Winter colds..rainy days and stuffy heads and achy Bonnie!

I feel like the crud is knocking at my back door! I am drinking lots of herb tea, doing the "zicam" stuff and upping my vitamins trying to keep this thing at bay.

It's had me moving pretty slow over the weekend...yesterday (Sunday) I didn't get much of anything done, but did accomplish a much needed sunday afternoon NAP. I should have done the same today! Luckily with the weather being so ick, my 1pm client called to reschedule, and I am glad..because I don't want to pollute her either. I just hope this doesn't turn into a full blown sinus infection thing. The Chorale concert is this Sunday, the 28th!

The binding and hanging sleeve are finished on the epiphany stars. I need a good day outside on the fence to get a good pic of it, but really, it doesn't look much different than the pic farther down my blog...only the binding is finished instead of just laying there. So use your imagination ;c)

The binding is 1/2 done on the amish strings as well. Bindings are great to get done at work in between clients, and I think I can pace myself on them....

I have enjoyed the comments on the lilies quilt. I've taken everyone's opinions into consideration. It's fun how we all see things differently. I am going with the string blocks because it speaks to me. They probably don't speak to everyone else the same way, but they do to me. They make me happy, where as before, the blocks made me SNORE. I have fun imagining people long after I'm gone thinking or saying "WHAT THE HECK WAS SHE THINKING WHEN SHE DID THIS?!?" Those are the kinds of things I love looking for in antique quilts, and maybe someone will have fun perusing over my quilts in some future life.

I'm on to piecing the side setting triangles. None got done today...I finished a customer quilt instead. After that I got my "Bonnie loves to play with blocks" quilt machine basted so I can start the hand quilting on it at some point (after the bindings are done). Tomorrow is my birthday...I'll be 45!! I'm freaking out. I never thought I'd be this old...so the treat for myself was to get that quilt top basted.

It's only 9:30pm but I'm going to go get into jammies and call it an early night....maybe some nyquil will help me sleep this thing off...

Bonnie

More From The UFO Bin

These are not forgotten blocks....these are blocks that have PURPOSELY been stuffed back. I made these around 1999/2000 and they just never went anywhere. They were "too beige" or something. I wasn't sure. I loved the pattern, I hated the sage green I used for the stems/leaves....if I did it now, I would have used several greens, not all the same washed out grey/green. But that was then, this is now!

Because the UFO bin was in front of me and I had been digging through it over the past couple days, sorting, revisiting, culling, reorganizing, I pulled them out. I laid them out on the floor (in the new den...aha! that floor has another purpose!) and again....TOO BEIGE! I'm sure the beige carpet was not helping. The blocks are 14" finished. Another reason I'm not thrilled with them. I just don't get into BIG BLOCKS. What to do?

I asked myself how Gwennie or Freddie would handle something like this...how to dress up the blaah?? I needed to pull in bright and scrappy and impulsive. I started piecing some string blocks just for fun, thinking if they didn't work out, they could always go into a charity quilt. WOW...a lot of these strings are REALLY bright because I have people from guild who continually hand me baggies of "stuff" at guild meetings. It is fun to sew with other people's trimmings!

So here are some blocks laid out with altnernate string blocks....and I'm asking for thoughts. Do I go for it? Really try to wonk these boring lilies up? Can I turn it into a quilt that I will LOVE?

Here is a shot of the den from the doorway before I laid everything on the floor...I forgot to upload this one the other day.

Bonnie

Furniture Update...

My chairs arrived yesterday. They are perfect! This was a 4th bedroom, so it was a heck of a time finding chairs that were NOT so overstuffed that they wouldn't fit through the door...so many of the chairs now are HUGE, if you know what I mean. I also didn't want them taking up the whole room. I originally thought recliner but they have to be too far from the wall...

Most of my furniture has always been antique and very traditional. I wanted something different for this room, something a bit wild. Not TOO wild...but, still different for me! The walls are yellow. The color isn't accurate in the photos because of the flash, but it really picks up the yellow rectangles in the upholstery of the chairs.

The cabinet between the chairs is actually a treadle sewing machine. The front door opens, and the treadle is inside. The top flips open, and the machine rises. It was quite a find. I love the eastlake detail on it. It goes well with the old computer armoir that I am using for the flat panel TV inside. Direct TV comes on Feb 1st to hook me up. The other TV's in the house are already direct TV. DH wanted the DVR, so when they brought that,it left us with an extra receiver, and that's what spawned this whole idea even farther.

