Still Plugging Along!

I'm still chained to the quilting machine! Can you believe it? No piecing for Bonnie, and I have a gazillion ideas floating around in my head, and I have to focus focus focus myself to keep my priorities in order :c)

While I was quilting this weekend, I had good company! Don't ask me how Oscar likes being in such a tight space,but he was kind enough to slide out a paw and wave hello from time to time! He is on top of my scrap bin drawers underneath the quilting machine table, and there is NOT a lot of head room in there!

Emmy Lou likes it in there too......I think because the dogs (namely Sadie Jane!)leave them alone when they can't be found.

This quilt took FOREVER to quilt, or so it seems. It is feathered to death as you can tell by the pictures. I love the simple colors of this quilt, and the motion of the pinwheels. This quilt belongs to Catherine, and I am delivering it to her at guild meeting in Aiken tonight.She's been patiently waiting for it....I hope she likes how it turned out as much as I do.

Tomorrow is a big day for me! I am travelling to Burnsville, NC to teach a lecture on the Scrap User's System to a guild there, and do a bit of trunk showing at the same time. I'm nervous! My tummy is all in flutters and I hope I have everything prepared right. I don't have to leave here until noon tomorrow to be there in time....so I will have the morning to pack the car, and use the sticky roller on any quilts that have accumulated cat fur...*LOL*

I've also been asked to submit a schedule of classes/workshops/lectures for the 2009 North Carolina Quilt Symposium! I know it's a ways out there, but....it would be great to be on the staff there. They typically have 20 to 25 teachers on the faculty and have a yearly attendance of 350-400 students. Sounds fun, huh??

Bonnie

Real Men Quilt!

I have some wonderful male quilters as customers! And because I am trying to be a "good girl" and work on customer's quilts to help me get caught up from time off during oral surgery, etc...I thought I would introduce you to one of my clients!

Jacque and Linda winter in Florida, and summer in Maine. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? I would love to go to Maine some day...it sounds so peaceful!

I met Jacque through the net, and I have quilted a few quilts for him. He does spectacular work....all pieced by HAND! Amazingly even stitches, and his color sense is terrific! Just look at what he did for the border of this dresden plate:

His latest quilt is in shades of blues...I love this quilt!

I finished the quilting last night, and it was hard to get detail shots when it is dark out. The full quilt shot turned out really blurry so I hope you can see the detail from these other shots.

I especially like the texture of the back! Way to go Jacque,I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

In Stitches - - -
Bonnie

Putting It Back Together...

Thanks all for the sympathy (and letting me whine!) about my computer woes! Through this all, I've learned many things. Don't save all your saved emails in your email program! Open a folder in your documents and save it there. This way if email crashes, those needed files will still be accessible.

I still haven't uploaded all my programs, but will do that as I need them I guess. Time for computer dinking around has been short,so right now it's bare bones for me.

I got my stitches out from the oral surgery today. THANK HEAVENS! They were kind of itching me,and my tongue couldn't leave them alone...you know how it goes? So...everything is looking good in the tooth department.

My fun news is that I received THIS book in the mail! I thought...huhhh? I knew I didn't order it! But it turns out that a customer I quilted for had her quilt appear in this book, and she was kind enough to name me as the quilter! How cool is that? I'll have to scan her quilt pic so I can show you which one it is. She did a great job on it. It is on page 45..Stars Over Tuscon...by Sherall Donovan.

I'm running to dinner with my son Jason and his girlfriend...and his girlfriend's mother. (Hi Charlotte!) Charolotte is a quilter too! That is another fun thing for today :c)

Bonnie

Whhhhhaaaaaa computer wipe-out!!!!

It happened this morning...I've been having trouble for a few days with programs going "not responding" and I tried a "system recovery" trying to set things back to when they were working..but it didn't work.

This morning, I put in my password....and could never get to the desktop! It was just STUCK! I tried and tried and tried, but the puter would not start, and so I had to....GAAAKKKK...reformat my hard drive.

Which means...I didn't get a chance to back up everything...I lost mega pics and email addresses, even the info I need to restart my own email! I can't even remember the name of my webhost or the website address to get to their customer service dept so they can help me get set up again. I'm hosed. :c(

So....while I work this all out, if anyone needs to reach me, you can reach me at my alternate email: quiltville@yahoo.com

Judy L and I use the same webhost so I am hoping she can get to me with some info so I can get set back up again. If not....this is why I'm not answering your emails, I can't get to them!

