Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooommmmmmmmme!

I made it home in 8 hours, door to door from Kathie's house in Pittsburgh, PA to my own home in Wallburg, NC....I thought it would take longer! But then I didn't stop anywhere other than to fill up with gas and visit the facilities...just couldn't make myself even pull over for an antique mall or a gorge view overlook photo op in West Virginia....just...KEEP ON DRIVING!

I've got a week before I teach in Asheboro NC, and I am so excited to be visiting local quilters! That's only an hour down the road and I love those ladies down there!

This week's goal is to get the next book quilts ALL LABELED and ready to ship to Kansas City for the photo shoot on Aug 13th. They need to be shipped ahead of time because I can't carry those AND the trunk show on the plane with I go there on the 8th.

I've been thinking a lot about labels....and while computer generated looks great...more and more as I study antique quilts I am leaning to grabbing a micron pigma pen and just writing on the back of the quilt....it can't be removed that way....it will have MY handwriting on it to tell the story.

I just think that over time we will lose the intimate connection to a person's signature if everything is printed out in computer font all the time.

My mom still writes letters. She writes hand written notes and letters to all of her 8 kids, and all the grand kids in turn...I have stacks of her letters and I love seeing her handwriting on an envelope. I also know that inside that envelope there will be cartoons cut out of magazines she knows will bring a smile to my face, and there will be a stick of gum wrapped in a dollar bill. And I am always so excited to see it come!

So here we are in the information age, and we are great on communication by email, by text, by phone calls,by internet chat.....but all of our contacts are electronic and gone with a click of the delete button.

What about that stack of love letters? Remember those, the ones you saved? (if you did) Do kids save anything now? How personal can it be when it isn't written by that person's hand? How can we reflect back to it if we just reply and delete, reply and delete..poof, it's gone? That is....unless it is on twitter, then it goes into the library of congress? O_o

This is just something I've been thinking about as I face labeling these 12 quilts ready for the next book. Hand writing. Personal signatures. That connection with that person from years ago long gone. The stories that quilts and letters and personal memoirs leave behind for those who come after......what do our own signatures and handwriting tell about who we are?

Or doesn't it matter any more??

In between gigs....

It has been a go go go go go kind of week! Hard to believe it's Monday and I left Tuesday, and I haven't had one minute to post an update! How can that be?

Well, Tuesday I was on the road all day. And
I do LOVE being on the road all day.....Sites to see, places to go! And heading toward these mountains? Bliss!

I take some back roads to get me on 220 up toward Roanoke, VA. I get so excited when I start seeing the Blue Ridge appear in front of me!

Roanoke is one of my favorite small cities. It has a vibrant downtown district, unique shops, great restaurants, and I was hankering to visit a place that I went to on a past trip, maybe 8 years ago. EIGHT YEARS? Would it still be there?


I parked here...just below the historic Hotel Roanoke, and went up into the walkway that goes across the train yards:

There is my little car viewed from the walkway windows...


and on down the escalators to the other side! It was about 150 degrees in that walkway...it was a HOT DAY!

And on to the streets!

And the place I remembered, the place I was hankering for....was still there!



Back in the car.....a couple more hours up the road, and tom tom took me up to Harrisonburg, VA and to the Virginia Quilt Museum!



Even the logo had my palms sweating! I couldn't wait to get inside and see the collection.



I couldn't take pics inside, but I will tell you that it was well worth the drive and the visit to see the beautiful antique quilts. I've got two books of Virginia quilts, and to see these in person was just such a thrill.

The museum was open til 5...and I pushed the limits on my welcome I am sure! From then on....I drove on up to Lancaster, found a place to stay for $45. Yes. $45.

Now this is funny. It said breakfast included...which to me meant maybe cereal, yogurt, fruit. In fact, it was a loaf of white bread and a toaster!! No kidding! Breakfast? well...for $45 a night, I could afford to wait until I got to the Amish Bakery and really make it worth my while (There was no jam for the bread either, just butter...lol!!)

I'll continue on later...this was just my travels for Day 1!

Remember to set your watches for Pat's radio show today!

Live...from Pennsylvania!

It's the Pat Sloan Show!!


And you can listen in! Every Monday at 4pm EST she broadcasts her Creative Talk radio show.

I'll be the featured guest of the SECOND HALF of the show on Monday, July 26th! You won't want to miss it!

After it is taped, the show will be on her page at the radio station FOR-EVER! You can listen online or download it when you have time (which I HOPE is right away!).

I'll also link to the show archive here on my blog and on my website so if you miss it (wrong time zone or life just got in the way, we know how it goes..)you'll be able to listen in.

Be sure to go to Pat's Blog on the July 26th post....

Leave a comment telling her your favorite part of my interview!

Stay tuned for more info!