I have to tell you though...when he came home to see the chairs, the first thing he did was pop a FOOTBALL DVD into my player! AUUUGHHHH!!! This is NOT what I intended for this room! There are two other TVs in the house where he can play all the sports he wants...I had plans for watching a BBC DVD that I picked up at the library. What is it with men and sports anyway??

The box of batting to the side of the TV...auuughh! I am trying my best to use that up and I have pieced battings from it this week....both for the epiphany stars, and for the "lost bricks" (*LOL*) top I rediscoved yesterday. I am including a pic of how I simply butt the batting pieces together, overlapping by about 1/8" and set my machine on the widest/longest zig zag and just zip them together. I'll piece lengths together to make a piece long enough for either the width or the length of the quilt (plus about 6") and then when there are enough lengths, I zig zag them together in rows. It's not exciting, but those batting scraps work great and let's face it...we've paid good money for the original batting they came from. I just can't throw them away if they are of any good size at all.

Those of you who posted yesterday about the "found blocks" You jerked my memory! Yes, I made them after coming home from Lucy's and wanting to make a quilt that looked like the brick pavements. But it just wasn't working, and my mind lost interest (evidently! *LOL*) Funny how stepping back from them for a while cleared out my pre-conceived notions of what I wanted, and allowed me to just play with them and go with what THEY wanted to be. I won't post a pic of that yet, I want you to feel the suspense! Besides, I have two bindings and sleeves to finish yet before I get any farther than that, and I have customer quilts going too.

Tomorrow I am taking an "ending migraine" CEU course with the other therapists in my office. We get a lot of people in with chronic headaches, and this is one that I am really looking into to learn more how to help relieve that for people. Last wednesday there was a gal at choir practice who's jaw was hurting so bad, her TMJ was flaring up. I had her lay down on the couch during break and worked on her facial muscles and neck muscles a bit and dang if it didn't release and she wasn't in pain anymore! To me that is just awesome and makes it all worth it.

Bonnie

Block Source

Amy had posted that she had found this block pattern in a book. I don't doubt it! It is a public domain block called "Crayon Box" I found it in block base and thought it would (at one time, before it got waylaid) be fun to play with.

Here is the pic from block base where I got my inspiration.

Bonnie

Did You Ever?!

Did you ever open up a UFO bin and find a pile of blocks you ony vaguely remember making? I mean...I remember doing a couple test blocks, but I had no idea or memory that I had made THIRTY of them and they just need to be set together? I know they are mine. They are all my fabrics. It was a 2.5" strip project. Why did this get stalled and put aside?

Who knows. Maybe there ARE gnomes who come sewing in the middle of the night!

I think this was supposed to be a charity quilt that got waylaid during school. All I need to do is sash/border it....man...some of these fabrics are UGLY! (time has not improved their ugliness either!)There was probably something I did not like about them (other than the fabrics?!)

I went to the UFO bin to pull out some other string projects that had been started/stopped/started/stopped. I wanted to see if there was anything that could jump start me into finishing them for the heartstrings quilt project...and these blocks were buried under a partially pieced string kaleidoscope.

Bonnie

Amish Strings Done!

I finished the hand quilting on the Amish Strings quilt Sunday night. Last night, I got as far as getting the binding and the hanging sleeve on, but I was too tired to do any further stitching on it..

Plus...because the new chairs are coming today, the old crappy chair I was using had to be removed from the den so there was no comfortable place to sit and stitch even if I felt like it! They already called this morning on the chair delivery...they said between 9am and 11am...so we will see.

If you look close (click the pic to enlarge)you can see my chalk lines. I'll wash the quilt after the binding/sleeve are finished. I'm hoping for a very puckery antique look to it. I used the quilter's dream cotton batting.

I worked on the binding on the Epiphany Stars quilt in between clients at work. I got 3 sides done, so that leaves the 4th side and the hanging sleeve left on that.

Finishing bindings is giving my hand quilting callouses a few days off...I think they need it!

