Mother's Day....

I've had a very relaxing mother's day......especially since neither of my sons are home! Jeff spent the weekend with a friend who was moving to the next town...he helped them move, and just stayed there helping with boxes, etc..until later tonight. He did call a couple times.

I worked this afternoon on an idea floating in my head. I have 2 cram packed bins of 2.5" strips. I wanted a block that would use the strips, but something really easy in construction.

Thanks to the use of my easy angle ruler (Oh, I LOVE THIS RULER!) all I had to do was pair a light and a dark 2.5" X 18" strip with right sides together, cut 9 triangle pairs, feed them through the machine one after the other already matched up, and then after pressing....assemble the block like a simple 9 patch. It is working so slick, and I have made 14 blocks in just a few hours. Not sure how I'm going to set them, I'm thinking of a solid color for setting fabric, and I am more prone to putting them on point than setting them straight with an alternate block. I think this is called "hovering hawks"...or maybe that's just my mind putting ideas in my head.

You can see one really scrappy block in there...that's because I could actually get 10 triangle pairs out of a pair of 18" strips, so I cut 10 pairs and set the spares aside. When I'd done more than 9 blocks, I decided to see what one block made with all the leftovers would look like. I think they will add a spark of "fun to look at" when all the other blocks are only in two fabrics. I might do some other blocks with alternate fabrics or backgrounds added too, like if a strip is too short to cut all the same background, use extra triangles of another background to fill in. Substitution. I think that's the technical word for it.

The brick thing....thanks for all the comments. I'm still not sure what I want to do with it, but I do know that I don't want to do a monochromatic thing, nor do I want to separate anything with mortar, because that is going to give a more MODERN look and I'm looking for a more muddy old utility quilt look, with a chaos of fabrics that don't go together, kind of like a mishmash from the 1940's. It's still on the back burner. I might keep going the way it's going and just finish it. The blocks are done. I'm not taking anything apart, and I'm not starting over. This just might end up being a beach blanket, you know? Sometimes you just gotta try things even if they don't turn out the way you thought.

Bonnie

Falling in slow motion...

I became a fully initiated biker today. I got new clips for my biking shoes....the shoes step right into the clips instead of using pedals...you know...tour de france style? I had another pair for a couple years, but the old ones were too wiggly and getting hard to clip into.

So...new clips. This morning was so beautiful that I thought I'd just take myself on a little 20 miler, and wow..stepping into those new clips was NO problem! They held firm, no squirrely wiggling of my bike shoes....and away I went. The first rest area I planned to stop at......uhoh.....my feet were in the clips so firm, I couldn't get them UNCLIPPED!! By this time my bike was skidding into gravel and I had nothing to do but to fall....I think I got "oh crap, oh crap, oh crap" out 3 times...before I hit the road.

And my shoes STILL stayed clipped in.

I've done a bit of a mess to my left knee...so much for looking good in shorts and short skirts! And my left hip is going to be purple. It's not my favorite color, but maybe it will look good on me? I know it's plenty sore anyway.

Luckily I didn't break the skin of my hand open when I hit. I wouldn't be able to massage. I'm a bit bruised from hitting the street, but no broken skin there on my palm, and no broken bones. Just a bloody knee, bruised hip, and a more than bruised ego! My nether parts are kind of tender too....I hit my pubic bone on the bar of the bike when I went down as well.....I can't tell though if the soreness I feel is from hitting that bar, or just from 20 miles in the seat.

I did get up and FINISHED my ride....after pulling over to a mailbox, hanging on to it for balance, and testing just what it would take to get my foot out of the clip at the NEXT rest stop, or whenever Id need to stop. It's still pretty tight. Going to have to loosen it up a bit, and you have to try to remove your foot LONG before you stop..you can't stop on a dime anymore.

I've been pretty sore for most of the day. I gave myself a treat to feel better...went for a pedicure :c) So now my pink toenails will contrast with my purple hip and my bloody scabbed up knee....color coordinated?

I want to wish a happy mother's day to all the mothers in our reader's circle. I hope it is a special memorable day for you!

Bonnie

Is This Better?

This is a pic of 4 of the blocks separated by the sashings (made from 3 bricks) and filled in at the corners with 2.5" cut cornerstone squares. If I set the quilt this way...it is going to be VERY much bigger....I have 30 blocks to set 5 X 6.

Anyone think that the blocks look more like the pavement picture below by the addition of the bricky sashing between the blocks? HELP!

Bonnie

Ewwwww?

Some things just are ewwww...and what works in your mind, just doesn't translate to fabric. These are the blocks laid block to block...what I was going to use for sashings is laid against the outside as a maybe inset border. But still. Here I was going on and on about the Ghee's Bend quilts....wanting to make a quilt that looked like I had used everything with little rhyme or reason, and I'm not crazy about it! Charity Quilt Anyone? :c|


The pics above are of a cobbled pavement in monnickendam. We had stopped there on the way home from Marken to look around, and it was this picture that really inspired me, but it looks better in bricks than in brick fabrics!
Bonnie

Rainy Sunday.....