I left the Hershey show this morning, and will be teaching in Pittsburgh this week. It's been SUPER hot, but super fun as well! I know this is a short post, but I wanted to get the radio show info up here so that you'd be sure to listen in!

Fixing The Train Wreck...

Sunday, while quilting "Welcome Home"....I had a bit of an accident - - a TRAIN WRECK of an accident! And I was commiserating this fact (While keeping any "cursing like a sailor" type adjectives out of my posts)on the Quiltville Friends Page on facebook.

What happened? Weeeeeeeeeeeellll...best as I can tell, the machine was humming along while I watched, and it hit a thick spot. The needle snapped, but the machine keeps going, and that broken needle shaft just kept poking holes in the quilt, breaking the fabric threads and making a general mess of things while I fumbled for the OFF button and got the machine to come to a full stop. It doesn't just instantly stop...it's got some momentum going, you know? And whammo. TRAIN WRECK.



This prompted a whole discussion on how I was going to fix the train wreck. Applique something? Well...there really isn't any way to do a "recognizable" something that close to the edge, but I could add a strip and wonky that area up as if it was originally pieced that way.

I could then quilt OVER the added area just as if it had always been there from the start. And that's what I did.

First, I went back and finished quilting the whole quilt. Took it out of the machine, and squared it up.



I found a 3.5" scrap strip of red that was just the ticket. I left myself a bit of raw edge, so that after stitching (yes through the whole quilt, the hanging sleeve was going to cover everything anyway)I could turn the raw edge right where the seam between the two blocks was.



After the strip was sewn, flipped, pressed and the raw edge turned and pinned, I simply appliqued that one turned edge in place along the block seam.



After removing the pins and pressing again, I took the quilt to the mat and trimmed off the excess strip even with the quilt edge.



Load Bernina with the fuscia thread, snap on the free motion quilting foot, and fill in the newly added area with stitching to blend in with the previous quilting. This was a challenge! My home machine skills are not as even as my compuquilter!! Good thing it was in an area where my herky-jerky stitching will not be THAT visible. Besides..the quilt now has a STORY right?



I already had my binding picked out...a black with a tealy-blue vine stripe. Cool. Put the binding on the quilt, going right over the train wreck area to further disguise it!



Apply Hanging Sleeve...which does a perfect job of hiding where the broken needle shaft had pushed pokies of batting through the broken thread holes. Yep...Hanging Sleeve to the rescue! (Isn't this a cool batik too? It's been in the stash forever. It has kind of a rough texture, so I'm glad to find it a home!)



Shot of quilting detail! I love this panto! This is "Paisley" by Darlene Epp. I had just finished quilting the LAST quilt for the book with this pattern and loved it so much I couldn't wait to use it again on the "Welcome Home" quilt. It is quilted with Fuscia...yes Fuscia...which blends into the reds well, and travels through the other colors quite nicely too!

I love looking at my life through fabric! Because of this train wreck, I was able to get up close and personal to what I had put in this quilt clear back in October...



I made this spacer section out of leader/ender 4 patches..and look what is in here! That pink calico that shows up every once in a while in my bins of precut squares and pieces. I made a DRESS out of this for my 2nd date with my hubby back in May of 1981. When I got married, the scraps came with me. You've come a long way baby!

Update on Baskets!

Some several someones have stated that Alex Anderson has a book with these kinds of baskets that finish at 4.5"

Hapsew Writes:

Hi Bonnie:
Your border looks great! It is perfect! How clever to use half square triangle blocks in the corners!

I started making baskets like those a number of years ago and the pattern was called Postage Stamp from Alex Anderson's book "Quilts for Fabric Lovers". The baskets are 4 1/2".

So there ya go folks! I think if you want to make some, there is a source for you. Oh, the lunch hours I spent in massage school appliqueing all those basket handles. Oh, the funny looks I got from other "much younger than me" students who thought I was fit for the looney bin!

Great memories, each and every one.

I just finished writing the LAST pattern for the book. I'm breathing a sigh of relief here! I'm packing and getting ready to leave for Hershey..I'm still unsure if I'm leaving tomorrow morning to give myself an extra day up around Lancaster...(oh, I am so sorely tempted!!!) or if I'm going to get up at the bum-crack of dawn on Wednesday and do it all in one shot. It's so nice to be home, I'm a bit reluctant to leave!

Basket Border DONE!

I did end up keeping the inner border. It did reflect the gold baskets in the center, and there was not a whole awful lot of gold in the pieced piano key border....I didn't want something that stood out too much on its own, but was distinct enough from the brown to float the center a bit.



In the mornings, the best place for a photo shoot is off the 2nd story deck at the back of the house! Shade trees prevent too much light from coming in, and colors just look really great when I take pics out there. I ended up cutting half square triangles from the left over lengths of border, sewing them into 1/2 square triangle corners, and inserting them as a mitred border. It took less border length to do it this way than the traditional way which can leave a lot of waste. I didn't want to have to piece MORE border just to get those corners mitered the other way, you know?

