Feature Friday: Marjorie Henwood of Marjorie's Busy Corner

Hi folks, my name is Marjorie Henwood from New Brunswick, Canada. If you haven't visited my blog, it is Marjorie's Busy Corner.  (Click to link)

I am a hand quilter and have been doing this for just over 25 years now.  I love hand quilting and just can't get enough of it.  It all started when I wanted an old comforter fixed...didn't want to throw it out!  So my dear mother-in-law said she would cover it and add some quilting for me.  It was a much bigger job than she expected, so she showed me how to quilt so I could help with it.  I never looked back.  Before that day I couldn't do anything except sew a button on.  lol

In the past year, the biggest accomplishments for me have been learning new things from my bogger friends.  I am dead serious.  I am learning to FMQ, learning new techniques, and discovering my machines much more.  I am finally becoming relaxed with these things.  It is difficult to leave the old school ways you know... lol.

What I would like to do in the future is more FMQ.  It may not seem like much to some of you who do it, but for me it would be such an accomplishment.  I never want to leave hand quilting.  It relaxes me and that is what people come to me for.  I have been making and selling quilts for a number of years now.  I do quite a bit of commissioned work.  It keeps the brain going to keep learning and I have lots to learn yet.

My biggest dream is for my family of husband, 3 grown sons, and 4 grandsons, 1 granddaughter and spouses (wow..that is big) to have a long healthy life. I look so forward to watching those little ones grow up. They range from 5 years to 14 now.  They always amaze me!!

As far as me: I love to garden, work with my winters hardwood, mow lawns, plough snow.  Sounds country, doesn't it??  Well, it is!!!!  lol  I live beside the world famous Hopewell Rocks Park in southeastern New Brunswick.  It is one of the most beautiful places one could live.  There are lots of small mountains and rivers to view everyday.

I think I have rambled enough.  Please come visit me at my blog...or my home anytime.  I would love to sit and chat over a cup of hot tea!!!!

Thank you to my friend Monika for this opportunity.  You can read more about me HERE at MY BLOG : )

WIP Wednesday # 69 @ TN&TN

A Little Help From My Friends

Hey everyone,

I'm Monika, and I started this page a year and a half ago.  It's not a lot of extra work and I'm very proud to have started it.  I could use a volunteer / helping hand with a couple things.  Mainly, is anyone interested in a serious one year commitment to taking on the job of Feature Friday Hostess?  It's a easy because the person being featured does all the work.  The problem for me is that I have a lot on my plate and I'm not very good at meeting deadlines when it comes to scheduling.  This particular job would require two posts per month (copy & paste) and a bit of emailing.  That's all.  The trick is to be on time.  I have 9000 emails in my inbox and oops I missed one!

Shoot me an email at mysweetprairie at gmail dot com if you are interested or have further questions.
Thank you!

~Monika K.
Blog Owner TN&TN

WIP Wednesday #68 @ TN&TN

Feature Friday: Ginette Vallieres / The Quilting Princess

Hi.  My name is Ginette Vallieres. I am a stay-at-home mom/ part-time Educational Assistant with two beautiful little girls and a wonderful husband, who lives in Orleans Ontario, a suburb of our nation's capital, Ottawa.  My blog is called The Quilting Princess.  quiltyascharged-ginette.blogspot.ca

I have been quilting for almost 19 years now, I was 18 when I started.  I am a fourth generation quilter.  I grew up watching my mother and grandmother sew, knit, crochet, do needlwork and quilt.  I did a lot of cross-stitch in high school, while my mom was teaching quilting classes and joined a quilting guild.  I watched her quilt for a while and finally decided I wanted to give it a try.  I asked her to find me an easy pattern and some fabric.  She let me borrow all of her tools and taught me the proper way to use them.  I made a scrappy crib sized quilt.  I am not sure what the pattern was called, it was a mystery quilt from her guild.  My mom and grandmother hand quilted my quilt for me using a margarine container lid as a stencil.  They weren't even done quilting that quilt, that I was making my second quilt, a log cabin wallhanging using 1 1/2" strips, that I machine quilted myself.  I have been quilting ever since.

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I have grown quite a bit since then, sharing my passion with my mom and other quilting friends. I started my blog in September 2011.  I needed a place to share my passion with others who love fabric and thread as much as I do.  I have had lots of fun meeting other quilters.  What a wonderful on-line quilting community we have!  Although I do love seeing all of the new and modern quilting techniques, patterns and fabrics, I do consider myself a more traditional quilter.  My favorite patterns are the Log Cabin and Dresden Plates.  I do like playing with some of the more modern fabrics but my all-time favorite quilts are always scrappy!

My mother has had a Gammill long-arm quilting machine for 13 years now and, a year ago, I finally decided it was time to try.  I have quilted three of my own quilts on the long-arm this past year and they turned out pretty good.  I am looking forward to doing more!  My mom and I also finished our first collaborative quilt back in March!  We call it "Mother Daughter Baskets".  This quilt was started back in 1998!  Over the years the original plan for the quilt changed quite a bit but we are thrilled with the final product.  I machine pieced and hand appliqued the blocks while my mom machine pieced the border and the quilt top.  She also quilted it on her long-arm. You can read more about it here: http://quiltyascharged-ginette.blogspot.ca/2012/03/mother-daughter-baskets.html

This year I am the challenge coordinator at The Common Thread Quilt Guild.  http://www.commonthread.on.ca/  I had a blast in September and October convincing members to sign up for a box top challenge.  I can't wait to see what they come up with!  I love sharing my enthusiasm with others.  I also have a Designer I embroidery machine and love making custom labels for quilts.

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I was asked to share with you my biggest dream.  My biggest dream has always been to be a great mom and homemaker, to have healthy, thriving children who will succeed in whatever they choose to do.  So far, so good!  I must say that aside from that, I would love to start teaching quilting classes in the next year or two, and eventually would like to teach children too.  Both my girls are already sewing and playing with fabric.

I love all aspects of making a quilt, from picking the fabric, to machine piecing, machine or hand applique, machine quilting and binding.  I have recently been bitten with the EPP bug too!  If you follow my blog, you will see however that I have a LOT of UFOs and my favorite part of quilting is starting a new project!  I hope you will join me and stop by my blog to see what project I am working on next!

Thank you Monika and Rita for letting me share my quilting story.

WIP Wednesday #67 @ TN&TN

WIP Wednesday #66 @ TN&TN