Good Vibrations–Pattern Number 8

Lori and I have been working on new patterns this summer for Highway 10 Designs and today we published Good Vibrations in our Etsy shop. Both paper and instant PDF download are available.    This quilt pattern used 5” strips and is a great way to use a Cantik GemFive Strip set or a Robert Kaufmann Charm Roll.  It can also be a great stash buster as you use 5” WOF strips, 20 for the small size and 40 for the large.    Our patterns are now available through Checker Distributors and we are working on getting them in with a few Canadian distributors as well.

Our cover quilt is made with two Nunavut GemFive bundles which are a selection of light beige and dark brown batiks.  I love the striking contrast of this bundle and creates a random chevron pattern across the quilt.  Lori quilted this sample and used Ebb and Flow for the pantograph.

We used a brown/grey Stonehenge wide backing that matched perfectly!

We also made the smaller version using one Great Lakes GemFive bundle.  The colors in this one blend more and create a random design across the quilt.   I quilted this one with Bora Bora.

And I have one more sample to share, my Stash Busting sample.  I went through my batik stash and pulled purples, teals and beige and cut 5” strips.   I’m really happy with how it turned out and I quilted it with the Northwinds pantograph.

The view out my window is very different today, we have been getting snow/rain/ice pleats for the last 3 day and it is suppose to continue until Saturday.  If this was November 6 I would be happy but it’s only October 6!

We still have leaves on the Poplars and the needles were just turning yellow on the Tamaracks.

I will have to try to shake this little tamarack off and hope it survives!    No school bus today and school was cancelled….this rarely happens here!

I know some of your are happy to see this but I really hope it all melts and I get a few more weeks of autumn!

Autumn Splendor Quilt Show

I decided at the last minute to drive down to Dauphin this past weekend to visit my friend Lori and attend her guilds quilt show.   I am getting to know many of the members there as I have attended a few meeting and some join our Highway 10 Retreats in the fall.  The show was set up beautifully with so many gorgeous quilts to view.    The main show was set up in the auditorium of the Watson Art Centre and I ran up to the balcony to get a few wide angle shots.  Turns out my new lens is also good for quilts shows not just the night sky!

It was fun to spot so many of our pattern designs hanging in the show and seeing all the different fabrics each quilter chose.

When you leave the auditorium and head toward the Vendors Room quilts line the hallway and stairwell.

They had three vendor attend that are Manitoba quilt shops.  This is Road 17 N from Winkler.

Keystone Quilts from Winnipeg.

And Fabriculous from Swan River ( and now a new shop in Gimli too).

So it was a lovely show and I’m glad I took the 1100km round trip ( with a nail in my tire, but that’s another story!)

General’s Wives Quilt

 

This is Patty’s quilt that she mailed to me from Germany, this is the third quilt I have done for her and this is the largest at 100” x 100”. I asked Patty to tell me about the quilt and here is what she said.

“It was a Block of the Month called General's Wives designed by Jerry Stube from Quilter's Quarters (back then she had an actual shop, but now she is only an online store).  All of the fabrics are from Windham, General Wives' line.  I'm not a fan of the navy print in that line because it reads like a Kansas Troubles print to me, but it is what it is.  Each month I received the pattern and fabric for a separate block and a lovely short story about a General's wife.   I made this quilt with a friend...hers is already quilted...I thought I was going to try to quilt mine, but once I saw how big it was, I thought better of that :)”

Patty asked for custom quilting and with it being so large I wanted to keep it light.  I feathered the dark navy fabrics, straight lines in the blue/white print, CC’s and loops in the sampler blocks, loops in the inner border and bead board for the outer border.

I used one thread colour, a medium beige So Fine thread and used Quilters Dream Blend batting.

When I came home from the Dauphin Quilt Show on Sunday I was surprised to see how few leaves are left on the trees!  I will post pictures from the show soon!

I Need To Get Some Sleep…Maybe Tomorrow! :)

I’m glad my neighbours don’t mind me hanging out on their front lawns to take aurora pictures!  I wanted to try a new location and my friend and neighbour Myrna said she wouldn’t call the police if she saw flashlights in her front yard late at night!  Actually she came out to join our viewing of the lights as I was teaching another neighbour the basics of taking aurora pictures.  It was so fun to share my passion and get someone else addicted to this hobby!  One of the first pictures we took were as the lights started to spin and create a swirl, that was so cool! It is a new show each time I watch!

The clouds started to move in but created an interesting effect.

This shot shows the lights from the cottages on my street and the red light on the end to the right is my ‘favourite’ street light!  I just can’t get away from it!

I have been quilting and am almost done a large custom quilt but tomorrow I’m off to the Dauphin Quilt Show for the weekend so I’ll post that quilt on Monday!

More Northern Lights!

Hope you will indulge me as I share more Northern Lights photos with you as they were very active last night.   I also wanted to test my new wide angle lens on the aurora and I am very impressed with the improvement of clarity and amount of sky captured!   Now if only that damn street light ( the only one in our neighbourhood) would burn out!  I hate that light with a passion as it creates a red glow on the trees and my house!  So lets just pretend you don’t see it, okay!

I wanted to get away from that light so my husband drove me to a local beach that faces north and I was able to take capture the aurora on a larger scale.

This next on is kind of spooky!  Looks like a hand reaching down…

I then turned my attention west and this was tricky as the highway is right there and when cars passed I had to wait to take the next picture.

The Big Dipper!

Then I caught a burst right above me!    To get an idea of how fast they move each picture is exposed for 10-15 seconds.

I just peeked outside….the aurora is starting up again so no sleep for me tonight!