were a little too hot for Erik 35C but for some reason those temp sure felt great to me!

We finally checked out Buc-eyes… https://buc-ees.com in Amarillo Texas. The brisket and pulled pork sandwiches were really tasty! The candied pecans were also a yummy treat!

We stopped to visit the Kansas Welcome Center and when I saw this display I just had to get a picture!! I also made Erik pose with them as well!!

Driving through the burning of the Flint Hills felt eerie with the more yellow Smokey sky and smell.

Visiting Winterset Iowa again was such a treat and I will write a separate post about both the Museum and the fantastic quilt shop there!

Aside from visiting the quilt shop and museum in Winterset we were treated to one last day of summer weather! We made great use of that with a fun hike in their city park!

The drive north included Minneapolis which we normally side skirt around by visiting Hastings and Stillwater MN and we both agree that we will do that in the future.

Our last overnight stay was in Hinkley MN where I needed my fleece lined leggings,Winter Coat and wool headband and gloves again in order to take our evening walk…it was not an easy transition back to the cold again!!

You can tell that we were North again parked beside an ice fishing trailer in Hinkley!!

The last cold travel days did make being back in the house welcome! The rest of March and April was very chilly and snowy, however our days were also filled with a lot of wonderful family time and of course Quilting for me!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Fresco Feathers Quilt

April 25, 2026 wendysquilting

When my customer brought her quilts to me I had recently added some new quilting designs to my collection. We both agreed that Fresco Feathers (one of my new ones) would be a fun addition to this quilt!

Both the feathers and swirls play so well with the different fabrics in the quilt with a lovely density that will make this quilt so great for snuggling under! check out that pretty flannel backing.

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Some Fun!!

April 24, 2026 wendysquilting

Some background to the story of this picture…after quilting their Bargello Quilt before my vacation and hearing a funny story that I shared my friends, Tim started referring to me as the Quilting Queen!

Tim and Donna came for a visit with this week with a gift!!! Thank you so much you two!!

I was told that I need a crown and now I have one! 💝

In some other news, I am currently piecing a quilt top from a kit for a customer. It’s a pre cut kit and so far so good and I will share my review on the kit as I progress. these blocks are trimmed to 14 1/2”.

I still am working slowly on my block studies course, though my customer quilting takes precedence.

My project Wendy as it’s come to be known, re my personal healthy living journey has been so successful and I am loving the energy that my choices have gifted my day to day life! More about that in a future post.

The quilt on my frame in the first picture will be finished today…what else is there to do on a rainy day than quilt 😊

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

The Quilting Side of Life Donna’s Selvage Quilt

April 24, 2026 wendysquilting

My year has been busy both in the studio and in my life away from it.

On the Quilting side, I do have many customer quilts to share and I will try to catch up in the coming weeks! I will also share more about our winter vacation and what a fun adventure it was.

I had so much fun working on Donna’s selvage quilt…

A selvage quilt is pieced using saved selvages from fabrics often saved from years of quilt making and often donated pieces from friends.

Donna shared these statistics with me…she used a total of 23,400 inches of selvage, that’s 1,950 feet that’s approx 1/3 of a mile. I weighed her quilt after quilting so it included the foundation fabric used for piecing the 100 percent cotton batting along with the batting and it weighed 13.5 pounds. She has since added the binding.

We, well mostly Donna’s husband Tim chose the quilting design Prism. The angles of the design are a fun contrast to the piecing stitches and looks fantastic on the back.

Her quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up…and she didn’t waste any time adding the binding!

She also shared this picture of the quilt on their King size bed (before binding)

Her quilt will be displayed at the quilt show in Dryden in you happen to find yourself at the show and you will very likely run into Donna and Tim there as well!