It's Raining, It's Pouring, and Bonnie feels like Snoring..*lalalalala!* That's what kind of lazy day I'm having, but boy do I need it! I need to just unwind to refuel for the next week coming up. I'm not even sure what it will bring. I've got some clients scheduled, Friday I'm going to do chair massage in a Dr's office for his staff..that should be fun! Guild meeting tomorrow night in Aiken. Was hoping I'd have a quilt ready to deliver to a client there, but it's just not going to happen..Jet Lag has dragged me down more than I thought it would.

I am playing with an idea for a quilt though.....I've got a bin of bricks in the 2.5"X4.5" size..and a lot of strips that width too, so I am thinking of a bricky something. I spent time in Lucy's garden....just pouring over every word in her huge book that she got on the Ghee's Bend quilts. I am SO inspired by the stories the quilters told. Can you imagine having to make quilts, not just because you wanted to, but because you had to to keep warm in the winter? Sometimes sleeping under 10 or more quilts to keep the chill off? Several people to a bed huddled together for warmth? And you couldn't go to the store to buy whatever fabric you want to make the quilts pretty....no....you are limited to old clothes, dungarees, aprons, dresses that are too worn out to be clothing, but can be cut into scraps for quilts.

So here I come home and look at a fully stocked quilting studio.....how can I even THINK that I have nothing going on here to inspire me? I think we are definately OVER stimulated and that is why we get bored with our UFOs! SO....I'm making a bricks variation quilt, kind of a kick off of courthouse steps....It's just in the beginning stages but I'll send a pic when things are more looking like "QUILT". I'm using bricks that are already cut, and taking the shorter lengths of my strips and cutting them into 6.5" lengths and 8.5" lengths. Is your interest piqued?! :c) I think I'll piece the sashing between the blocks from bricks too...that is going to use A LOT of bricks. In my mind, this quilt reminds me of all the cobblestone streets and courtyards and front gardens in Holland. (but way more colorful!) The pic at the beginning of this post is of one of the streets in Haarlem....I don't know if you can see the cobbles or not..but they are there!

I'm also going through my pics and deciding what to post here for you to see. I loved the buildings so much. Especially the rooflines that did the 'stair step' thing. They are so wonderful to look at!


And that's it for now!
Bonnie

Home Again!

It is always good to be home, no matter how much fun you have while away! I think Dorothy said it all..."There's No Place Like Home!" This post rambled out very long, so please bear with it all! There is so much to talk about!

My body clock is all screwed up. And I thought I would have time to recover yesterday, but I ended up with 3 clients needing massages yesterday. AUUUGH! So...no rest for the weary! Not much unpacking either. But that's okay. I'm not in a hurry, I can do it a bit at a time, and the major house cleaning I wanted to do can also just be patient with me. Life is back in full swing!

I had such a wonderful time with Lucy and her family. These memories will live forever in my heart, and I hope we have lots more fun times ahead in the future. I can hardly wait until her whole family come to see ME this summer! We get to see each other two times in ONE YEAR..how cool is that?!

I love meeting quilters from all over, but never have I met anyone who is such a "carbon copy" of myself as Lucy. Even though we speak different languages, we can still finish each other's sentences and thoughts. She is definately my "heart sister". And people told us that we could BE sisters because of how similar we look! Tall, blonde, blue eyed and completely addicted quilters!

Something else I've always known deep down....FABRIC IS THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE! Even if you can't speak the language, when in a group with other quilters, you can see their eyes light up, and the ooh's and ahh's over fabric are the same in any language. It was SO great.

I uploaded about 175 pics from my camera! It's going to take a while for me to sort through them, name them (I hate it when they are all numbers and you don't know what anything is..) and figure out what I want to post about. I still feel like I didn't take ENOUGH pictures. And what to post, and what to say about it....my brain is so dead right now!


The pretty flower pics are from Lucy's back garden. There were a few days where the garden was warm and wonderful. We sat out enjoying the weather, having a cup of tea and looking through quilt books. :c) I took these pics to remind me of the beauty of Lucy's garden and the care she takes to have such a lovely welcoming home! She loves flowers, inside and out. My one regret is that her tree that is usually covered with pink blossoms was NOT quite ready to bloom yet..the weather wouldn't stay warm long enough! So...she will have to post pics of that tree in a couple weeks when it finally does pop. The buds are oh so ready!

