Monday, March 4, 2019

Third Round Robin - Second Round



In January I shared a post about a Round Robin I am doing with my friends Lori, Desley and Browyn, which you can read here.  This is our second round and this time our theme was Dresden Plate/Dresden Plate Variations.  We all had to have a piece of our floral focus fabric in the block. I made the block above and did a traditional plate with pointed blades. I hand appliqued the center circle and machine appliqued the outer edge of the blades.

This next block is Lori's and it is similar to mine expect she has points in the center of her block which is very cool!


Desley block is wonderfully whimsical with all the fun floral fabrics she used for the backgrounds.


And Bronwyn's block has rounded blades with two centers. I love that we all fussy cut the focus fabric in the centers.


Our next round's theme is Flying Geese which we will reveal to each other on May 1.  Wonder what we will all come up with for the next round?

Friday, March 1, 2019

Curved Nine Patch


This is Coleen's Curved Nine Patch quilt and the pattern is by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  She asked for custom quilting and I was able to quilt it with two different thread colours.  An off white So Fine thread in the background and a gold So Fine thread in the Nine patches and outer border.  Batting is Quilters Dream Blend batting.


I quilted free hand CC's in the Nine patch blocks and stitched in the ditch around all the curved piecing using my 15" Quilted Pineapple curved template.  I added pebbles in the background with a curved echo on either side.  Did wishbone loops in the melon background shape and more CC's in the sashing corner stone.  The outer border has traditional feathers..



It has been so windy here but I did manage to get a few outdoor shots to see the quilting texture better.



Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Catching up!


Many of you know I like to print out my blog book each year so I have a tangible product to hang onto showing my years of work. I use a company called Blog2print for this job.  This is the 10th blog book I have printed as 2019 is my 10th Anniversary for Tamarack Shack! Its amazing how time flies and it just seems like yesterday that I was unpacking and putting together my longarm for the first time. I'm so glad I took that leap as I have meet so many amazing people on this business journey.

I haven't been sharing a lot of clients quilt this winter as it has been such a cold and snow season and hard to get good outdoor pictures.  But enough excuses, time to catch up and share what I have been working on.


I was at a local quilt retreat a few weeks ago and was able to piece this fun modern version of our Highway 10 Designs City Slicker pattern. I had purchased a Tula Pink 'Zuma' Jelly Roll and thought that would make a great sample. Can't wait to quilt this one, my personal pile of quilt tops has been growing like crazy so need to find time to squeeze a few of my own quilts onto the machine.



Here are few client quilts I have finished recently too.  This is Donna's Disappearing Nine Patch and I used Bora Bora for the pantograph.



This is Meriel's Jelly Roll quilt and I used Bayside for the pantograph.




Monday, February 18, 2019

Oh Canada


Vicki made this fun Canadian themed quilt using Northcotts Oh Canada fabric collection.  I used Maple Syrup pantograph, beige So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.



The quilting shows up so nicely on the Minky backing!


Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Sisters Choice Presidents Blocks


A few months ago my friends in Flin Flon sent me a wonderful gift, my Presidents Blocks!  When I left Flin Flon I was the president of the guild so felt bad for leaving mid term and said they didn't have to make the traditional Presidents blocks for me since I didn't complete my full 2 years, but they insisted that I would be getting the blocks.   They asked what block I would like and I chose the Sisters Choice block...because these ladies have been like sisters to me for 21 year!  
I had time to piece the quilt top this month and added a blue sashing with pink corner stones that was the same pink that is in all the star points.  Can't wait to find time to quilt this one but my stack of personal quilt tops is building up so it might be a few months before I get that pleasure!




 When they sent the Sisters Choice blocks they also added four Flin Flon themed blocks that I hope to make in to a wall hanging for my quilt studio soon!


My blog has been a bit quieter than normal as the weather has been too cold and snowy to take outdoor quilt pictures!  We have beautiful hoar frost this morning now that it is warming up but last week it got down to -43'c. Brrrrr!

I was able to capture a few sun halo/sun dog pictures a few days ago.





Sunday, February 3, 2019

Four Patch Variations


Vicki brought two quilts that are Four Patch variations.  The first one is my Four Patch Charm Quilt pattern that you can download for free from my blog sidebar.   You have to see how the quilt is constructed to find the four patch used in it!   Vicki used a great selection of medium to dark fabrics with a beige background, its a great quilt to use up scraps!  I picked Plush for the pantograph, beige So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.




Vicki’s second quilt is a great traditional Four Patch quilt using two sizes of four patches in the layout.  Love the addition of the piano key border for this scrappy quilt.  I used Mimosa for the pantograph, beige So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.




Saturday, January 26, 2019

Boxtrot Quilt


This is Barb's Boxtrot quilt which is a pattern by Creative Sewlutions.  She made this quilt for her granddaughter and adapted the pattern to add her granddaughters nickname onto it.  She used pretty dragonfly fabrics so I quilted it with the Dragonfly Pond pantograph using teal So Fine thread.  The batting is Quilters Dream Blend.





Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Gingham City Slicker


This is Mary's City Slicker which is our Highway 10 Designs pattern.   She used a sweet jelly roll of Gingham fabrics and the quilt is a wonderful reminder of warmer summer days!  The pantograph is called Daisies Galore, white So Fine thread and Quilters Dream Blend batting.








Monday, January 21, 2019

Gimli Retreat 2019


This past weekend I drove up to Gimli, MB for a quilting retreat to spend time with old friends and meet new ones!   Lori and I took this opportunity to work on new sample of our latest Highway 10 Designs patterns that will be used for promotional display by QuiltSource Canada. They are our Canadian pattern distributor and have been so supportive of our pattern business.  Above you can see Lori and our friend Renee holding our finished Simply Dashing quilt, made in black and gold Lewis and Irene Bumbleberries fabrics, available through QuiltSource Canada!  Lori stitched the whole top on her featherweight machine while I did all the pressing and cutting.  We make a good team!


 Next we made a few place mat and runner samples from our Roundabout pattern which we will also send to QuiltSource Canada to display.  We used another Lewis and Irene collection called Bear Hug, also available through QuiltSource Canada.


 It was so hard to just pick a few fabric combinations as they all mixed and matched so well!

 

 While at the retreat Lori and I taught a class making our Roundabout pattern.  Students could chose to make a place mat or elongated runner  in the class and it was fun to see all the different fabrics chosen for the project.  We even had a young quilter in our class and she did a fantastic job on her placemat!  Feels good to help the younger generation get starting in quilting!


Lori and I also did a Trunk Show after supper Friday night in the restaurant banquet room so everyone had a comfortable seat.  We showed about 50 samples of our pattern quilts and really enjoy sharing our stories and quilts with other quilters.   It was a really great weekend, even though it was –35’c outside!   Thankfully we didn’t have to leave the hotel as it was a one stop retreat!  We ate, slept and shopped under one roof, as Fabriculous Quilt Shop as it is located in the hotel complex!