New Haven Quilt Show 2011

I love pictures of my work. I love pictures of animals. I hate pictures of me!

Gladys and I highjacked a gentleman at the show. He took a picture of both of us!

My Pineapple quilt is behind us. I am not giving you a good view of this quilt as Bonnie Hunter has one scheduled for another of her great books. I do not want to give the pattern away!

I sewed on this for months and all 4 days at the Shipshewanna Quilt Retreat last Summer.
My Janome 6600P has a built in thread cutter that is almost a MUST HAVE for paper-piecing.
It was quilted with feathers by Mary Flynn of Quilt Hollow. Beautiful quilting as always!

 Coming up, the next photo has my Crabapple quilt from Bonnie's book entitled:
 Adventures with Leaders & Enders.
I recommend this book to anyone who feels their stash controls them. Bonnie's methods of organization and sewing two quilts at the same time has made me a much faster sewer. No thread gets wasted and I am in heaven with scrappiness coming out of my sewing machine!

 I won no prizes. But it was rewarding to see my quilt mingling with other great quilts.
Mary Flynn of Quilt Hollow also quilted this quilt. And the label on the back is the block Bonnie made for the instructions in the book. She sent me her block! WhoooHooo! It makes a great label.

 This pattern is called Radio Flyer. It is in a Carrie Nelson quilt book entitled "Miss Rosie's Quilt Collection". I bought the book long ago. I bought it specifically for this pattern. The photo shows how it looks in Pinks and Browns. I want to make this too! I wish there were more of me so I could sew 24 hours a day!

 A very simple block and it makes a fabulous quilt. Love the colors.

 Here is a closeup of a Pink and Brown Pineapple! This is exactly what I plan on making as my next paper-pieced project. I talked to the quilter who made this. She did not use paper-piecing.

I love Pink and Brown!

Our Bonnie with my Crabapple quilt

The following e-mail greeted me when I opened my program!

Hi there....this is Bonnie holding your top early this morning in my living room. She loved it and commented on your chosing the perfect tree border. I'll holler at you when I have it finished.
Hugs!!
Mary @ Quilt Hollow

I cannot begin to tell you all how thrilled and honored I am to have our Bonnie Hunter touching my quilt and Mary Flynn doing her magic quilting! The quilt blends so nice with Mary's house.
This was the first quilt I simply had to make following the release of her latest book "Adventures with Leaders & Enders"

Now how am I going to sleep tonight?

Crabapple, irises & my Dear Jane start

I figured out what I did wrong in making the units for the checkerboard border on the Crabapple quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter (http://www.quiltville.com).

I was thinking the bigger units that start with a LDL was UnitA and the dark finished 9-patch was a unitB....wrong...the sub units that make up these two larger units were the ones I needed to make. So I made like 5 times more than what I needed.

But hey! Now I have a checkerboard border ready for another scrappy quilt which will likely be Bonnie's Scrappily Irish in her new book "Adventures with Leaders & Enders".
She used 2" squares. I will use 1 1/2" squares.


Our irises are blooming and these smell sooooooooo good. I want to pick them to bring in but decided to allow them to live outside and I can visit them from time to time.

Spring and all it's glory hides an evil face at times....hate these maple seeds. Hubby calls them helicopters. I tired to sweep them yesterday but the wind was blowing more down as I was sweeping. I gave up.

I have 6 Dear Jane blocks done. I am so very proud of myself. Last week I was ready to burn the program or cut my head off. Nothing was going right with these blocks.

But yesterday I was very calm and was able to make 6 blocks in a short afternoon of sewing.
Now I feel a sense of excitement and pleasure. I was going to make them in gray/pink combinations but this Eco muslin and a fabric sampler w/ a cardboard header seem to play so nice together that I will use the pink/gray in something else.

More Crabapple quilt progress

Checkerboard border is on. I had no problems making it all fit.
I did not cut the first border at 1 3/4" as Bonnie had in her book. I cut mine at 2". Easier math for me and it worked perfectly. Now I need to pick a fabric for the final border. But I have a large dilemma....

I followed Bonnie's instructions but I may have not understood them right...I made 112 Unit A's and 112 Unit B's...but I only needed 1/4 of what I made. No wonder it took me so VERY long to make the checkerboard units...so the dilemma is I could add a small border and then add another checkerboard border on. Geezzz...I have all these made up!

What's a quilter to do???????????????

Back to Crabapple Quilt...FINALLY!

Finally back to sewing on my Crabtree quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter (http://www.quiltville.com). The pattern is in her newest book titled Adventures with Leaders & Enders. It is a wonderful book and I recommend it to all you scrappy quilters.

My 112 Unit A's are grouped in 10's with a safety pin (Bonnie's idea) and my Unit B's are waiting on the machine's throat. I so missed working on this quilt but I had obligations to finish first. This morning I was able to get back to Bonnie's pattern!

She sent me her tutorial block and a nice note card that I will treasure FOREVER!

The block she sent me will be the label on the back.

My sewing space...bird feeders right outside the picture window and I am watching the Science channel on TV. A hot cup of coffee and sunshine are my companions.

I added two small borders to daughter Laura's BD quilt this morning first thing. This has been in the UFO stage for a couple months. And wouldn't you know it I did make the backing and it is really too close in size to the finished 64" square top. I will have to pin it up and then see how the top fits it. Her BD is May 28th. So I am right on time.

Here is a closeup of the block. I really enjoyed piecing this block. It looks complicated finished but is made in easy units and is a surprise when finished that it was so easy. This pattern is in the book "Loose Change".