Some one asked me if I put hanging sleeves on everything. And yes, mostly I do! (Unless it is a charity quilt) I hate it when quilt show time comes around and I have a stack of quilts without sleeves that all need to be attached at last minute. So I do them as I am putting on the binding. Maybe the quilts will never be shown....or hung....doesn't matter. The sleeves use up left over stash, often matching the backing, or fabrics in the front of the quilt, and then I don't need to think about it.

Bonnie

Epiphany!

Epiphany is one of my favorite words. I just love the way it feels on my tongue and rings in my ears. This is a great definition of Epiphany: a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.

I just finished putting the binding on the star quilt so all that is left to do is turn it to the back and hand stitch it down, along with the hanging sleeve. (I think I like hanging sleeves...they easily take up a 1/2yard of fabric out of the stash!)

These blocks sat in a baggie for 14 months...and I just didn't know how they were going to go together. There were too many "friendship" stars....some spun one way, some spun the other. A really weird combination of fabrics from light pastels (with green, yellow and pink in them!) when the fabrics were supposed to be blue and white (or cream) some old heart prints (we are talking 1980's here folks!) and metallics....calicos, solids, plaids, stripes, dots, florals, you name it, it is in here. I just did not know how to pull it all together!

That's when Epiphany happened. Simple, even homely,common-place blocks yelled at me from their baggie to JUST DO IT! Just quit stewing and get out on the floor and start laying them out and dare to PLAY. Voila...Epiphany. I couldn't believe that I had this top together so fast after having the blocks for 14 months. I started quilting last night, and here it is ready to do the binding. Epiphany! Sometimes it just works. It's that aha moment when things just click.

Epiphany seems like a fitting name for this quilt.

I'm off to bind.....
Bonnie

Quilting Stars

Last night after dinner I loaded the "Stars" quilt top that I made with the blocks that were sent to me from stashbuster friends when I graduated from massage therapy school. I finished the top a couple weeks ago.

I wanted to quilt something "cosmos" like over it......The feeling of a universe, a milky way, something...I was NOT in the mood to freehand anything. My brain wasn't feeling that creative. I looked through everything I had, not sure how to make up my mind, holding up each pattern over the quilt, will this do? will it not? I finally decided on a pattern called "little splash" because it has more motion than just "swirly".

It is looking so fun against these various blocks! Because this top was made by a gazillion different people with different tastes in fabrics, it has EVERYTHING from little heart prints to metallics, to batiks, etc. Something needs to pull this all together! I'm using a light blue thread because it travelled the best between whites/cream on creams/ light blues/dark blues without screaming out "too much contrast" between either dark or light fabrics.

I hope to finish quilting it today, get the binding machined on, so I can do the hand stitching tonight. I'm counting down the days until my new chairs arrive! I want to go to Target/Home Depot/Lowes etc...and see if I can find a graphic looking throw rug for the floor to further warm up the room, which of course means I'll need new curtains, and that rose border at the top of the yellow walls is going to HAVE to go! My dilemma is....it doesn't seem to want to peel away from the wall easily. (It was here when we bought the house) and I need to be careful enough not to damage the paint, and I will probably have to scout around (along with scouting for the rug) for a funkier border to cover up what I have removed....

Busy Bonnie

I Downsized!

This might sound like not a biggie to anyone....but it IS to me!!

First off, my stash has been out of control for years. How that can be when I still turn out as many quilts as I seem to get out....means that my buying was really out of control for a long time. I didn't spend money on clothes, shoes, jewelry, manicures, fancy hair highlight jobs, facials, country club memberships, etc that a lot of "modern" women seem to spend money on.

I wasn't a coffee drinker either so none of those expensive latte's for me...I know people who have a HUGE starbucks addiction that would fund any quilter's stash buying habits!

I am a home body......and my vice? Not being able to pass up a Joann's coupon before expiration date or a "free shipping" sale on an online quilt shop....fabric (and quilts/quilting) was my drug of choice! It still is....only now, if you were to look in my house, you'd say I own the pharmacy! *LOL*

The past couple of weeks I have been working on revamping our 4th bedrioom into a small cozy den. My term as quilt guild charity quilt chairperson ended with the start of the new year, so I was able to clean out a closet and give all the guild fabric to the new person taking over. This opened space for me to start condensing....If you have seen pics of my STASH (this is only part of it, it includes stuff UNDER THE LONG ARM MACHINE and ROLLING CARTS and lots of assorted bins and baggies......and the remainder of that den-room closet. The fabric left in there after I ditched the charity stash back to it's new owner are fabrics that I have set aside to use for my own charity quilts, backings, and other weirdities that I didn't want to put in with the regular stash.

