Tag: Quilting

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Life

wendysquilting

The sky is rumbling this morning as it was yesterday morning. While I cut grass with the riding mower Friday evening I watched the sky as the clouds rolled in darker and darker and just as I was close to finishing the wind picked up to the point where you know it’s time to head inside! There wasn’t a lot of rain just thunder and quite the light show.

Our weather has been hot and humid the last few days a little unusual for this time of year. It’s also black fly and mosquito season and as careful as I have been I have more than my share of bites.

Now that Erik has retired we have added a couple of gardens and had a load of soil delivered and picked up a load of horse manure from a farm not too far from here. Needless to say there has been a lot of outside work lately.

Liam learnt how to use our dandelion puller though we gave up on controlling them years ago!

The government announced last week that the schools will remain closed until September so virtual learning continues until June 25th. Liam had mixed emotions about the decision, he does miss being at school but he also enjoys being here though he really dislikes virtual class. We have adapted and he works on some of the assignments that are posted independently.

We often head out for explores in our woods. There are mallards nesting by our pond.

Liam guessed that the robins were hatching, I went under the deck and took a few quick pictures so we could see what was going on…

Next time I will take a little more time to get a better picture. It was fun to see though. There was also a squirrel lurking about…I chased it off and so far it hasn’t been back.

On the quilting front I am currently working on a customers series of 5 wallhanging which I will share soon. I realized after the fact that I didn’t take pictures of Lorraines latest quilt which made me sad as she isn’t sure if she will get to the last two she has planned due to her declining health.

My Moda blockheads quilt is still on the wall as I wait for the Bella Solid to arrive for sashing.

So while I wait I have started working on my next quilt Long Time Gone by Jen Kingwell. I am planning to make it primarily from scraps.

On a fun note I added a little fabric to my stash…

Check out Fuelled by Fabric if you are in my area, Donna does deliver and does curbside as well.
Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Elizabeth’s Quilt

wendysquilting

Elizabeth told me that she was inspired by a quilt that she saw while visiting a family member. Sometimes it’s just like that, we see a quilt, admire it and is stays with us.

This causes many a quilter to start collecting fabrics particularly when the quilt was scrappy! This quilt finished as a large queen. Her rules were white on whites with various blues and reds from depression era fabrics.

One word of advice when piecing such a quilt is to stay stitch as you go. What I mean by that is that when you have so many seams esp on your edges that if you stitch 1/8” from the edge it prevents seams from popping open either from handling or being loaded onto a Longarm frame.

I often will stay stitch a quilt for my customers if they haven’t. It makes loading and quilting much easier.

This was such a happy quilt to work on!

The backing really suits the front though working with it wasn’t always easy on my eyes.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Lot of Life Happening…

wendysquilting

There is a quilt on my Longarm ready for trimming and another ready to be delivered…

Today is Erik’s 65th birthday and last day of work! The long awaited and planned for retirement begins! We will begin it with a lot of fishing as we are still restricted in travel.

Today is also Liam’s half birthday which he is also pretty excited about. He and Pappa have been discussing ice cream cake for some time.

Liam and I went on a hike not far from here, yesterday…his first long hike with me and half way through he asked if we could start doing it more often. It’s an hour and a half and a good workout!

We were also testing out the new walkie talkies they worked really well.

The hike is in a conservation area which made for a great teaching opportunity.

Adding his Inukshuk
Halfway
Hard to resist!

When we got home, Pappa had discovered a mouse family in our boat…I went inside while Liam excitedly assisted in the eviction!

He thought bringing the evidence close to my face was pretty funny!

So our summer is beginning. I will still continue to Longarm Quilt as it’s just what I do 😊

One of the most exciting to Liam esp was this discovery under our deck which is in clear view from the pool. More to come on that I hope!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Carols Winter Quilt

wendysquilting

It’s spring and this week Liam and Decided it would be safe to finally store the winter boots etc… We have been enjoying our walks in the woods looking at all the new signs of growth!

Carols quilt has a very winter feel with skiers flying down the slopes. We chose the snowflake pantograph which adds a windy, snowy look. The quilting really showed on the black and red checkered flannel backing.

This soft flannel adds such as cozy feeling to the quilt. Though we are hoping not to need very much flannel for a few months!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Purple and Orange

wendysquilting

I remember in grade 7, which would have been around 1975…one of my favourite tops had purple and orange stripes. I loved wearing it!

I also had an art teacher tell me that those two colours don’t go together there fore I was to rethink my assignment. Hopefully teachers today don’t stifle young creative peoples ideas such as back then.

Years later while making my first block of the month quilt…I decided to deviate from the pattern a little with my own idea and an at that time period friend exclaimed that I couldn’t do that! Well I did and I remember liking that mine was more unique!

Two things brought this to mind today first is this customer quilt!

Susan M’s quilt. Here and There Pantograph
I just love the colour combo

Next I have been puttering away at my Moda Blockheads quilt and am wanting it off the design wall. I have been wanting to make a sisterhood block so made one for the Moda quilt.

I haven’t done a lot of paper piecing and so this one gave me some challenges when putting the units together esp the centre. I ended up tacking down the points that really need to meet before sewing the whole unit. The paper is still in the block, I am sure once it’s in the quilt and quilted I will be quite happy with it.

I also really enjoyed how nice and round and smooth the appliqués turned out. The tulip brand needles I used were so smooth and easy to sew with along with 60 wt thread. Though in the further I may use 80 wt for appliqué instead.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Dresden Plate Quilt

wendysquilting

My customer told me that she really enjoyed making this quilt playing with with both fabric and design. I really enjoyed adding my touch by using the pantograph Feather Grande by Bethanne Nemesh it adds both a whimsical touch and a little formalness with the feathers.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Customer Stash Quilts

wendysquilting

With having to be home so much this last year so many of my customers have challenged themselves to use their stashes as well as to try out new patterns.

This cat quilt definitely fit the bill! When you look at scrap quilts their charm is often how so many different fabrics fit together and look great!

A soft flowing pantograph added a little movement …
This leopard print mad a fun backing!