This pic is of a street in Amsterdam. You can see that the weather turned VERY cold! Not a great day for beautiful photos. This pic was taken right off the stoop of Den Haan En Wagenmakers, the shop with the beautiful reproduction chintzes. Click the photo, I think you can make it bigger to see the sign that says "patch work" on it :c) This shop has the honor of being the home of the most expensive fabric I have ever bought in my life! *LOL* ONE FQ (a metric FQ) was NINE EURO! But it was a once in a life time purchase, I went for it. I want to reproduce the look of antique dutch quilts...*dreaming*


Aren't they GREAT?! I've never been much for really florally fabrics...but I love these antique ones. One quilt they had hanging in the shop just wowed me. It was hanging in the stair well, and I just had to get pics. It is PERFECT for using the dutch chintzes in the big center hexagon, and I love the combination of the plaids and solid black and red to show everything off. It's another quilt that proves to me that people who say "solids just read as flat" do NOT know what they are talking about! I'd love to draft this up. They only sold it as a kit, and there was no way to afford that! I snuck photos. I don't know if I was allowed to or not, but too bad. :c)



I am so far behind on catching up with everyone. I hope you will forgive me, and I hope to catch up with everyone's blog as soon as I can! I've got two clients scheduled today, one at 10am, one at 2:30pm...so in between I am planning on working more on my own hexagon UFO. I got quite a bit done while at Lucy's and sitting at the airport for layovers. We visited with another customer of mine (the one I put the 3 quilts in the space bags for!) on friday night after shopping at Den Haan. She had us to her house (oh wow, it was so unbelieveably GORGEOUS!) and showed us her quilts and studio, etc. So fun! It was a great evening! And I am so inspired by how much HAND PIECING she gets done. She has a crazy job with incredibly long hours and lots of stress...but she always keeps something in a little tin for hand piecing while waiting for this and that, and she gets TONS done! So...that's my inspiration. If she can do this with her crazy work schedule, so can I!

Rambling Still.....
Bonnie

Goat Farm Adventures :c)

Yesterday Lucy and I had a fun day taking her little girls to the goat farm! We also had a wonderful evening with her quilting friends and collegues at the shop where she works.

You can catch up with both of us on Lucy's Blog!

Bonnie

Too Small for Stash Shopping!

Just putting a quickie pic over here because there was no more room over on Lucy's Blog! I have hogged it all! I wonder if space on her blog is like "roll over minutes" My posts are long, hers are short...so she has more room for mine?! :cD

When I read "The Davinci Code" a couple of months back, I was curious as to what a "Smart Car" was. Today I found one! I think I can even put it in a SPACE BAG and bring it home with me :cD

Today's installment IS over at Lucy's Blog, so please stop by and follow our travels through the Waterland!

Bonnie

A Week In Holland...

This week my installments of my trip to The Netherlands will be found on Lucy's Blog! I hope you will come to her page and find out what we have been up to!

I will give you one hint....no sewing has happened yet at ALL..although we have talked about it a bit :c)

groetjes!
Bonnie & Lucy

The wonders of Packing...

I started packing for my trip last night. And freaking out because all this needs to fit in two bags, and a carry on! AUUGHH!

I mentioned that I was going to get some of those space bags. Let me tell you....THEY ARE AWESOME! They have this travel size that you don't need to have the vacuum to suck out the air....they are double zipped at the top, and you grasp the top, and roll it towards the bottom...there are one-way flow valves in the bottom that let OUT the air, but keep it from coming back in!

This is my coat! I know I need a warm coat there for evenings and mornings....and I didn't want to carry it on the plane, and it takes up A LOT of room in my luggage..so...voila! Suck the air out and here you have it! It's like..Coat-in-a-seal-a-meal!! Only these bags are reusable!

I can't go to Lucy's and not have a handwork project! I've seen so many pictures of her front living room and that comfy couch...now I'm going to be sitting on it enjoying the evening and her family and stitching on MY hexagons while she works on hers! (Or whatever she is working on!

Would you believe there are THREE quilts and their trimmings in the third space bag?! That batting holds a lot of air....Suck it all out and you have one small package! They might need to be dryer fluffed when we get there, but these would have nearly filled the suitcase by themselves if I didn't put them in a space bag!

This pic is of some goodies I'm taking to Lucy and her family. Other than the ballcap on top (for Pim) I don't think that she can tell what they are right now...they are all squooooooshed :c) Fun fun fun!
I also reamed the local goodwill store for a bunch of plaid shirts for her..all 100% cotton and NOT homespun. It's hard to find plaids that have an old look, but still that cotton feel, where homespun is really thick and ravelly, you know? So...I'm taking a bunch of shirts. Those are also packed into a space bag, along with 3 good sized samples of different battings for her....and it sucked out SO SMALL!

Now if I could only put space bags around my thighs and tummy and suck THOSE small too...wouldn't that be great? :c)

Bonnie