But I digress...The den room closet was now 1/2 empty, so I started to shift things around, condense a bit, make room, shuffle...and last night I actually had ONE EMPTY BIG WHITE CUPBOARD!!!You don't know how excited this made me. This means that little by little, I am seeing that I AM using up stash. Maybe not 100 yds in a year (though I must be close to it really...) and because I could donate the cupboard to DH to use in the garage for all his cycling gear, I have more space in the den room for the two new chairs that I bought :c) They will be delivered on tuesday.

Isn't it amazing how we spend so many years collecting, obtaining, gathering, hoarding.....and then we spend all this time wanting to slim down, to declutter, reorganize, simplify? There has to be life's lessons in there somewhere.

One cupboard completely empty....and I'm a happy quilter!

Bonnie

Full Quilt Shot!

The day dawned windy and chilly....could it be that it is finally turning
winter in South Carolina?

Monday was a busy busy day. I was at the massage clinic all day...I
didn't even have time to go home and grab my show and tell before heading to
a quilt guild meeting in Aiken!

The yearly Carolina Pine Quilter's retreat to Hilton Head (During the Jinny
Beyers Convention) is underway, all be it on a much smaller scale this year,
which I am welcoming! Sarah has rented the condo through her company and
got a special rate. There is room for 6 to 8 of us to bring our projects and
sew for the weekend of Feb 2, 3, and returning home on the 4th!

What makes february also fun is that I have another retreat in Feb and we plan on having loads of fun. I see a lot of UFOs making it to top stage at least this year. I'd like to concentrate on turning tops into quilts too...but we all know how that goes.

Here is a pic of the "Bonnie Loves To Play With Blocks" Top! It was windy
against the fence, so I had to snag this photo quick before the wind whipped
it up again.

Also! I have 3 1/2 blocks left to quilt (and the sashings that surround
them) on the amish string quilt...it is coming along!

Last night(wednesday night) was rehearsal for Durufle's Requiem. I have to say that as much as I enjoy it, by the end of the rehearsal I was toast! He worked us like singing dogs! But we only have 2 more wendesday night rehearsals before we have the concert on Jan 28th. I can't wait to rehearse WITH the philharmonic. There is something SO COOL about singing with an orchestra...lalalallalala!

This morning it's off to the dentist for me...one small little cavity needs filled, and then off to the office to massage! Have a great day everyone!

Lazy Rainy Sunday

It rained and rained yesterday.....a warmish rain, felt more like october than january! But still, mighty wet.

The only sewing I got done was to put the borders on the orphan block quilt....it's done! It's also too big to get a pic laid out on the floor anywhere....until it is dry enough outside to take a pic on my fence...

But here is a close up of the border fabrics....you can see the red inner border that I used. It has little palmetto trees on it, which has meaning for me since the palmetto is the state tree of South Carolina, it is even shown on our car license plates....

The string quilt I am hand quilting is coming along...only 5 more blocks to finish and it is done. It's going to work with me today so hopefully I can get some stitches in between clients....

Bonnie

More Retreat Fun!

Here is another project I took to the retreat at Tonya's. I had pieced the center last year from all orphan blocks. It used quite a bit of them, and it was amazing that I didn't have to make many "filler" blocks/areas. It just fit together.


I tried to do like old antique quilts, and group alike blocks together. I've seen that time and time again in antique quilts that they didn't mix them up so they were spread all over...they had sections of this and sections of that, and I kind of wanted that idea for this quilt.

The sayings go:
Bonnie Likes to Play With Blocks. (left side)
Little Pieces Make Her Happy (top)
Most Of All She Likes Them Scrappy (right side)
BKH Irmo, SC 2007 (bottom)

I just have to add the spacer strips to the bottom and top of the pieced letter sections to make them 6" finished (They are at 4" finished now) and then add 6" widths to either end of each border to make them long enough.

I'm going to add a narrow inner border of red before setting the letter border on the quilt, just to give it a bit of a spacer before setting the letters in there...

