Professional Longarm Quilting Services
The last of the series of double sided quilts…for now.
This quilt was made for my customers five year old grandson who I am sure will enjoy many years snuggling with his quilt!
The front is fun but check out the back! The top of the back also shows the name of her grandson.
Todays quilt share looks very similar to the one that I shared yesterday. They both began with the same panel, however they were surrounded by different blocks and layouts.
Starting a quilt with a panel gives the maker all of the colour clues needed to build the fabric palette.
How much fun is the back of the quilt with this long neck fellow!
It was quilted using the pantograph Popcorn which adds a fun cloud like design without distracting from the piecing.
As a longtime quilter as I like to think of it…I have accumulated some fabric over the years and have kept a lot of scraps for some day. They are fun to play with and especially useful when trying out a new block or idea.
I am still playing with some crumb piecing. However I took a little side trip recently, as I have been wanting to make a bag…thankfully I easily shopped my stash and had all that I needed.
It was a quick and fun project using a free pattern from Apple Green Cottage
I can see making more in the future…this sweet bag made with different fabric would be adorable for a little trick or treater!
Good Monday morning…we woke up to some white stuff this morning! Not enough to shovel and it will most likely melt this afternoon but enough to remind me to get out the winter gear!
It’s so much easier to greet the warmer days of spring and summer along with our nice long days of extra daylight…. But then again it’s so much easier to get lost in my quilting as winter approaches.
I recently completed some double sided quilts, these take a little more time and consideration in loading in order to keep the back as straight as possible.
This quilt is a great example of beginning with a panel and adding on with different blocks to create a quilt top. The backing was inspired I believe from searching on Pinterest.
What’s going on in your quilting world these days? I have a few spots open for Christmas projects so touch base with me if you would like to be entered onto my quilting schedule.
The only thing that I really don’t like about summer is that it seems to fly by! Somehow August seems to be in an even bigger hurry than July was. This post is a catch up from July.
A customer requested that I pick up a backing for her quilt which I do periodically for my customers. This request gave me the perfect excuse for a day trip to Pass Lake and a visit with Donna Watson who owns Fuelled by Fabric! If you are local and haven’t been to visit and shop in her wonderful quilt shop do yourself the favour!!
My Dad and Liam joined me for this adventure as I also wanted to go further down the road. We visited the Sleepy G farm and picked up eggs…Liam learned about the honour system of paying.
Also the new Amethyst shop in Pass Lake is beautiful and well worth stopping by for a visit.
Years ago I was invited to spend time with a friend and family at their camp at Silver Islet. Saying that I loved it there would be a huge understatement…if you haven’t been it is so well worth the drive.
Silver Islet has an amazing history and many of the miners cabins still stand along with the store that has been restored and reopened …unfortunately being a Wednesday the store was closed that day but we still found our fun!
How fun is this view from my picture window! Liam absolutely loves building his forts with the huge Lego blocks…I love how much fun he has!
The view outside is that beautiful lush green that evades us most of the year causing most of us to relish the days of beautiful summer days!
Liam is more than happy to enjoy his summer!
Weather permitting, when he is here he is in and out of the pool all day..stopping for refuelling breaks and when Grandma says it’s time for a break!
Yesterdays break meant the completion of a big Lego project!
Do you ever find a fabric that you just fall in love with and really can’t bring yourself to cut up?
Well these two quilts are fun examples of what to do. Clare originally thought that she might like to make a quilted jacket with the fabrics however after living with the idea for awhile her mind changed.
Still loving the fabric she added borders and brought them to me with yardage for the backings.
I chose the pantograph Bayside, to add just a hint of movement but not distract from the fabric itself.
The backing fabric was a perfect choice for these quilts and as I do love a challenge I was able to piece the backs for both quilts with one piece of about 6”x18”’s left over! Many of my customer like to have me piece their backs as it’s a complementary add on.
The second quilt was a little busier so I chose the pantograph Star Swirl to add to the movement of the night sky that spoke to me in this fabric.
Do you find piecing is a little like eating potato chips? once you start it’s hard to stop? I do and as a bonus it’s so much healthier. I rarely allow myself to have my ironing station beside my sewing machine. It’s so important to get up from your chair and move. In my opinion anyways.
So after finishing up the Square in a Square Star block I moved on to the Jacobs Ladder block. I have always enjoyed working with small pieces and this quilt certainly gives me joy.
It’s fun to play with the layout. Can you guess which one I chose?
I am really looking forward to seeing this quilt come together and am mulling over the quilting design as I work on it. Often I choose a quilt to make knowing beforehand how I will quilt it.
As I was falling asleep last night I was wondering what will become of this quilt. I think a child might have fun with it as there are many little surprises in it.
Currently on the design wall is the Plus a Star block…more on that soon.
I cut the grass yesterday for the first time this season. One of the many perks of my life with Erik is that I have a nice little lawn tractor to cut grass…it’s a task that I enjoy!
This years winter was exceptionally long and stretched well into what should have been spring.
May held many challenges.
I learnt a lot about sump pumps and am extremely thankful that Erik already knew…so one morning early in May when I said that the pump sounded like it was humming he flew into action replacing it!
With that under control we breathed a little easier, however a day or so later I discovered water coming into the cold storage room. Thankfully we work well as a team, and between the two of us we were able to prevent any damage. I am an early riser and Erik is more a night owl so we worked shifts. It was a week of shop vacuuming every 20 minutes for a few days and loads of towels on and off the line or in the dryer being rotated.
The sump pump ran non stop for 3 weeks. We had a lot more snow than usual this year and with several rainstorms and frozen ground many people had destroyed basements. We were lucky!
I still continued to work away on customer quilts though not very much time for personal piecing.
So I was happy to celebrate the beginning of June by cutting grass! It’s time to plant some flowers and make some plans!
Liam has one serious plan and it looks like this summer we can make that happen!
April is supposedly the month of showers that bring May flowers. After what has felt like an extra long winter this one has been stubbornly hanging on.
I won’t lie and I am sorry for those west of here but I am thankful that the predicted blizzard is bypassing Thunder Bay! This Wednesday they are predicting rain and lots of it…so fingers crossed it doesn’t end up being snow.
Opps I may have spoken too soon looks like Thursday snow this week…
Spring is really the only season that I wish would come sooner than later!
When Liam and I arrived yesterday…I pick him up from school on Mondays and he spends the night…the first thing he did was head for the snow! The Temperature was 8C and with the sun shining it was very pleasant outside.
He does love the snow out here and was so happy to see it was still here!
Last night I came across pictures from a year ago…Liam was with us doing school virtually… he was standing close to the same spot.
That day he rode his bike and enjoyed his first ice cream cone of the season, sitting on the deck…. Though 2 days later… April 19, 2021!
The snow has been melting and in a few weeks we should be done with it.