*sigh*
Bonnie

Feather Frosting..

Bonnie needs to hunker down and get caught up on her scheduled customer quilts! I've had a lot of things that have pulled me away lately and I am re-dedicating myself to getting things finished as scheduled. It isn't easy when scheduling your life 8 or 9 months in advance. You never know what whammies are going to sneak up on you and throw your schedule off.

I haven't helped matters much with getting so side tracked! So here I am...putting priorities back in order and aiming to get back where I should be.

This is a customer's flying geese quilt. All the open spaces seemed perfect for "frosting" it with feathers, and it does have the texture of a wedding cake!



I love this picture of the back....more frosting :c)


I've got clients lined up through the day for massage, and I have the raffle quilt with me to work on the binding in between clients at the office..so that should keep me busy for a while.

I have a guild meeting tonight, so I won't be home until late! Busy Busy Monday.....

Bonnie

Quilting Fool :cD

I've been at it all day. This quilt has driven me to distraction. I feel the need to get it together as soon as possible so the other ladies and I can have as much opportunity to sell tickets for it as possible. The fall bazaar is in November, and that is when the winning ticket will be drawn.

But in the mean time, there are lots of functions that we can take the quilt to, and give other people the chance to win this quilt for $1.00 too!

In a bit over a week I'm traveling to speak at the Mountain Piecemaker's Guild in Burnsville, NC. I really think this quilt needs to come with me as part of my demo of the "Scrap User's System" don't you? :cD The only fabrics in this quilt that were yardage and not scraps are the blue star points, the red/black half square triangles, black setting triangles, and the red and blue border fabrics. The lights were all 2" and 3.5" strips, and all the jewel tones were 2" strips, all from the pre-cut scrap bins.

However...EVERYTHING came from stash! Even the backing! So I am feeling quite righteous with this quilt going together the way it has. Of course, this again proves that I have just too much fabric. :cÞ


I used the "Fay Feathers" Panto, sticking with my original thought that I still need to simplify my life and still get the job done. The quilt was SO busy, and I really wasn't wanting to outline in every 1.5" square in this thing. I used verigated thread because no matter what one color I could have chosen, it was going to contrast against most everything, and I didn't want white or cream over the whole thing...

For those asking, Yes, this pattern will go up on my website as soon as time allows. I'll also have a way for you to purchase tickets as the time gets closer. I was thinking of setting it up with paypal..has anyone done that? I'm not sure the percentage they would take or if it would be worth it. Other wise, I think sending a check for the tickets and including a self-addressed-stamped-envelope with your check would work just fine and that way I can return the ticket stubs to you.

But for now...it's onto the binding/hanging sleeve/label. And I'm still thinking of a name for this thing? So far the only thing that sticks is Stars & Ladders.

Bonnie

Getting There.....

Pain meds make me loopy. Without pain meds, I have too much mouth pain to function...so it has been a fairly loopy day! Most of my swelling is in my upper lip and on the underneath side of that lip...and goes up behind my nose. Hard to explain...and definitely hard to get an ice pack where I really need it to be.

I slept a good part of the afternoon again, and then decided after a soft rice and chicken dinner that I could start sewing the star blocks together for the raffle quilt. it went fairly fast since all the pieces were cut and I was mindlessly chain piecing, just feeding things pretty brainlessly underneath the presser foot. Man I love that seam guide! Even loopy sewing turns out straight with a good seam allowance!

Here I have the blocks laid out on the floor. I need some more solid black for the setting triangles, so I can't get any farther than this right now. Is it starting to look like the diagram??

Bonnie

Little Swollen, but not bad.....

Yesterday was my dreaded oral surgery for the extraction/bone graft/implant...

It wasn't as bad as I feared. Actually I would choose this over having my cervix frozen any day! Someone said that after 40 it's patch patch patch,and they are so RIGHT!

