Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Do you have a longtime stash?

As a long time quilter and lover of quilting fabric I have acquired over the years a wonderful collection…one that continues to grow I might add…actually I have grown it a little this last month and will probably add a little more next week.

Watch for my upcoming posts as I share what I have been up to for the last month or so!!

Anyways, I noticed this morning that Tara Faughnan has released her Sunny pattern! This was such a fun month of the Color Collective that I took part in and the pattern has so many possibilities of fun with your stash and a great way to learn a different technique of paper piecing that doesn’t involve removing or wasting paper.

The collective was so much fun for someone like me…. Each month receiving a colour palette of Tara’s choosing and a pattern to play with…it felt a little like being a child back in my childhood and getting fresh new crayons with blank paper to create with!

Onto sharing some scrappy fun!

Marilyn has been inspiring me for many years with her use of her stash…I have two customers named Marilyn who are on a mission of playing with and using stash!! Which means so much fun to someone like me!

Some times simplicity of piecing is a great way to play and use scraps with a beautiful quilt as a result!

Adding some easy piecing that allows for some colour pops into the border really added more fun!

Marilyn told me that she ordered the backing online and that it was a sheet! It was perfect and so easy to work with and the result really made for a two sided quilt!

Using the design A Little Bit of This was another layer of fun adding a layer of soft density and visual pleasure to her quilt.

Of course it left trimmed and ready for binding then gifting.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Sunny Days!!!

Well we have had some sunshiny days in January, of course those are usually our coldest days of winter!

My Sunny quilt has made for many hours of fun piecing with a new to me paper piecing technique along with the fun of a palette put together by Tara Faughnan of the Color collective. It’s been a welcome adventure.

While making it an old and favourite song from my childhood kept coming to mind…Sunny Days by Lighthouse. It actually came on the radio yesterday!

This weekend after finishing up a customer quilt, I gifted myself time on the Longarm for Sunny. The backing reminds me of tie dye a bit and also carried many of the tops colours. I love finding just the right backs for my quilts!

Sunny is ready for binding…I am leaning towards the orange! What would you choose?

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Sunny

Sunny is the name of the first block of Season 4 of the Color Collective that I have been working on. This Season began November 1st and this block introduced a new to me paper piecing technique.

I don’t usually enjoy paper piecing, it seems so tedious and wasteful however Taras technique was fun and no ripping papers and very little fabric waste. Not only that but as our days become shorter as we get closer to December 21st it was a fantastic palette and block to play with in the moments that I had time to play.

Curved piecing has really been popular these last few years and I was glad to have the glue technique for these blocks!

Fall and winter are especially busy with customer quilts and Christmas coming so my personal piecing time becomes very precious and needed. I decided to focus on Sunny but also accept that the November block most likely wouldn’t be a top until January.

So yesterday with little wind and not too terribly cold weather I laid Sunny over the snow to show you. I am somewhat pondering how I will quilt this top so it might be awhile before I get to that stage.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Sunny

The view from my studio this morning

No it isn’t sunny today, our world is really trying to turn white, the winds have truly been winter like. Yesterday was my last clothesline day until spring!

Thankfully Tara Faughnan of the color collective chose a bright happy fun to piece quilt block for the first project of season 4. The first quilt is named Sunny.

The palette, note to self to take a better picture of the December palette.
Starting to play

It’s been fun to learn a new to me paper piecing technique and play with colours that I might not have chosen myself.

Longtime Gone is still taking up more than half of the design wall and I am determined to finish that quilt top by the end of the year.