It Worked!

As you can see I was able to find the right button and stretch my blog layout so I have more room. 

This is my clients Thimbleberry lap quilt and I used the Ruffle Flower Panto on it with Green Thimbleberry thread.  When I first grabbed the thread I was pleasently surprised how well it matched the quilt and then when I was taking it off the machine I realized it was Thimbleberry thread...duh, of coarse it matches!!  It is scary how many moments like that I have been having!

I also finished this cute baby quilt for a client yesterday and had a lot of fun with it.  I used Highlights thread which has a nice shine to it and tried a new border design from Darlene Epps quilting handbooks.  Those books are a must for any longarm quilt, so many ideas.

 

Magic Tile

Just finished my clients Magic Tile quilt last night and drove into town this morning in the freezing cold (-30'C) to bring it to her.  I enjoy delivering the finished quilt to my clients as I always get a sneak peak at the projects they are working on and see their sewing rooms too.  Today I got a tour of my clients stained glass studio in her basement and saw her latest project...a beautiful scenic piece of a dog sleg team, just amazing!!!    My jaw must have been dragging on the floor from seeing all the beautiful work she has displayed in her home.  Okay back to her quilt.   Since a Magic Tile quilt is suppose to look like stained glass I can never bring myself to quilt across the black lines. So i have figured out how to quilt on both sides of the black without stopping and that saved a lot of time.

One Year Anniversary!!

Tamarack Shack Longarm Quilting is now one year old and I quilted a total of 81 quilts for clients this year.  I only manage to quilt 3 bedsize quilts for myself so I think I need to figure out a more balanced approach to my business. I do like making my own quilts but that has been put on low priority this year and I would like to manage my time better so I can work on my own projects.  So I have desided to only accept 8 quilts ( instead of 10) a month from clients, and take July, August and December off.  As you can see my business isn't about making money it is about enjoying the process, being able to stay home and justifying spending all that money on a longarm machine!
I made the table runner above with a Califon charm pack and quilted with free form feathers and swirls.  I wasn't happy with the quilt design I chose on this particular pattern but my sister loved it so it's hers!  What I should have done is quilted the stars separately from the background and then I would have been happier.

I used the Star Fling pattern to make the stars in these placemats that I made for xmas gifts this year. My goal this year is to use the fabric collections I have and just buy fabrics for borders, etc. so I can finish off those projects. No point in collecting them if your not going to use them. But it is so hard to cut into a favorite fabric isn't it!

Mount Redoubt Quilt - Midsummer's Dream

I have had this kit for awhile and got it out the other day to work on.  I was surprised how fast it went together and how much I like it!   I quilted down the applique pieces and then free hand quilted the water and swirls in the border. I used my Janome instead of my longarm this time since it was a small project.

 The kit included Swarovski crytals that are fused onto the flower centres and swan wings.

Christmas Quilt

Here is Eileens Christmas/holiday quilt and as you can see I'm trying to be more creative with my picture taking ( maybe that should be my New Years Resolution).   It is a mystery project that she was working on from a quilting magazine, can't remember which one.  It is called Christmas Lights but I had no intention of quilting a string of christmas lights on it!  Those setting triangles were just calling for their own design.

I designed and free handed the holly and berries for the setting triangles, as well as the ribbon swirl for the red border.

I also designed the outside border with a smaller version of the holly and berries.

I used a bold King Tut varigated thread in greens, reds and golds.

Vintage Quilt

It is amazing what a little quilting can do to a quilt.  These blocks were bound for the garbage can but were given a second chance by the guild.   I was working at Faktor one day when an older woman came in and asked if anyone at the store would want these blocks.  They were given to her by a friend who bought them at a garage sale years ago and they had been sitting in her basement for years since then.  She was going to throw then out so I said I would bring then to the guild to see if anything could be done with them.  The blocks were half hand pieced and half machine and in relatively good shape.  The ladies at the guild worked there magic and pieced then into a pretty quilt.  But you'll have to indulge me here when I say I think the quilting has given this quilt that extra something special!

I quilted a feather wreath in all the blocks.

Quilted feathers in the setting triangles, simple lines in the sashing and a swirl feather design in the outside border.

Here is the back.

Folded Borders!

Here is Rae's quilt that I finished with the Flourish pantograph and my new Connecting Threads thread!  Bought a large cone of white to try and had no problems with it, no breakage and it quilted beautifully.   I can't remember the name of this fabric collection but I know it is a Mark Lipinski line as I have 11 fat quarters of it from the Northcott contest.   I think I need to find the butterfly border fabric Rae used and them maybe I can do something with my fabrics!

