Lots of quilts designed by Bonnie Hunter, Pat Sloan and Edtya Sitar being sewn.

I am devoted to many quilt designers. Our Bonnie Hunter, Edtya Sitar and Pat Sloan.

Pat Sloan designed the block below. It is called Washington DC. I loved it so much that I made four of them and they then became this nice little lap quilt. My quilty friend, Victoria, is crazy for red. And her birthday is March 1st. She actually caught me sewing on it, oohed and awed over it and I lied and said it was for a grand daughter. Boy will she ever be surprised!

My heartfelt thanks go out to you Pat Sloan!!!!

And here is a small version of Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips. She said anything goes and that is what I did. All this came from randomly selecting 2 1/2" strips and sewing them into tubes. I know I am wanting to make a more controlled version of this great quilt pattern. Thanks Bonnie Hunter!

And lastly here is my version Of Edtya Sitar's Egg Carton quilt. I made two of these beauties. But only one is quilted so far. And this one took 10 bobbins and four hard days of quilting. But it is all done now and so beautiful.

I found a neat picture on the internet showing a crocheted afghan in shades of green. I dug through my yarn collection and was able to closely match the colors she used.

Here is my stack of blocks. I had enough yarn to make 16 blocks. Now I need to join them while adding another row of black all around them.

And this is the yarn I have leftover. I wound it into patties that are then a pull skein. Love my yarn winder. Have had it for eons. It is made by Royal. It does make a loud clicking sound but it winds great! ( made that sound from day one) Also the kitties love to help me wind the yarn. I know you all understand.

And here is Grand daughter Anna Marie and my hubby James. This is her first guitar lesson. James bought her the guitar and set it up for her. She seems to be a natural. They did the second lesson last night. He is quite pleased with her progress. And her fingers hurt. That means she is playing and her fingers will get callouses and no longer hurt!

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Quilters are givers and sharers

 Our Bonnie Hunter says it all. Quilters are givers. Quilters are sharers.



http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/11/quilts-for-midwest.html

I will see what I can drum up here in Subeeland. I am sure I can whip up a couple quilts. And I am thinking I may see if my quilts can be sent to Kokomo Indiana as they suffered a tornado outbreak too.
When we had the tornado warning, hubby went down to a neighbor's basement with a precious guitar. I stayed here to take care of the kitties. But I could tell by the way the kitties were acting, that there was no danger.

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My definition of a neutral.

It seems as if I get a sleepless night once a week. I used to hate them. Now they are great! I can play in my stash. I mean really deep digging and sorting.

I am currently making lots of Bonnie Hunter's spool blocks. Then I was getting bored with the neutrals I was sewing with. Enter one sleepless night and I have 30 new neutrals to sew with.

I went through and tore 20" from each fabric. I will get them washed as I plan on making a new swap on the Quiltvilleswap Yahoo group. We have already swapped spool fabrics but not the backgrounds. So I asked and got  favorable replies from nearly all the swappers. They are up for an extra swap this summer.

And the definition of a neutral seems to be a personal preference. I agree with Our Bonnie on what she considers a neutral. It really does make for a more interesting quilt. But I know that is uncomfortable for some quilters.

The photo below is what I/we will be swapping.

Aren't these fabrics great? I included a few of my precious conversation prints.

And there is a method to my madness...I have made 4 Log Cabin quilts using only creams and browns with pale pink centers. I have been feeling the call of making a Log Cabin quilt without being color controlled. These neutrals will fit in perfectly for this future project.

Here is an example of a pale pink fabric being a neutral in one block and the spool in another block. It all depends on the spool color.

I now have 646 spool blocks made. If memory serves me, Bonnie said she wanted 800 spool blocks for the design she is working on. I am almost there!!!

I went through one swappers yellow strips. I cut them down and made these yellow spool blocks. Light to dark. Aren't they precious?

And since I always do a Leader/Ender as I am sewing I am using 1 1/2" squares that were extras cut from whatever.

