Another Bonnie Hunter class in June!

So last Friday was the day for Straits of Mackinac!  The anticipation was rewarded with yet another wonderful day!  A second class added only a comfort level and did not disappoint. I would love to sew in a Bonnie class for a 5 day class at Asilomar which I think is already filled up.  Maybe another year...

I had purchased a fat quarter bundle of Janet Clare's fabric called More Hearty Good Wishes and was looking for a Storm at Sea pattern to use for it.  Fortunately, I remembered Bonnie had done something like that and oh my! It's in her new book!  Well, yay and she's teaching this class when she comes for the Seven Sisters quilt show. That couldn't have gotten any better!
It's amazing to see her quilts in person and to be able to check out the individual fabrics that she used.

See that fun crabby fabric?  Someone in class....I think it was Lisa from Atascadero?  I really wished I'd written this day down! With or without fabric, Lisa was fun to share class with.  I hope I see her again at quilty meets soon.
Any who...The crab fabric owner encouraged me to cut off a piece to use. I love it!  Thank you!

We ended the day with laying out our collective blocks for a group picture.

Some had finished some sashing pieces and you can start to see the circle effect forming.  Mine's the darkish one in the middle.

I didn't actually use much of my Janet Clare fabric in this first one but will start when I continue. My square in a square needs some work but I love that this block also has some shared pieces from my table partner, (Thank you!) Rori. Hopefully, I will see improvement as I sew on.

So...I have some finishes to share but will do that in another post.  I'm back to sewing on my Emerald City and hope to celebrate the 4th with my machine :-) 
Have a wonderful time however you spend it. Happy Independence Day!
Linking to Confessions of Fabric Addict Fridays. Check out the inspiration!

Bonnie Hunter class in June

After following Bonnie Hunter's blog for 15 years or so, I finally got to meet her and take a class with her! The local guilds hosted her and prepared an absolutely wonderful venue for her in Atascadero. 

I was so excited for this day and it certainly was well worth the wait. Monday she taught Emerald City and though I've heard her say things before...I finally understood better how to get more accurate cuts and sewing in my work.  It was hard not to be completely amazed when pieces came together just the way they were supposed! 
Bonnie obviously has a healthy dose of energy to do all that she does but at the same time she is a very relaxed, personable teacher providing individual attention that is so appreciated. I'm so grateful for what I learned and am loving working on my greens and neutrals for this very BIG quilt :-)

Sew..... a needed edit here! Since posting this, I noticed that the green string block had the strings going sideways...Wrong!  So I unsewed and sewed them going the correct way.  This goes in the 'mistakes I hope I don't repeat' file :-)

These 4 blocks sewn together are about 1/20th (unless I have to keep re-doing stuff!) of the steps to completion. The fabrics are mostly from a Kim Diehl collection called Sage and Seaglass.  The neutrals so far are from Kim Diehl as well. I am having so much fun!  And to top it off...I get to go Friday for another class with Bonnie and start working on Straits of Mackinac. 
So more later....thank you for checking in :-)
Linking here for more inspiration at Confessions of a Fabric Addict Fridays.

Hands2Help Finish

Charity quilts have been the main focus here the last several months.  I have worked on quilts for the Paradise Camp Fire community, quilts for the Carolina Hurricane Quilt project and one for a gentleman challenged with multiple myeloma. I needed one for the charities chosen for Hands2Help this year and Jack's Basket was the perfect inspiration!  I found leftovers from a few different baby quilts that I had made that really looked kind of cute together.  Soft blues and greens and bits of other colors for a charm square quilt.  Along with some wild animals, circles are a frequent sighting so random circles was my quilt design choice. This was fast and fun to make.  Displayed here with my critters modeling, I hope it cheers a growing family.

These will probably show up as Pets On Parade entries though I couldn't get Luke to smile!

Thank you, Sarah for again hosting a wonderful event and inspiring us all to get involved.  I'm linking here to the Confessions of a Fabric Addict Link up Sunday for this year's finale.

Sammy

Our Sammy, 2004 to 2019 

Loved, unique little gladiator who took his job policing UPS, mail and trash trucks very seriously. And even more dedicated to supervising Luke!