I came home, took pain meds and slept most of the day.....I woke up after 5pm! My face is a bit swollen...my upper lip and to the right of my nose, hard to smile, but other than that, not a lot of pain, just some discomfort. So it should even get better from here. I'm so glad I had it done and didn't wait to do it later. I'm on soft foods for at least a week. Maybe I'll lose some weight? I doubt it...the soft foods include ice cream! (good for swelling too)

Last night I sat and watched TV and finished the binding and the sleeve on my Shirt Tails quilt. I took pics this morning. I really like how this one turned out...even the back! Several years ago I received a quilt top for machine quilting that was too fragile to quilt, but the pattern was sooo cool I had to replicate it before sending it back. It was for a large star that made a 4 block quilt. Well, you know how it goes, I only got two done and I never got back to it. So I decided that these two large blocks were going to go on the back of this quilt. I think I like the back as much as the front and it sure makes things interesting!Again, this one was perfect for the baptist fans.

I'm taking it easy still today and through the weekend per docs orders....

Oh, and while I was taking quilt pics, I snapped a shot of Jeff's car....

Bonnie

Climbing The Ladder...one rung at a time!

It's a milestone day today. Today my youngest son, Jeff....got his first car at 17. He has been saving for a long time and had enough for a good chunk to put down. We made up the difference and he will pay us back over time on it.

We bought a 1995 Toyota Corolla....and it will be just great for him. It still has a lot of life left in it, and will be great for taking him back and forth to work this summer. It's been pretty hectic since his job is in the opposite direction of my office. I drop him off one way....come back the other way and go to my job...then come back and go all the way to pick him up in the evenings..I think this uses more gas and time than it is worth. He says he's ready to pay for his own insurance (on our policy) and pay for his own gas. So tonight we drove to Newberry and picked the car up from the little used lot there.

I remember getting my first car! It was a big day! I was 18, and it was a mercury capri...we called it a crap-i....because it really was a beater, but it was my first car. I learned to drive stick shift on it, and I have lots of good memories around that car. It symbolized my love of independance...(and my fear of stalling out in the middle of a busy intersection!)

I sewed 100 3" 1/2 square triangles tonight. Power sewing. Very boring. Not scrappy.....all two fabrics...auughh! But the fun part came when I was able to sew them into jacob's ladder blocks using the scrappy 4 patches.

I made 25 blocks and laid them out on the floor...looking good so far! I need next to do the 36 Peaky&Spike Stars.....but before I can get there I have to assemble 144 star point units..urg. At least those will have scrappy backgrounds, but I am using the same blue fabric for all the star points....

Thursday is my oral surgery for the extraction, implant, and bone graft.....I just want it done and over with, I'm tired of dreading it,you know?

Bonnie

Memorial Day!

As if the south isn't crazy enough....The school district I live in has SCHOOL today! On a national holiday? Who woulda thunk it?

It's been a really nice weekend here other wise. I've been pleasantly infected by the cleaning virus...I have cleaned out my bedroom closet and got rid of what seems like 1/2 my wardrobe! Some old plaid shirts are now in the pile to be cut up for shirt fabric. Just can't "Goodwill" the whole lot!

It's crazy...just how many pairs of BLUE jeans does one person need? When they are all basically the same style and fit the same way? How many do I really think I can wear? The same goes for khaki docker type trousers. Yes, some of those pairs were left from when I was in school and we had to wear them as part of our uniform....but...So..I made closet space. Next thing to tackle is the dresser. Out with the old and unwearable!

I had lunch with Jason and his girlfriend Kim at Olive Garden. He gets employee discount so it made for a nice lunch at an affordable price. Hancocks is also in the same shopping center so I stopped by there after and picked up a new cutting mat, some rotory blades, and some thread...all at 1/2 price.

Luckily this Hancocks is not closing like many others are. It is the only fabric place in my area since Walmart closed down their fabric section. Heaven forbid you need replacement needles or thread or anything on quick notice...because there are just no stores near me other than Hancocks that carries fabric!

I'm puttering the afternoon away in the quilting room. Perfect!

Bonnie

Nine Patch Split Pattern Added!

Hello Quilters!

I have just uploaded a new pattern to the Quiltville website! You will find a fun and quick split 9 patch quilt that is perfect for using up your precut squares and bricks!

I made this quilt for my youngest sister who is expecting her second child, a boy, any day now! (yes, I am rushing to get the label on and the quilt out the door before his arrival!) I have also included a diagram of a larger version done in patriotic colors perfect for those of you working on Quilts of Valor.

