Rainy Days

It is a rainy weekend and I found myself looking though my UFO's and decided to finish this quilt top.  I had all the curved blocks made at the last guild retreat. I though I would save it and finish it at the next retreat but I seem to have a growing pile of projects that would keep me occupied at the next retreat. So time to clean up the old projects....anything started in the last year I consider old!  :)

The above quilt was made with fat quarters I bought on sale from Kickass Country Quilts.  They had a online special last year...buy 10 fat quarter for $20 and so I bought two bundles!  One light colored batiks and one darker batiks, I could suggest colors too.  Can't beat that.  I used Eliza Back Porch Crazy Curves templates to make the blocks and the layout is my original design.  It is now loaded on my longarm so I hope to quilt it tomorrow.

Yesterday was our local fabric shops last day open so we are now without a fabric shop again :(

I did find a few fabrics to go with the Lily & Will fabric ( at 60% off) that Linda sent me so that was good.

I also finished my last set of Just Takes Two instructions.  I tried to make one of two blocks from an early set of instructions that is giving me grief but I just ended up throwing it in the garbage!! Sometimes it is okay to give up....right!!

What Could It Be?

Tim and I just got back from an evening paddle, it is so nice to get back into our kayaks! I took my camera and got a few pictures.

I had a lot of fun reading your guesses in my last post on what the helicopter was doing.  We live in an active mining region so think prospecting by air!   Only one guess was correct and that was Sherry's guess, she said "looking for deposits of ore or oil".  Not oil but most definitely ore.   The helicopter was doing an airbourne geophysical survey using VTEM ( Versatile Time-Domain Electromagnetic), click here if you want to understand it more. Basically the equipment under the helicopter is used to search for anomalies (ore deposits) deep under the ground.  Wonder if they found anything under my house?

Nine Patch Quilt

This is the second Nine Patch quilt I have quilted for Val and I wanted to make sure I quilted it different from the first one.  Last time I did a feather wreath from a stencil in the snowball blocks, seen here, and this time I did a free hand design inspired by this post from Terri's blog.  That was much faster than marking out a stencil as I only drew out the center circle using an air erase marker and a roll of tape for my template.

 I first quilted the circle then did the swirl in the center and then the feathers on the outside.  Quick and simple and it has a fun flowery look. 

I got a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday.  A few weeks ago my friend Linda from the Quilted Pineapple asked her readers to guess how many stops and starts she had on the quilt she posted.  Well I love a challenge so I studied the quilt and figured out the minimum number of starts and stops it would take and I guessed the closest!  I thought guessing the closest and having those bragging rights was good enough for me but Linda, being the sweetie that she is, sent me a prize! Well I was blown away by the generosity of this prize, a fat quarter bundle of Lily and Will fabrics!!   I just love the buttery yellow and soft browns in this collection and know it will make a beautiful lap or baby quilt.  Thanks Linda, your awesome!!

Oh, one more thing.

On Saturday and again this morning I have been listening to a helicopter flying very low over our house and thought I would take a few pictures to show you what we commonly see here flying around our Northern town.  My local readers know what he is doing but I am wondering if anyone else has any guesses.

Urban Abacus

I have been collecting bright coloured batiks for awhile now and finally cut into them to make the Urban Abacus pattern using the Quick Curve Ruler.  This is going to make a great kids quilt and I am going to try to wait until the summer to quilt it when I have more time to try some custom quilting on it.

This reminds me of a toy my boys had when they were little that had bright coloured beads on a yellow metal maze of wire and you slid the beads along the wire.

I have also been working on my Just Takes Two blocks...but must admit that I have started to fall behind on the applique blocks and have two not completed.  My friend Lori got me started on this project so we would have a project to work on together but she has started to fall behind too. She has a good excuse though and I can now share the news....she bought a longarm!!!  I am so excited for her and she also started a blog to journal her journey into longarm quilting.  Her blog is Night Owl Quilting and Dye Works and you can check it out here.

Comfort Quilt

Our guild makes a lot of Comfort Quilts that we donate to the community and I believe we have donated over 250 quilts since the guild was established in 1998.  Our group have been given fabric donations over the years and we have a cupboard full of fabric that we try our best to use up but it never seem to get any smaller....kinda like our stashes at home!

This quilt is a guild Comfort quilt made from the guilds fabric stash and I quilted with a simple pantograph called Mimosa. I like to quilt 4 to 6 quilts each year for the guild for free as I am a member and I like to do my share.

Yesterday I took my son to his orthodontist appointment which for us is a 4 hour drive one way and not too many towns to drive through....the scenery is basically all trees for 400km!  It is just one of those things you get use to when you live up north.  We usually see a lot of wildlife on our travels ( moose, deer, elk, caribou, coyotes, wolves, foxes, lynx, etc) and this time I was able to get a picture of one of the two bears we saw walking along the ditch. This guy wasn't bothered by us stopping to take pictures from the car, they usually just take off for the bush when they see someone coming their way.

I have my share of bear stories from since I was a kid and for the most part they just run off when they see you.  But I have learnt that when you go for a walk around here you should always wear good shoes....it is really hard to run away from a bear when your wearing Flip Flops!!

My Berry Curvy Quilt

Here is my Berry Curvy Quilt!  I just came up with the name when I started writing this post!   When I was at the retreat a few weeks ago and was working on this quilt a friend said that the colors of the fabrics reminded her of the color of berries.  So I had to get that into the title and I think it worked 'berry' well  :)

I used Jenny's Quick Curve Ruler to make this quilt and also used the free pattern that came with it to make a lap size quilt. The pattern is for a table runner but I just made more blocks!