Sweetly greeting everybody else with a smile and tail wag.

We will miss you, Sammy and hold you in our hearts.

March..April...and maybe May

Life has been a bit of a whirlwind since the beginning of the year and I'm barely keeping up.  I'm going to hit the highlights.  I received some quilt tops from a Carol Ann in South Carolina who needed them finished and donated to the Layers of Hope venture of giving quilts to first responders who were affected by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California last year.  So I found backing and binding and proceeded to quilt them.  Two were kind of small and were both charm squares so I combined them to make a quilt closer to the requested sizes. I put just one fabric for each backing.


65" X 74" with a neutral backing

65" X 87" with a floral backing

Next is a child's quilt 42" X 44" with a variety of dog themed pieces on the back.

I'm waiting for information from Jean of where to send these and hopefully will be able to get them to families soon.  There is one more quilt from Carol Ann's to complete.

For the Hands 2 Help effort this year, I found some sweet leftovers of baby quilts I have made over the years.  I made a simple charm square quilt that is on the frame to be quilted. This will go to Jack's Basket.

Other news is that I've been through my first experience with physical therapy successfully getting flexibility and healing in my knee. Wahoo! My therapist was a huge help!  It seems a lot of my day has been going to exercising and walking dogs.  Time consuming but not a bad way to spend time.
Bigger news is that my sister found an amazing wonderful home and has moved to Cambria!  We are really loving having her close.

Sad news happened this week as well.  My 15 year old Sammy had spent a good day with walks and supervising us all but he became weak and unable to continue on the afternoon walk.  We were able to cart him home and to the vet but found he had a heart issue probably related to a cancer.  He improved slightly but we could see he was not going to be able to improve enough to get past all of it.  We were able to spend some quiet time with him and somehow get to the point of letting him go on.  It was a lot to take in and accept in such a short time but Sammy has hopefully found Sabra and is running around again barking at whatever he wants and keeping everybody in heaven in line. I'm putting his picture in another post.
So our house is too quiet and a little lonely right now.  Fortunately, the cats and Luke, our energetic golden retriever are keeping us comforted and busy. 

Linking this post to Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Hands2Help progress report.

2019 February

I've been busy ...

My Christmas gift to myself this year was a lovely fat quarter bundle of Dandie Annie by Robin Pickens. The pattern came second.  I chose her  Positively Bohemian. It was obvious a kit would have been the best choice for this very specific pattern and Missouri Star Quilt Co now has one.  But I had my FQ bundle so I did the best I could. I would have liked double of some of the focus fabrics but the vibrant colors in this line still make this one of my favorites.
I actually finished the top in January but haven't quilted it yet.
I missed something in the initial layout

Uggg, I didn't like this...
So I took out one of the dark strips 

and replaced it

I like this much better...in all it's wrinkled glory. I wish I'd noticed this before I'd sewn it all together but fortunately I didn't have to unsew more than necessary to fix it. 
I finished this top in January but haven't quilted it yet because...
I've been busy with some other projects as well...
I had a little box of "bricks" that I had cut out following Bonnie Hunter's scrap user system. 

I had not found a use for them until Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict started her tutorials for Rockin' Rectangles Quilt Along. My bricks were sized a little shorter than hers so I adjusted the background pieces and then made twice as many for a much larger quilt. This is my version of her Place Your Bets.

Sorry, no quilt holder so it is just on my bed.  The backing is one fabric of a homespun plaid I've been saving. It is 69" by 89" and is quilted with a pantograph using Hobb's 80/20 for batting.

This will be going to a first responder ousted from their home because of the Camp Fire in Paradise.  Jean from Layers of Hope Quilting 911 will be selecting the recipient and I will send it on. 
Next, I quilted a QOV for our local guild and received some quilt tops from someone wanting to donate to Layers of Hope efforts that I'm working on getting quilted. More on that later...
Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Em's Scrapbag.

Happy Valentine's Day

In case you need a little pick up 

Missouri Star Quilt Company made a cute tutorial video. I sewed this up yesterday for a friend.
Enjoy the love you have for someone special.
I hope you have a sweet Valentine's Day!
Linking to Confessions of a Fabric Addict :-)