This quilt has a tiny white folded border and I was able to keep it from flipping on me as I quilted by basting it down using my needle up/down feature every half inch.   You can see the tiny holes in the border in the picture below where I pulled the basting stitches out.  Anyone have a trick to easily remove those holes without scratching at the fabric?  I"ll let Rae know as she has the quilt back!  :)

Well this cold weather has affected my Millie and I'm finding some drag on my machine in certain areas so I know it's not a problem with my wheels.  It gets down to 12'C in my shack with our -40'C nights so I"m sure that is effecting the metal in the table. Added an extra heater for when I'm working in there but do not want to leave it on when I'm not in there.

I have the guild's Vintage quilt on the frame right now, it's the one we rescued from being thrown out.  I'll post pictures when I'm done, probably this weekend.

Birdhouse Raffle Quilt

IT'S DONE!!!!!!

This is the North Star Quilt Guild's raffle quilt for our 2010 Quilt Show in April.  My goal was to have it quilted by the December meeting and that is still a week away, so well ahead of schedule!!

Here are some close ups of the quilting.   That is suppose to be wood grain in the attic window sashing!

  

Introducing...

...me!   The latest issue of the Canadian Quilter is out and my introduction article is in this winter issue.  Most of you know that I am the CQA Manitoba Rep, I started in July 2009 and it is a two year volunteer position.   I was asked to write an article and send in some photos of my work.  My sister was visiting this summer and we wrote the article together, well it was more I gave her the facts and she did her magic and made me sound interesting!   So this post is just some shameless self promotion, but it is quilt related!

Batik Workshop

So I mentioned that I have been taking a Batik workshop this week.  It was held at the High School and they brought a teacher in from Winnipeg for the week long coarse for the Art students. About 10 additional adults were invited to join in and it was fun to go back to school ( but I definately felt old!)

I wasn't prepared with any design idea so I did a version of my Tamarack Shack logo.  I'm very happy with the finally result as you really don't know how it will turn out until you iron off the wax.  Now that I know what looks good  I would really like to give it another try with something more abstract.

Batiks have a translucent property so looks best with light behind, that is why it is taped to my window.

I handed in all my homework for my online quilt whisperer class and can sit back and see what others hand in.

County Lines

I quilted Dragonfly Pond with green variated thread on Rae's County Lines quilt.  The colors in this quilt are so relaxing and calm, and the brown adds a warm neutral to the palette. 

This is the first time I have quilted with my new Dream Blend batting and it has a beautiful loft to it.  It is very strong when tugging and adjusting in my frame so I enjoyed working with it too.  I will definately be ordering more rolls of this batting. 

Shirt Quilt

My client made this quilt out of shirts and added a few extra fabrics to finish the top.  It is going to be used on a couch in a jacuzzi room so I though the simple swirl pattern would look like swirling water!

I went to my Batik workshop yesterday since I'm feeling better. It's not what I was expecting ( design wise) but it will be interesting for me to see what kind of creation I end up with at the end of the week.

Dick and Jane Quilt

My client brought me this cute Dick and Jane quilt that she is giving her granddaughter for Christmas.
I got out the cross hatching rulers and quilted the picture blocks then free hand quilted the sashings and borders. 

I have changed a few setting on my blog layout and am trying to learn how to post my pictures differently so be patience with me if things look odd.

I got my H1N1 flu shot yesterday and am not feeling well today.  Woke up in the night with the chills and a doozy of a headache. Slept most of the afternoon today and hope I'm feeling better soon as I have a Batik workshop I want to go to tomorrow.

We finally have about 5 inches of ice out on the lake infront of us so hubby cleared off a rink for the boys and set up some lights as it is dark by 5pm this time of year here. The lake froze so smooth this year and with only a dusting of snow the kids have a good area to skate.  I do not skate!  For some reason everytime I try within 10 minutes my heels are just aching so it's just not an activity for me. Our family activity this year will be cross country skiing as everyone now has skis. Now we just need the snow.

Random Math

That is what Lori and I call this quilt as it was made from our Northcott winnings and we were able to make a nice pattern out of the blocks we made. One of the challenges we are finding with winning 350+ fat quarters is finding matching fabric to finished a quilt. A lot of what we got were 5 fat quarters of one collections and what can you do with that. So when we split up the fabric we found one collection that had about 13 coordinating fabric!! Jackpot...a quilt! So we saved it ( plus a few other plain fat quarters that matched) to work on a project together and this is the result. We want to donate the quilt but haven't found a home for it yet, but we will have a quilt if the right situation arises.

The panto I used is called Butterfly Charm, first time using this one, and I have one minor issue with it. As you can see from the backing picture it isn't evenly quilted, there are open spaces between the butterflies. It looks great but when I free hand a design I like to make sure the open spaces are even or balanced with the quilting.

Flannel Bargello

My client who made this quilt said piecing it really tested her patiences! I can image the flannel might have been a little stretch but she did a great job. Love the hand appliqued vines and she even added the lace for flowers! I just meandered the quilt as that is this clients favorite design and she requested it.

Oh, i finally got my roll of Dream Blend Batting and it is wonderful!!!! I'm quilting with it right now and enjoying working with it. I will definately be getting more rolls.