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washed fabric quiltvilleswap Hostess

Bonnie Hunter will be in Indiana!!!!

Yep!
She will be in North Manchester tomorrow-I will be there.
She will be in Goshen/Elkhart on Monday-I will be there.
She is now in Fort Wayne!!! Just a few minutes from me!!! I keep looking out the window hoping she will just drive up to pick up her diet Dr. Pepper!!!
Oh Bonnie!!!!!

I am all packed up and very ready for this excursion.
I bought a Tutto sewing machine trolley last year. I have never even tried it before. I love it. It rolls easily even with it all packed up as you can see in the two pictures following:

So it will be just one trip from my truck to the sewing room at the Manchester college Student Union building!!!!!

Here are my pinks all picked out for the pink 2 1/2" strip swap this month. They are now all washed, pressed, cut and packaged for the swap. This color is possibly my favorite swap color.
WHOOHOOO!!!
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Spring Cleaning

Finishing the t-shirt quilt had me drooling to just sew on some regular quilt fabric.
Yet with the coming Summer season I NEEDED to rotate my sewing area 45 degrees to the north. This way the sun doesn't bounce off cars in the driveway and hit me in the eyes. Or bounce off the wood floor at the doorway and hit my eyes. This sensitivity to light really has me wondering what is going on. I even have issues with the white screen from the computer monitor! What it seems to trigger in my eyes are weird black and white splashes of images that block me from reading or even focusing on anything small. They go away after 5 minutes or so. And I have not had an event since I went totally off Lyrica. (a med for Fybromyalsia) I still have the sensitivity but thankfully those flashing images have not reappeared.

Anyway, today I cleaned and moved my sewing area. And since DH was home I was able to try a different configuration. I was not strong enough to move this one desk that I wanted to try to the right of my sewing machine cabinet.
                                                    IT WORKS GREAT!

 Here is the new layout North view. You may see some large, heavy ashtrays. I use them to hold thread snips and sliver trimmings. The cats cannot knock them around. I have had these heavy ashtrays since the 70's. I seem to remember some type of home party like Tupperware or Pampered Chef.
I now have cutting areas on both sides of my sewing chair. WHOOHOO!

 West view: I am now quite close to a window and can feel the breezes. And that is a Pampered Chef utensil holder that I have sitting on a Brooklyn round spinning cutting mat. It holds all the tools I need at an arm's reach. I have another one of those in the cutting room too!
You know me by now. If I like something I buy lots of that something.
Well...I have only one large pink velvet pincushion...

 South view: I need to tackle that mess on top of the cabinet. Those notebooks are full of Our Bonnie's patterns and tips. And a few I have printed out from the internet. So just don't look there until I tell you it is clean.

 My little cheap iron took a dump died a dignified death. I went out to my storage area in the garage and opened a new box to another cheap iron. These work so nice and there are not shut off's to deal with. I am going to try Our Bonnie's system of not putting any water in this one. I do have a great spray bottle for water. So my little basket has spray starch and a bottle of water handy to me.
After all that cleaning I simply had to clean my sewing machine too. All lint free and a fresh sharp needle 80/12 Organ Titanium needle.

 One of my Leaders & Enders baskets was getting near the bottom so I finished it up and have a bevy of little 3 1/2" Bow-tie blocks made from a charm set of Moda Gatherings that I have had for eons. But even though that basket was full there are not very many blocks to show for the work. Not to fear I have the entire collection of Fat Quarters of this line of fabric. And I know right where that plastic container is too! HA! No searching will be needed. (Just some pressing and cutting)

 See??? Not too much here. So I put them away with labels and all the scraps that they generated. Their little basket is now waiting in the cutting room for another Leaders & Enders project. I still have my Cheddar Bow-tie's to sew on.

 OK...the day is still young so I started on one of those Saturday purchases. All Civil War fabrics...1 1/2" squares...right up my mini alley! So I got my brown fix today too. It felt so good to sew and cut on fine quilting cotton!!!!

Just 13 blocks made but I am so satisfied...

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