On the home front...I've been working on a re-do of our 4th bedroom which has been an office/massage therapy room. I cleaned out the old computer armoir, moved things around....I brought in a chair (I need a more comfy one though so I will be chair shopping) and yesterday I went and bought a TV to go into the armoir. Direct TV is coming to hook up the room in a few weeks....and I will have a cozy place to read, watch HGTV if I want, hand quilt.....I'm excited about having this room be a "den" and still have room in there to set up the massage table if I have a client that needs to see me at home.

This past year I lost the living room to the pool table....the dining room to DH's biking/sporting gear so he and his buds can train indoors....and I lost the beautiful guest room (where I liked to go read in quiet) to Jason when he moved back home. So I am happy to be making better use of that 4th bedroom and having it more "quilter friendly" :c)

Bonnie

Bonnie & Tonya's Great Adventures!

Hi All!

I just returned yesterday afternoon after spending a retreat week in Florida with our Tonya! What could be better? Good friends together sans hubbies for New Years..spending a week SEWING and finding fun places to have lunch or dinner! (Let's face it..REAL men don't do tea rooms..*heheh*)

Tonya had thought ahead and we had two folding tables to set up for our retreat stations. At first, we used one as a cutting table by putting bed risers under it...great idea..it worked perfectly! And we set our machines up on the other one facing eachother while we sewed.

Now, this was no ORDINARY retreat...this was a retreat with a purpose! It was a stretching experience for both of us. Tonya told me to bring a bunch of my smallest bits, and we were going to crumb piece. Now those of you who know me know that most of my fabrics are on the traditional side, with a few others mixed in from people who have donated me their scraps (always fun!) And Tonya's fabrics are more towards the brights and batiks....the challenge? To mix them TOGETHER without thinking too hard and just go for it, not worrying about what goes with what, etc...NO RULES!

We crumb pieced using different methods. Some we just pieced without foundations...many log cabin style. Some we used 3.5" foundations cut from phone book pages for some others just for variety....We also did some wonky stars!

While I was a piecing fiend on the crumb blocks (we pieced a total of 339 blocks!) Tonya started doing some letters so I could incorporate words into my quilt. We both have each other's initials as well as our own in our quilts..because this was a joint project!

When we had enough blocks, we laid them out on the floor and did the "taking turns' of picking from the pile which ones we wanted in our quilts. That was fun....we both gravitated towards different blocks!

Tonya supplied me some red moda marble and a purple batik for my sashings and cornerstones....and I commenced webbing my top together into connected rows..before long it was off the floor so Tonya could use the floor space to lay hers out and start sewing hers together.

We have two nearly identical quilts, but each as different from each other as they are the same :c)



We sewed and sewed so much
we even wore out Pokey!


On the home front....my friend Mary Kay passed away on Friday evening. She was an amazing woman and I am glad that I spent the time that I did with her while she was in hospice. I felt bad not being able to be there for her funeral. Her funeral was Tuesday, and I got home from Florida on Wednesday. But I was there in spirit. I was really touched to learn that in lieu of flowers on her casket, they had used the quilt that she and I had made together as a pall. All those bright colors in that quilt! That is so representative of MK's life. She was bright and beautiful inside and out and I will miss her very much.

Bonnie

Bindings and Friends..

I had the weirdest experience this morning. I woke up about 5:30am to the sound of BEEP from the power going off....and back on....and back off...and back on..and back off...I finally got up when it came back on again and dragged myself downstairs only to have it go back OFF again...right in the middle of my picking the meat out off of the bones of the turkey carcass I had cooked in the crock pot. PITCH BLACK. It was still dark outside...the whole neighborhood was dark....and I stood there in my kitchen in total darkness waiting for the power to flip back on..and of course it didn't!

I found my way to the drawer in the kitchen where the BBQ lighter is. It wasn't there! But I felt around for the spare, and found it still in it's package. I opened it by feel...clicked it on..and voila. A little flame of light. I made my way through the kitchen and family room lighting every candle and kerosene lamp in sight, and then recommenced picking the turkey meat off the bones, and bones out of the turkey meat by lamp light!

