Thank you for all the comments on my last post, I enjoyed reading them all. I sometimes worry that I spend too much time posting snow or landscape pictures and that I should stay more focused on the quilting with my blog. But then I realized that where I live is part of what this blog is all about and is what attracts readers to it. This blog is a combination of my passion for quilting and my love of nature and I’m so happy to be able to share that with you though my photos. Your comments have reassured me that you are interest in more than just the quilting and I won’t hesitate to share this northern moments with you from now on. :)
You may have seen this quilt on my blog a few times, it’s a local favourite. This is Rae’s Bali Love Song quilt and she wanted a lofty batting as this will be a cuddle quilt on her couch. We decided on Dream Puff and with her Cuddle fabric on the back that made a great combination.
I also quilted Rae’s Hopscotch quilt which is also another local favourite when it comes to quilt patterns. This one also has a Cuddle backing but this time I used Dream Blend for the batting. This is a gift for a man so the Ground Cover panto worked nicely on this quilt.
Yes I took a few pictures of the quilts on the ice but I promise I was close to shore and didn’t venture far!
Woke up to the bay being frozen over as it got down to –20’c last night, but the main lake is still open water. Had a nice surprise along with the ice and that was hoar frost! The crystal above is 2 1/2” in size and the ice was covered in these crystals.
You can see the fog above the open water as the cold air is quickly cooling the warmer water, relatively speaking! You can’t see much of the main lake from our dock as those are islands on the left, right and even in the far background. I like how we are sheltered in our little bay.
It looks like someone had a big pillow fight and there are feathers all over the ice! :)
I also took some video to try to capture the sounds of the ice and was lucky to capture one good crack! Ice is not quiet at all and is constantly making noise. At about 0:13 you will hear the loud sound that makes me jump, that’s the ice not a gun shot!
Here is Eileen’s Alternate Routes quilt and she made the twin size option. Lori helped her adapted one of the queen sized layouts in the pattern to work in the twin size and it turned out great. As we keep saying there are so many ways to layout these blocks and I haven’t seen two alike yet. Eileen used dark purple and light purple/grey batik fabrics for her quilt which really allowed the piecing to shine. Using two high contrast fabrics is the key to this pattern.
We decided on the Tickle panto, a purple So Fine thread and Dream Blend batting. She used a dark purple backing and it really shows off the quilting.
You can visit our Flickr page to see some of the quilts made with our Highway 10 Designs pattern so far. The pattern is now available in PDF and paper on our Esty shop and in PDF form in our Craftsy shop.
You didn’t think I would go too long without trying some snow dyeing did you? :) Those colors are pretty bright aren’t they! This time I though I would experiment with turquoise. Turquoise dye likes hot water not cold so I knew it wouldn’t react strongly with the snow but I wanted to see just what would happen. I used equal parts turquoise and red in one and turquoise and bright yellow on the second one. As you can see the turquoise was over powered by the red and the yellow. I got a bubble gum pink and a neon green!
I used this snow dyeing method for this experiment. Look at the yummy texture!
I’m back in the swing of quilting again and am happy to show you the first quilt in our snowy landscape this season. We have had about 30 cm of snow fall and it’s still coming down but in big fluffy flakes! This is Phyl’s Braids on Parade quilt by Far-Flung Quilts and she used the Trapezoid Strip Ruler by Creative Grids. She adapted the pattern and added the strips of sashing between the rows. The fabric used is a Rum Raisin Bali Pop. I quilted it with the Bombay Blossom panto, used Quilters Dream Blend batting and dyed the backing for her.
Have to share this picture as it was snowing as I was taking pictures and I couldn’t keep the snow off the quilt. So I used this as an opportunity to get a snowflake shot. These ones are a bit icy and not as good as –30’ snowflakes! That will be my goal this winter to get a great snowflake picture. You can also see the Lava variegated thread I used too!
The ice started to form on the lake last night, this might not last if the wind picks up as it is so calm right now.
Look what we got last night! Don’t know how thrilled I am yet as the roads are in terrible condition and the boys school bus got stuck in the ditch on our road. They never sent a second bus so they got there very first snow day ever…I wasn’t going to drive them in to town in these icy conditions. The lake is still open water but should be close to freezing over soon. I haven’t starting back quilting yet but hope to this week.
Here is a picture Andrew took with his phone when they decided to just come back home. The back end is in the ditch and those trucks below tried to get up the hill but kept sliding back down so they gave up. Our road finally got ploughed later this afternoon so there should be no problems tomorrow.
I’m so excited to share the news that I have been asked to host the Manitoba section of the next Blogathon Canada. If you missed it last year Blogathon Canada is a week long celebration of Canadian Quilting Blogs and has been created by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop.
How does Blogathon Canada work? Well starting November 18 and running to November 23 each day two host bloggers will introduce themselves and share their work on their blogs. They will also include a list of blogs from their province that you can visit as well. The host bloggers will also host a giveaway of some of their favourite goodies from Sew Sisters…I’m sure you can guess what I picked for a giveaway but I’m not telling yet! This time Sew Sisters has teamed up with Aurifil, Northcott and Robert Kaufman to bring us some great giveaway prizes! Check out Sew Sisters Quilt Shop blog for more info and see how you can join the party!
If you live in Manitoba and have a quilting blog that you would like added to my days list please leave a comment with you blog address or send me an email and I’ll make sure your included in the party!
Here’s the Schedule
Monday, November 18 – BC – Holly of Holly's Red Bike
Monday, November 18 – BC – Heather of Winding Bobbins
Tuesday, November 19 – Maritimes – Adrienne of Chezzetcook Modern Quilts
Tuesday, November 19 - Maritimes – Marjorie of Marjorie's Busy Corner
Wednesday, November 20 – AB – Katherine of Sew Me Something Good
Wednesday, November 20 – AB – Andrea of Urban Quilt Works
Thursday, November 21 – SK – Flo of Butterfly Quilting
Thursday, November 21 – MB – Kathy of Tamarack Shack * That’s me!*
Friday, November 22 – QC – Izzy of Dizzy Quilts
Friday, November 22 – Territories – Danielle of A Geeky Crafty Life
Saturday, November 23 – ON – Jackie of Jackie's Art Quilts
Saturday, November 23 – ON – Krista of Krista Quilts
I want to take a moment to thank you for your comments, emails and Facebook messages regarding my father-in-laws passing. They were all very comforting to read and to know others are thinking of you does help with the grieving process. I want to get back to my quilting soon as I find it very comforting to quilt, it can be very therapeutic. I will have a fun announcement to share on Friday and hope that will get me back into my blogging rhythm again.
Our family lost a very special member on Friday, my father in law passed away after a two and half year battle with cancer. He loved to read my blog and see what has happening at the Tamarack Shack and would tell anyone that listened to go to my blog to see all the beautiful quilts. I know this as those people would email me to say Ed gave them my blog address and they enjoyed browsing my site. That always made me smile knowing how proud he was of what I had accomplished. You can see in the picture above he loved the Ragtime quilt I made him years ago, it was always on his lap or near his chair. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was reading one of my blog posts in this picture!
I’m going to a take a week or two off quilting so if you’re waiting for a quilt to be finished by me I just wanted you to know why there will be a bit of a delay.
Marlene also sent this pretty wool table runner called Coxcombs and Berries by Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings. She asked that the outer border have beadboard quilting and SID around the appliqué, I could chose the background fill. I thought pebbling with a few feather motifs would be nice and would make the appliqué pieces stand out. Marlene said there are still red buttons to add on the branches for red berries.
