Tag: Thunder Bay

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Bear in a Tree (quilting and life)

wendysquilting

I love summer and this year we had, at least in my opinion, lovely weather.

Unfortunately for the bears and for our community the weather we had did not produce a great crop of berries for the bears!

So what is a hungry bear to do, especially when it’s time to fatten up and get ready to hibernate…they do love apples and so we had a visitor. The city and area has had far more visiting bears than usual!

Neighbours up the road from us have had a Momma and her three cubs hanging around for a few weeks. I suspect this one is one of the cubs and spent the day returning to our tree despite our presence.

We usually wait until after the first frost to pick the apples but choose to pick them that day…so it’s back to making apple juice again.

On the quilting front this Bear in the Tree quilt recently left the studio. It was quilted using the design Star Swirl and I stopped around the appliqués in order to allow them to pop. (They were outlined and minimally quilted in order to keep the density similar to the background)

The quilt was trimmed and ready for binding at pick up.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Late Summer Hike

wendysquilting

One very beautiful Sunday morning my daughter Katie and my brother and I set out for a hike at Sleeping Giant Provincial park which is about an hours drive from here.

It’s a park and area that holds many cherished memories of mine and was so wonderful to spend the day enjoying with family!

We are surrounded by amazing nature and these mushrooms caught my eye so I am including them in this story just because!

Living so close to Lake Superior, I wonder how many people just take the lake for granted. I have always been amazed by its beauty and strength along with its ever changing views.

After our hike we had lunch at store at Silver Islet https://silverisletgeneral.ca another very special place in my heart.

One of my earliest summers in Thunder Bay I was gifted with stays with a friend and her family at Silver Islet and I have so many very happy and interesting memories from that time in my life.

As we were driving back along the narrow road looking at the different mining camps, I mentioned the cemetery that my friend and I visited all those years ago as in close to 50 years ago….just as we were talking about that my daughter noticed friends of theirs coming to shore in their dingy…their sailboat docked nearby.

They invited us to see where they are building their summer camp and would we like to visit the cemetery!!

The cemetery is located within the provincial park and due to that and rules of provincial parks the cemetery has been left to nature. It used to be maintained by the campers association. Still it was so interesting to see again.

My daughters friends have built a sauna/guest house first which you can see in the background of my picture of their wood burning hot tub.

I love that they are building to include the natural stairs!

One last picture from the day…sometimes the weeds produce amazing beauty!

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

A Lovely Quilt

wendysquilting

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

wendysquilting

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

wendysquilting

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

wendysquilting

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

wendysquilting

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.

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Life versus Busyness and Balance

wendysquilting

I love waking up very early and I especially love very early morning walks esp in the summer!

Just before I woke up this morning I had a very realistic dream that my daughter who lives in Texas was suddenly here, we had such a nice visit in my dream.

After, when I woke up I of course wished she was here and could join me for my walk…and just as it was putting on my shoes guess who called and joined me!!

Life can feel so busy and it’s so important to remember to take time for oneself.

I have been really busy with quilting for others which I am extremely thankful for, I love my job!

Quilting is also my beloved hobby and I wasn’t finding time for me…my friend Louisa suggested that I carve out an hour or so a day just for me and my quilting and guess what? Not only am I more productive with my own projects but also my customer quilts as well!

I am currently piecing Small World by Tara Faughnan along with my Postage Stamp quilt.

I actually have 10 blocks finished now…

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Crimson Christmas

wendysquilting

This Chrimson Christmas (pattern and kit by Krista Moser) was taught at a local quilt shop.

My customer chose the quilting design Bayside, it is what I call a non descript design meaning it’s a perfect background allowing the piecing design front stage! The poinsettias deserve front stage don’t they?

Side note…I love my ikea cabinets

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

Wendy's Longarm Quilting, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Yellow and Quilting…a sweet baby quilt

wendysquilting

This sweet baby quilt recently left my studio quilted bound and ready for gifting!

A popular design with many of my customers Waterworld was chosen for the quilting. I was also tasked with providing the binding fabric which made for a fun dive into my stash! The backing (not sure why I didn’t get pictures) was a lovely soft pink flannel.

I love how happy and sunny this little quilt is and how happy I felt working on it esp knowing that it would soon be gifted to a little one.

It also brought back a memory of an early quilting instructor who said not to use yellow in your quilts or if you did to only use a small amount because it was a colour that could easily overpower the rest of the colours!

That bit of advice seemed strange to me as it’s one of my favourite happy colours!