You can find the quilt HERE

I also want to say....Congrats!!! You did it!

Every year my husband Dave cycles with a group of over 300 riders in South Carolina in the 150 mile 2 day ride called the "Tour De Cure" for diabetes. I do my part by providing massage therapy for the cylists after each leg of the ride! This year's Tour De Cure will be held on June 2nd & 3rd, 2007.

Each mile he will ride, each dollar we will raise will be used in the fight to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. This is our 5th year of being involved with the Tour De Cure and I hope it will be our best yet!

This year you helped raise $3,900.00 towards finding a cure for diabetes! We still have a week left until the ride. Can you help us reach our $5,000.00 goal?

If you can spare even $10, please think of someone you know who is living with diabetes daily and all that they go through and all that your donation can do to help. If you know someone with diabetes, PLEASE donate and forward this on to those who have family members with diabetes. Your continued support is necessary to help find a cure for this disease.

Click to sponsor Dave

Thanks for all you do!

Bonnie

Back To Plan A!!

Well...switching the donation quilt at this point in time didn't go over well with "the committee". Pffffttt! The email said:
Hi, Bonnie,
Your patriotic quilt is also very beautiful. I am a little worried, though,
as I have told quite a few people that you designed the quilt based on the
Trinity windows. There was a REALLY good reaction to that. I think that
would be an extra selling feature to all the church organizations.


Argh. So Okay. I'll do the patriotic star quilt for NEXT year...and proceed with plan A...doing the stars and ladders quilt for this year. I sewed the 4patch halves together last night and ironed them this morning. This quilt needs 305 4 patches! I think I came up with 316 by the time I counted them, but that's okay, it gives me room to cull the ones that just "don't go".

I'm really okay with this option. I like both quilts, I think they both would sell tickets well....the next step is to do the 1/2 sq triangles of red and black to go with half the 4 patches for the jacob's ladder type blocks. I'm leaving the peaky/spike star points for last..I think that is going to be a time consumer!

Bonnie

Mind Change!

In between everything today...taking Jeff to work, picking him up from work, working a client's quilt...going to the oral surgeon (extraction and implant surgery is scheduled for next week...wwahhhh) I started thinking of things I might be able to do to simplify my life a bit (YOU THINK!?)

Here I am stewing over this donation quilt....and it suddenly popped into my head...why don't I just take a top that I have already pieced, that is not quilted yet, quilt it up, call it good. The sooner it is done the sooner we can start selling tickets on it, right?

So this is the one I pulled out of my cupboard. It is called "tribute" and was sample I made a few years back for Common Threads in Waxahachie TX. I just never got around to quilting it...so now I think I will.

The question is....how do you think this would look with baptist fans on it? Or another panto thing? I keep thinking "simplify, simplify" and I am reminded that someone will win this quilt for $1. :cÞ Any ideas from the other machine quilters out there? I really am not in the mood for heirloom on this thing. It just doesn't have that heavily quilted need to me...


I'm adding this pic! Right now as I rummage through things (I found a red enough to piece a back from...has little tan stars on it) I am considering this panto called "rosie" by willowleaf studios....it kinda goes with the rose print fabric in the quilt....so....fans.....or....roses?? I need your ideas!

Bonnie

The Big Ugly!

A day in the life of a clutz!

This happened wednesday night....I thought I had just "bumped" my arm! I thought nothing about it, I undressed, went to bed...the next morning when I woke up and headed for the shower I looked in the mirror and...WOW!!

I didn't think I banged it that bad! It must have seeped all night into the tissues...remember this was wednesday it happened? I had Jeff take this picture this morning..it is turning all sorts of lovely colors..*hehe* It looks worse than it feels, but it is sure taking a long time to fade,and it seems like the darker area keeps spreading bigger. I'm sure doing 4 massages on saturday and 6 yesterday didn't help it much.

I'm home quilting on customer quilts today...and baking more banana things. Yes, another bag of bananas came home with me on sunday.....so I am trying banana oatmeal walnut cookies and some bars that get a cream cheese icing after they cool. They will go back to the next rehearsal with me....I don't want to end up looking like a banana cream cheese bar myself at this rate!