I have a sick squirrel. I went to a Wild Bird store and the clerk says I can get meds for this poor little lady at my vet's office. Maggie Mae has an appointment this Thursday so I will ask then. I guess it is a syringe that you inject into food. Will be no problem getting this little lady to eat it as she takes peanuts from me quite easily.

This picture is of Macy doing her bed stealing routine. Macy is on the right. Baby is on the left and Baby was there first. Check out Macy's ears...do you see they are back? She is not sleeping. She is leaning on poor Baby until she pushes her right out of Baby's bed. Macy does this to all the cats here. She is a major heat seeker.

Bonnie Hunter's Crabapple progress

Well...what think you????? I am a brown color lover. So I browned up Bonnie's pattern. She used a beautiful green (another favorite color of mine) I used a brown fabric with cream scattered trees. It seemed so appropriate for this quilt.

I used a rust Freckles fabric for the sashings. And a gold Fossil Fern for the cornerstones.

Bonnie sure loves the diagonal sets! I do not know what I would do without a design wall to slap up those blocks! In the old days I used the bed or the floor. Both are very cat catching. The background fabric I used is a cream with scattered cats. One of my favorite old fabrics that I keep using.

Next project in my head to do is Bonnie's Scrappily Irish pattern. I have "some" 2" squares but I have a bagillion 1 1/2" squares yet. I am thinking of using those. I am going on a three day retreat with my guild next weekend. This looks like a good project to work on. Not too much brain power needed and that leaves room for chatting and EATING!

OK............ now you are asking what is this? It is fake fur....it is suppossed to be a bunny suit. I am rescuing my neighbor. Her two girls are in the play "HARVEY". They are going to be in bunny suits and dance on stage. Tracy called me yesterday and said the woman who was making these got ill and could not finish and would I finish them. I said yes. My goodness. She needs them on MONDAY! All she had done was cut them out no sewing done, no thread, no elastic, no zippers and her math skills must have flown the coup because there was not enough cut of the ears or the head pieces. And no extra fabric included. So Tracy is trying to find some matching fabric for the head pieces and the tails...I have the bodies all done. This fabric is fluffy and VERY THICK. There is fuzz all through the house in my nose and eyes and the kitties even look coated. Real fake fur. I would have chosen fleece. The poor girls are going to cook in these costumes.

But the ears came out sooooo cute. I still need to make the headpieces as soon as Tracy gets more fabric to me.

They are like that bunny pajama set that the poor boy in The Christmas Story gets for his Christmas present from an Auntie. Darn, that beige zipper really sticks out like a sore thumb. It was all I had!

No good deed goes unpunished.

Crabapple progress and Dustin's Irish Chain

I have totally enjoyed all the small piecing on this pattern by Bonnie Hunter from http://www.quiltville.com

And I loved the paper piecing of the tree bases. The reward was adding the crowns to the trees. I made all 25 blocks in one mega sewing day. They were all up on the design wall. I was sitting and admiring my work. I have always liked the Tree of Life pattern. And I think this is a variation on it. I love it and will keep it for me as there is a block made by Bonnie Hunter in this! I LOVE IT!

DH comes in and says he does not LIKE it! Slap me with a wet noodle!!! What is not to like? GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MEN!

Today I added the final borders and piecing the backing for Dustin's BD quilt.

It now measures 72"X90". I added some of the deer fabric into the backing too. The backing and quilt are now draped on the quilt frame. My goal is to baste it up tomorrow and start quilting it. I want to be done for Monday night guild meeting. Am I asking too much of myself???????

Dustin is an outdoorsy type guy. That is why I decided on the deer fabric as a border. I plan on making a pillowcase to match. That way he can store this quilt in his truck. Who knows it may save his life someday.

My forest of trees and one from Bonnie!!!!!

Bonnie Hunter: quilt designer, quilt maker, longarm quilter and teacher of the world (in my own world that is) sent me her tutorial block to add to my own! You can find her at: http://www.quiltville.com
Quilters are so generous and Bonnie is an excellent example of this. She included a sweet note that I will save forever!
I was never a wild fan of music makers or movie stars in my younger years. I liked music and movies but never understood screaming fans. Now I do. And here I am at 60 becoming a "drop dead in my shoes" screaming fan of this wonderful woman.
I moved my sewing space 90 degrees durning a spring cleaning fury. I made all these trees in a short sewing session today. The test went well. I am happy with this space for now.

I am still not quite happy with the arrangement because I need to plug the iron in across the room so as not to be on the same electrical line as my sewing machine. They do not play nice together when plugged in on the same wall.

But all that said, it does feel nice to NOT have the sun shining in my face. I can still see the bird feeders and the world can go by outside my window.
Yet my back is to the front door. I do not like getting spooked when the doorbell rings.

I am also facing the TV and the computer. To the left is where I place the small iron and ironing board. All can be reached from my comfy chair. But I do not eat or drink anywhere near my sewing machine or computer. So that is a good reason to get up and stretch.

And some new places for the kitties to lay in the sun. Our weather has been unreal! It was 81 today and will be the same tomorrow. Hubby took off work early and mowed the lawn. Yummmmm! I love the smell of freshly mowed lawn. But I could really do without the noise.

Back to Bonnie's patterns

I am working on CrabApples from Bonnie's newest book, Adventures with Leaders & Enders.

I am so addicted to her patterns that I go through Bonnie withdrawal when not working on one of her patterns.

If you have a chance you will never regret buying her book!

http://www.quiltville.com