It was also very quiet in the house at this hour, and without TV or music, I was able to do a lot of thinking about my friend and her illness. (The power came on at some point during the morning) I went and spent a few hours with her this afternoon. It was very difficult. She didn't look like herself at all of course...I think she has lost 1/2 her body weight (which wasn't much) in the 10 days since I had seen her. I'm grateful for the time I got to spend with her today. She is in and out of sleep..(mostly in) thanks to morphine...but she did wake up enough to recognise me and I talked to her a bit....I am grateful for hospice care and that she is surrounded by her family and not feeling much pain.

I'll go spend more time with her tomorrow....I keep thinking of what an inspiration this gal is. She has been a real dynamo. She hasn't let her cancer slow her down one bit...Heck, several times I'd stop by to see HER, only to be told that she was out running this errand, doing this girl's on the run thing, or at soccer practice with her kids, or substituting school....you couldn't pin her down for anything! What an amazing lady.

I finished the binding on the 4 patch and furrows quilt. Here are some pics of the quilt hung on my fence outside, and my attempt to show you some close ups of the quilting...

Bonnie

Borders Done...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Last night was so fun.....the two Christmas Eve services I sang for went great, and there was a beautiful meal prepared for the choir in between...ham, roast beef, all the trimmings, lots of desserts....and here I thought I was going to be able to cut back on food since we returned from the cruise! NOT! I got home about 1am and fell promptly to sleep. (without the visions of sugarplums dancing in my head...)

This morning was restful and leisurely. It is sure nice having older children who sleep in a bit. I remember those 5am Christmas mornings....I can't tell you if I miss them or not, maybe just a little, but sleeping in on a Christmas morning has it's good sides too.

My big pressie? a ROOMBA robotic vacuum! What a hoot! I think the boys are having more fun with it than I am...and I get clean floors in the process. It's a win-win situation!

We had a lovely turkey dinner as a family at home. The pumpkin pie is still waiting for tonight....but the turkey carcass is simmering in the crockpot for tomorrow's (and the next day, and the next...) turkey soup.

I was able to finish the snaggletooth border on the stashbusting stars quilt....and it says it is DONE to me! I think binding will finish this one off just fine, and because the snaggle teeth are all sizes, the points won't be cut off in the binding seam, and if some do...I don't care..it's part of the effect. I'm really happy with how this top turned out, and SO FAST! If I had known it would be so fast, I would have started it sooner? Mostly it was because I have had an abundance of blue quilts in my recent past and playing with another just stumped me.....I still have one more set of blue swap blocks that I won in a block lotto to work up into a quilt too. Can we say blue overload?

We went and saw "Night at the Museum" at the movies for Christmas Afternoon....it's been a tradition the past several years to go to the movies after Christmas dinner. It was a very fun family movie, hilarious in parts, and we really liked it. I recommend it for kids of all ages :c)

I got a bad email this afternoon....my friend Mary Kay has become very ill with her cancer. The email from her hubby said she is now under hospice care. They don't expect her to last long. This is very hard for me because I was just working with her on getting that tshirt quilt and pillow cases done for her daughter. I just saw her before leaving for our cruise, and in a week's time she has gone downhill so very fast. I'll call tomorrow and see if she is up to seeing me. This has to be so hard for her family right now. I just can't imagine it.

Bonnie

Wonky Snaggletooth Border

I decided to frame the quilt with a wonky snaggletooth border ala' Gwen Marston! I have always wanted to do one of these, but thought it would be a lot of work....since I didn't have much work in putting the top together, I decided I could take the time to piece in the border....more and more it is coming together!

I'm going to have the snaggleteeth change direction in the center of each side...not sure what I'll put in the corners...it's a 4" border..so anything in there would have to be very small...if anything. Maybe just plain background squares for eye resting spaces.

And here in a bit I better get my act together and get myself ready for christmas eve!

Bonnie

Stashbusting Stars....

When I graduated from Massage Therapy School 13 months ago (has it been that long already?) The Stashbuster's group stuffed my mailbox with squishies! Stars of all shapes and sizes in blue/neutral.

These have sat for a year because I just didn't know how I was going to put them together....the sizes are 3", 6", 9" and 12"....and that can be a bit of a challenge!

This morning I pulled out the blocks and started playing with them on the floor...this is what I came up with!