This afternoon is a visit to the periodontist. Seems a tooth that I had knocked out when I was 12 has decided to end it's life (whhhaaa!) and I've got to have it extracted and replaced with an implant. Oh, I am SO not looking forward to this!

Bonnie

Busy Week!!

Well...it's been a whole week since I posted anything! It's been a very crazy week!

I got a call earlier in the week from "Mitt Romney for President" telling me that the governor was going to be here in columbia for a big debate on tuesday and would I be available to come to the residence where he was staying to give him a massage. I was FLOORED!!

All was arranged..I talked to his aide twice, I had directions to where I was supposed to go, etc etc...and about 3 hours before the appointment they called me and said that his schedule was too tight because of travel delays or something and I didn't get to go work on him after all! I was a bit bummed. I thought it would be cool to work on someone like that. So maybe next time.

It was a very busy week for massage, and I spent all the other spare minutes working on customer quilts, so not a lot of progress or play time for Bonnie quilts!

However, I did get the strip pairs cut in to half-4-patches...look at this bucket full! The raffle quilt needs to be done by Aug 1st....so I'm trying to make progress on that little by little.

As part of the Heartstrings Quilt Project goal of sending quilts to Kansas, I received a really pretty yellow brick road top and backing from Fran Benson of Romeoville, IL. I quilted it up and bound it today and it will be sent off to Kansas tomorrow. These quilts are going to the tornado victims from a couple weeks ago.

Have a great week everyone!
Bonnie

Happy Mother's Day!

To all mothers, daughters, sisters, friends.....wishing you a wonderful day!!

Today's project for me (after choir) is to press those paired up strips open and cut them into the 2" subsections. It is so hard for me to do things a step at a time and walk away in between. I'm an all-or-nothing kind of hyperfocused gal (no kidding?!?)and it really is a challenge to say "okay, time's up on this one, move on to whatever else you need to be doing". But in the long run, I think I'll get more done this way, than if I pushed everything else aside and kept going. There is less guilt this way too :c)

Bonnie

Setting Goals....

All systems are go for the donation quilt I am making for the annual fall bazaar at Trinity Cathedral. They've never had a donation quilt and ticket sales before, so it has been a bit difficult for me to get people to understand that YES, you can raise more funds with a raffle, than you can in a silent auction, especially where quilts are concerned, and a raffle gives EVERYONE a chance to win, not just those with big bucks.

In between everything else I am breaking this quilt down into steps. Working (hopefully)1/2 hour to 1 hour a day on getting this top together in the midst of everything else. I can do it. I know I can. I am starting with the 4 patches first. I have gone through my 2" strip bins and pulled all the jewel tones and the neutrals. I have cut more neutrals because they were really depleted! While Lucy was here I culled through my FQ's finding ones that I was wanting to pull out of those drawers, cut into strips to spice up what I had in the strip bins. I've cut more jewel tone colors from those to add to the strips I've pulled.

This morning I started sewing light/dark pairs....about a mile of them! Next step is to iron them open, and then cut into 2" sub-cuts. The next step after that will be to sew them into 4 patches. I only need about a gazillion 4 patches! After those are done, I will choose the next step, which will either be 1/2 sq triangles, or the Tri-Recs star points. One step at a time...I don't want to get ahead of myself. I need the quilt finished and bound and ready to sell tickets by August 1st. Can I do it? I hope so!

I've had requests for my banana bread recipe! So here you go. I always felt it wasn't worth all the effort for just one loaf, so I usually make two loaves at a time. One to have, one to give. Enjoy!

Bonnie’s Banana Bread

2 loaves.

Preheat oven to 350. Spray two loaf pans with Pam or non-stick cooking spray.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
6 over-ripe bananas, mashed
4 tsp baking powder (not soda)
1 tsp salt
½ cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts.

Cream shortening with sugar. Add eggs and beat well. Add bananas, vanilla, salt, milk and baking powder until well blended. Mix in 3 cups of flour, scraping sides of bowl to mix evenly. Stir in chopped walnuts.

Divide mixture between two loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Be careful not too over cook or bread may turn out dry. Done when knife inserted into loaf comes out clean.

Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans to finish cooling on wire rack. Banana bread is best aged a day or so in the refrigerator for all flavors to blend and ripen.


Bonnie