A very lucky little boy, who loves to play hockey, will be receiving this quilt. My client saw this wonderful hockey fabric in a quilt store window but the store was closed. Upon returning to the store front with a camera to take pictures of the fabric the store owner opened the door to let her in to shop. Now that is great service and she was very lucky! 
...well most of it. I did order a roll of Quilters Dream Blend Batting, it is a 70/30 blend on a 121" wide roll, but it is back ordered ( and it's the one I really need NOW). So what I do have is Quilters Dream 100% Cotton batting in Twin ( 92"x72"), Double ( 96"x 92") and Queen ( 108"x92"). I also have two Queen size Dream Wool batts. I"ll bring a price list to the next guild as I do not want to post prices on here. These batts are not just for my longarm customers but all the local quilters since we are without a fabric store. Call or email me if your interested in any batts and I'll put your name on it.
Here is where they are stored, in my hubby's train room, as my shack is too small. He was very kind to share some of his space with me under his train layout and as you can see there is a lot of room to stack a few more boxes and maybe a few more rolls...right honey!
Here is a close up of the label if you want to read all about it.
This quilt is the North Star Quilt Guilds next Quilt of Valour that will be given to a wounded Canadian soldier. I feel this project is a wonderful way to let our soldiers know that we appreciate all they do and that they are in our thoughts. I offered to quilt all the QofV quilts for our guild free of charge as it is a project I want to support. The guild members have been making the leaf blocks for a few months now and they are a great way to use up your scraps. I haven't even made a dent in my scrap bin but if I keep digging into it each month it might eventually.
Have you ever been to a Quilt Show when you heard someone say " I just don't understand quilters. They take perfectly good fabric and cut it up into little pieces and sew it back together". Well here is a quilt for those people as every once in awhile a quilter will come across a wonderful piece of fabric that they don't want to cut up into little pieces. This is a really cute piece of fabric and I just have to point out one square, you can see it in the close up. It is of the two little girls throwing horseshoes (IN the house)and they are throwing them towards the peg where the little boy is sitting...humm I hope they have good aim!
OH NO!!! I woke up this morning to find that my pumpkin over did it with the candy and pop last night. Poor pumpkin.
I love making Halloween costumes. My son was going wear his older brothers grim reaper costume ( you know the one all the grade 6 boys wear since all there friends are wearing them and they don't want to be different ). Anyway I was able to suggest something more original for Daniel as he hasn't quite hit that stage yet. First he wanted to be R2-D2....and when i showed him some pictures of what i could make he thought they were too babiesh. Okay, next....he wanted to be a Lego Minifigure ( the lego people) but specifically Boba Fett from his Star Wars lego sets!!! Okay....NO... so next i suggested a lego brick and he thought that was great and I thought that was a realistic costume to make. So seven coats of paint later...TA DA.....a red Lego brick!! I even painted the back to look like the bottom of the brick.
I ordered a new set of rulers for my longarm and received them this week. They are for cross hatching and they are fantastic! I had been saving this quilt, that belongs to Rae, to try them on as it is the Underground Railroad Quilt. I wanted to quilt it in a traditional style and give it a hand quilted feel. So i did a lot of quarter inches stitches, used the Pumpkin Seed stencil for the sashing and cross hatched the border.
At first glance you may think this is a Christmas themed quilt but it really is cabin/woods themed fabric if you look closely. My client made this quilt for her cabin and I'm sure it will get a lot of use. I tried something new on the squares, instead of basic continous curves I give it a twist and it looks like a twisted star (see second picture). I also was able to use a variagated cotton thread (red, green and gold) and it blended in beautifully with the colors in this quilt.
I have really surprised myself with how much I enjoy quilting with Pantographs. At first I thought I would just use them once in awhile but I think they have a place in my longarm quilting business. It looks like I have only being quilting with pantos this month but I have done a few customs jobs just can't post them yet.
...okay I think I have lost count but I haven't quilted two the same yet. It is amazing how different they look with different fabric choices. My client chose beautiful shades of browns for her quilt and I found a brown thread that showed up nicely on the light and dark fabrics. I'm always thrilled when I put those first few stitches into a quilt and realized I got the thread color right. I must admit many times I have started a quilt only to pick out the stitches because the thread wasn't right.
I woke up to a beautiful sunrise this morning. My house faces east and this is the view off my deck looking into our little bay on Schist Lake.