I debated about custom quilting this one but finally came to the realization that whenever I custom quilt a quilt that I have made 'just for fun' for myself I find it hard to give away or donate.  And I love giving away the quilts I make, you can only use/hide so many around the house!   I now have a closet full of finished quilts that are too good to just donate but I don't really need, they were just fun to make.   I feel like I truly have an addiction when it comes to making quilts, I have to constantly be working on one or I feel lost.  I guess there are worse addictions one could have!

I used the Curlz panto, Dream Blend batting and So Fine thread.  These are all batik fabrics too.

Time to paint my toes to match my quilts again....it's almost summer here.  It was 7'c when I took this picture this morning so I'm pretending it's summer right now....I'm getting tired of waiting!

Bundle of 12 Quilt

This is Lynn's Bundle of 12 quilt designed by Amelia Scott Designs.  She used a fabric collection by Dear Stella called Palladium.

She asked for a panto design in the center and the Echo Curves in the outer border.  I choice Fascination for the panto as she wanted a modern feel and the curves soften all the lines in the piecing.

Here is a peak at the backing fabric.

Angel Baby Quilt

Barb asked if I would quilt her satin Angel Baby quilt and I just love how it turned out.  She pre-marked the pattern onto the satin so I just had to stitch it out.  I had never quilted on satin before and was a bit worried how that would go but I had no problems.  If you have never seen this pattern before it is designed by JoAnn Hoffman and you can find the paper or digital patterns here

The quilt is designed so you can lay a baby on it and take their picture so the baby has a halo and wings....the idea is soooo cute!  I didn't have a baby to lay on this one so here is a picture from JoAnn's website. She also has a Butterfly version.

Here is a close up of the one I quilted for Barb, she plans on take a picture of her granddaughter on it!

It is hard to tell it is satin in the above pictures so here is another one that shows the shiny satin better.

I also used two batts of Quilter's Dream Puff and that worked well as Barb wanted it to be nice and puffy.

Flying Geese

This is Trina's beautiful Flying Geese quilt.  Love the blue and turquoise fabrics in this quilt. 

 She asked for a dragonfly design so Dragonfly Pond panto it is!  This is one of the most requested pantos that I do for clients.

I used a light blue Bottom Line thread in the bobbin to match the backing fabric and a steel blue So Fine on top to blend with the blues.  Quilter's Dream Blend batting.

I really like how Trina used her fabrics to create a secondary Pinwheel design in the Flying Geese blocks.

Furrows

This is Yvonne's Furrows quilt and she used a fabric collection from Kansas Troubles. It was a joy to quilt because with all the piecing in this quilt and piano keys border that it was perfectly flat and straight on my machine :)

 The backing fabric was a beautiful blue and I was able to use brown So Fine thread on the top and Blue So Fine on the backing.  Quilters Dream Blend for batting and Flirtatious is the panto design. 

The colors in this quilt definitely have a Northern palette.

Presidents Blocks

At our guild meeting on Tuesday, my first meeting as Past President, I was very excited to be given my "President's Blocks".   Last year I was asked what pattern and fabric theme would I like for my blocks so I asked for a Jewel Box block ( just 1/4 of it) and made with bright/dark batiks.  I picked out a light batik for the background and this was given to the members to use and they added the batiks.  I wanted it to have a scrappy look.

I had to play with the blocks today and this is how it looks all laid out.  I LOVE IT!!!  Thank you to all the guild members that made a block for me, I will cherish this quilt forever.  I hope to have this quilt put together and quilted by the end of the summer.

So on Wednesday I drove 520km to visit my friend Lori for a few days.  She use to live here but moved away last fall so it was great to just spend a few days with her.  We dyed fabric like mad women and experimented with some new dye colors.  Then we designed a Mystery quilt that we will present to both our guilds.  As many of our guild members know we are both very opinionated with the way we approach our quilting and our methods are usually very different. It is a total mystery how we work together so well but I will say that we are pretty proud of the project we created and our friendship is still intact. :)   We will have the Mystery Quilt fabric requirements ready for the next meeting for those that are wanting to shop for their fabrics soon.

We dyed 28 pieces of fabric....and I left one in her dryer so I am one short. 

Spring 2012 Bloggers Quilt Festival

If you have arrived here for the first time through the Bloggers Festival, welcome to Tamarack Shack.   I am a professional longarm quilter that lives on the shores of Schist Lake in Northern Manitoba Canada. I love to photograph my quilts and my clients quilts outdoors all year round. It is just as much fun as quilting the quilts. In winter the snowy backdrop and the ice from the lake make a wonderful setting and in the summer the water on the lake provides a wonderful shimmer when the quilts are displayed on the dock. My neighbor clothesline also provided a great spot to see the whole quilt...when the wind isn't blowing!

The quilt I chose to share this time is my Scrappy Squares quilt. This was a project that our guild did and we exchanged 3" fabric squares.  What I loved about his quilt is all the background space to play with quilting designs as the quilting is my favorite part.

My longarm is hand guided so all my work is free hand or ruler assisted.
I did CC's in the squares and then added feathered wreaths and other feather motifs in the borders.

I created a faux border in the background to mimic the pieced squares in the inner border.  Then feathered the outer border in a flowing curled pattern.

Here is a peek at the back.

I finished this quilt in December of 2011 when the ice on the lake was crystal clear where my boys had there ice hockey rink.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture of the quilt over top of all the cracks in the ice...just wish the sun shone that day so you could see the quilting in this picture as well.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting.   Enjoy the rest of the festival, I know I'll be on my computer a lot this week checking out all the great eye candy!

Kathy