There was one place where I needed ONE MORE 9" block..and I just didn't want to have to piece anything so I started digging through orphan blocks to see what would work. I found a blue chunky churn dash in a 9" size that fit the bill....it can be me odd-ball maverick block because I just did NOT want to cut and piece a 9" star *LOL*

Now I have to start sewing the sections together and into a top. It feels great to be able to have time with my machine. I don't do any machine quilting for anyone else until I get back from visiting Tonya on Jan 3rd, so this time is for me and my UFOs!

Bonnie

Double 4 Patch & Furrows Quilting

I took some pics of the quilting before I got it off the frame to bind, I thought I would upload it here for you to see!

I got this panto from Willow Leaf Studios and it is called WILD AT HEART...(Just love their stuff!)and it is JUST what I wanted. I'm not big on cute hearts, never have been...either that or I was seriously burned out on them...but this is the first heart panto that I really like....it goes good with the pink I think ;c)

I hope to finish the binding tomorrow...tonight will be too busy with singing for the 2 Christmas eve services.....

Bonnie

How Much Quilting on a Cruise?

When we left on the cruise I had two sides of the borders just about completed with the baptist fans. So while on the cruise, I was able to quilt the two remaining sides, and start on the inside of the quilt where I have quilted some of the sashings and 3 of the blocks of string piecing. It is slower going on the inside than it was on the outside, but I am really liking it!

My callouses are good and strong now, so I can't let them get soft again, right? I'll be bringing this quilt with me to Tonya's when I go see her on the 28th. I feel like such a traveling girl :c)

I have also started sewing down the binding on the double 4 patch and furrows quilt...I'll post a pic of it as soon as it is done. My mom does the neatest thing for us for christmas, she makes DVDs of all the great old movies, and sends them..I love them! Last night I watched "bringing up baby" and "adams rib" with Katharine Hepburn...I love those old movies, so funny! So I worked on the binding while watching those classics...

Tonight I am singing with the Cathedral Chorale for two Christmas Eve services. I am really looking forward to it. I really feel like I have found a community there and the music fills my heart and my soul. It's good to be home.

I am wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a terrific and quilty New Year...Happy Holidays if you celebrate in any other way and may 2007 be the best one yet...

Love to you!
Bonnie

More Cruise!

I have more pics I want to post. I still can't get over the color of the water in the carribean....it is luminescent! Like it is lit from below, you know?

The swimming with the stingrays and the mayan ruins in Tulum were my highlights. To get to the sting rays on Grand Caymen, we bussed out to the other side of the island, and then boarded a fishing type boat where we went out to sea about 1/2 hour...very CHOPPY water, it was so windy! And there in the middle of the ocean is a reef where it is only 4 feet deep. The water is about 80 degrees, and crystal clear. And it is FULL of stingrays that are so friendly. You can pet them, and if you stand still they will sweep up your legs as they swim by. We had snorkels and masks and could swim with them...it was just AMAZING.

Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas!

We returned yesterday from our cruise to the western carribean, and wow...what a time it was! uploading pics in order is always a challenge, so I hope you will bear with me..the title on the pic itself should give a clue as to what/where it was!

It was a great time, but we learned something...sailing cheaply out of Charleston meant that the cruise was full of fat drunken uncultured rednecks.....it was a riot watching the people...OMG..you wouldn't have believed it! Now before someone gets on me for not being politically correct...I'm sorry, but I don't know how else you would describe this lot. Uncouth in the dining room, tatoos and piercings blaring, loud obnoxious dirty language abounding..it was interesting, let me tell you. It was like the love boat meets hee-haw. And add in a good dose of harley davidson!

Never the less, the Grand Caymans were beautiful...we went on a sailing excursion there and got to swim with the sting rays..awesome. we also snorkled on a coral reef, all kinds of fish...beautiful.

The water is so AQUA clear...

Then we went to Cozumel, and to Playa del Carmen, Mexico.....we travelled out to some Mayan Ruins in Tulum....amazing. I always wanted to see the mayan ruins. It was incredible, the view from the sea, the aqua water, the white sandy beaches, and these ruins...

Key west wasn't such a big deal, but we'd been there before. we were only there for the evening so about all you could do is get off the ship, find somewhere to eat....when you didn't feel like eatting because all you've done on the ship for 6 days is EAT.. ;c)

There was plenty of time out at sea, and I was able to work on my quilting project a bit each day. I got quite a bit done on hand quilting the amish string quilt I'm working on....

It was a great time!

Bonnie