Blogathon Canada – Welcome to Friendly Manitoba!

Here we go, Day 4 of Blogathon Canada and I have the pleasure of introducing you to a group of  talented Manitoba quilt bloggers and have a fabric Giveaway too!!   But first I’ll begin by introducing myself to all the new visitors arriving at my blog for the first time.
Welcome to Tamarack Shack!   My name is Kathy and I live on shores of Schist Lake which is about 20 km east of Flin Flon.  It’s a beautiful remote area in the northern boreal forest in the Canadian Shield.  When I’m not quilting my favourite summer activity is kayaking along the rock shores of our lake and in winter walking snow covered bush trails in our neighbourhood.   It’s a good thing I grew up in Winnipeg or this frigid lifestyle would have been a really shocker when we moved here 18 years ago!  But I love living in the north and the cottage lifestyle, it’s a wonderful place to raise a family.

I’ve been quilting for 18 years and longarm quilting for almost 5 years now.  I started blogging when I opened my longarm business in 2009 and through my blog I have meet some amazing and inspirational quilters from around the world.    I love making all types of quilts, whether traditional or modern and love the challenge of trying something new.   I have recently started a new pattern designing venture with my friend Lori and we just published our third pattern this week on our Etsy and Craftsy shops. We call our pattern company Highway 10 Designs.

Here are our three patterns.

Here are some of the more traditional quilts that I have made over the last few years.

And here are the Modern quilts I have made.  You can find the blog posts to most these quilts on my sidebar under My Quilts.

I also love to dye fabric and since I have an abundance of snow around from 6 months of the year I enjoy Snow Dyeing!  I have a tutorial on my sidebar if your curious about the process.  I have two methods I like to use, one is pouring liquid dye on the snow over the fabric and the other is mixing the dry dye powder in the snow and then putting that on the fabric.  The dry method created these pieces below, they are my favourite!

In the winter I have a lot of fun taking picture of my clients quilt out on the lake ice as I like to keep a patch clear of snow and by mid winter it becomes crystal clear. 

You can see the cracks go down through the ice which can get as thick as 4 feet by.  It becomes almost a winter obsession of mine keeping that ice patch clear but all the shovelling and sweeping is good exercise. :)

Now it is time to introduce you to the other Manitoba quilt bloggers. I hope you enjoy visiting their sites and have time to leave comments so they know you were there!

• Thread Head
• Night Owl Quilting and Dye Works
• Church Avenue Quilts
• Will Cook for Shoes
• Tammy Craft Emporium
• Scraps and Strings
• Obsessive Crafting Disorder
• Marj Moore's Blog
• Quilter Sandy
• CW Quilts

Don’t forget to check out Flo’s blog Butterfly Quilting as she is hosting the Saskatchewan bloggers today.

Now to the Giveaway!  If your a regular reader of my blog you won’t be surprised by my fabric choice.   It’s a ten fat quarter bundle of Tonga Celebrate Batiks by Timeless Treasures! 

To enter the Giveaway just leave a comment on this post and if you want you could telling me if you would love to experience standing on clear ice in the middle of a frozen lake or if there was no way I could even bribe you with fabric to walk out there!  :)

International entries welcomed and I’ve turned on the Anonymous option for commenting so anyone can enter, just please leave you email address so I can contact you if you win.   I’ll make the draw November 24.
I would like to thank Sew Sisters Quilt Shop for creating this great event and for donating the giveaway prize.  Don’t forget to pop over to Sew Sister blog to enter their giveaway which is sponsored by Aurifil today!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back to visit as I’m always sharing pictures of my clients quilts as well as my own projects.