Several have asked for the pattern for this quilt. I don't have it. What I had from lucy was a piece of paper with the size of pieces to cut and a little plastic template thing to use as a guide for drawing the line on the background for handle placement. Oct 2004? That's about 6 years ago folks. I have moved since then, I don't know where it is, but I know there are lots of mini basket patterns out there.

If you know someone that has EQ..you can easily print a basket block or draw one..in any size you like.

I set these baskets 12 X 15...so there are 180 baskets in this little ditty that turned out not so little! I think it is going to be too big to fly with, but it could go on driving trips with me....just need to get it backed and basted!



Right now I'm typing on my knees because someone has stolen my chair and won't give it back! Oscar has never been one to play with cat toys...you try to get him to play and he just looks at you like "WHHATTT!?" But a length of ribbon..he goes nuts!

More from Sisters!

This is your usual disclaimer! When at a show, I take pics of what catches my eye. It might not be what catches YOUR eye! And it might not be the whole quilt..just bits and parts of a border, an alternate block, a color combo, some quilting detail...it might not make a lot of sense to ANYONE but me on why I have these photos! *LOL*

(Kind of like trying to explain why you have that "ONE SONG" on your ipod that needs explaining.. :c| For me that would be a song from the "Wedding Singer" soundtrack..LOL!)



Sisters Oregon 2010-2

There were LOVELY quilts at the show, and I really enjoy walking through the teachers tent area and seeing that up close and personal.

As usual too..I think I have more photos in the album than you can do in one slide show, so the slide show is incomplete..you need to click through to the actual album to see them all..and it's worth it :c)

The best thing for me....one of the reasons I truly love going to Sisters, besides the absolutely most obvious reason, the fabulous women I quilt with, who ARE like Sisters to me...is that the Sisters show is completely and totally UN-JUDGED. There are no prizes. It's just quilts for the love of quilting..plain and simple. And you do see quilts from plain and simple all the way up to fantabulously outrageous...and everything in between. It's a breath of fresh air with no pretension.

Okay, and it's the smell of kettle corn in the air and all the other goodies too!

So I hope you enjoy the pics, get a feel for what it's all about, and make a promise to yourself that you will make it to Sisters, Oregon...always the 2nd Saturday in July. It's never rained on that day, you know? Not EVER! Not in the 30 years they've been having this show. That is the wonder of central Oregon in mid July. Hot and dry and wonderful.

Back in October...

There was THIS POST!

ABOUT THIS QUILT:



And I think it's time to put it on the machine. It's ripe! :cD I've pulled some batiks and funkies from the stash to piece a back...

But wait! What about the piano keys? Well...once I get the "Welcome Home" quilt stitching away, I can multi task and put on the piano key borders on the basket quilt, and then write some pattern instructions....followed by binding....

You see, I've got it all planned out, and if I'm not doing at least 4 things at once, I'm not happy. LOL!!!

I'm toying with either fuscia or orange thread for the houses...hmmm!

Oh yes, and webshots (isn't it funny how when I type that, it typos into websh!ts? AUUGH!)is busily uploading the rest of the pics from Sisters...it's taking its own sweet time, so that is probably another post for another day.

Wow!

Lots of responses! I didn't think I'd wake up to so many!

I guess when it comes to things like this, everyone has an opinion. Most loved the piano keys, some did not.

Some thought the border was too scrappy for the baskets which were more formal (that never bothered me! *LOL* Lots of the baskets are from recycled shirt fabrics!)

The baskets finish at 3.5". SO using these baskets in the corners would cause a drafting issue...I don't have extra baskets, and I don't want to make more.

Some thought the border was too wide? I don't do skinny borders unless the quilt is very small. I tend to go with a border that finishes between 4" & 6" Which is neither too narrow or too wide for "most" quilts..occasionally I will go wider if the quilt is really big and I have something I am doing with the corners. This border is cut 5". Remember, the border has not been sewn to the quilt yet. I'm going to lose 1/4" in that seam, and another 3/8" hidden under the binding...and it will shrink up a bit in quilting. It will finish at a bit under 4.5" wide. I don't think that is too wide at all.

I'm not crazy with the baskets in the corners idea. I think it is far too "designed" for the look I'm going for...

4.5" finished blocks brings my mind instantly to all those Dear Jane blocks...that's the size they finish. But I don't know if I WANT blocks in the corners. Again...very symmetrical, very planned.

Some liked the inner border, some did not! Again, It's a personal preference thing. I've laid lots of things over that inner border, and there is NOTHING that sings against that brown...NOTHING! I thought of a light shirting because the block backgrounds are light..but it disappeared into the piano keys.

And it is to the point of "how much work" do I want to put into this thing......I may as well de-construct the whole thing and get rid of that BROWN at this point! That is probably the only thing that would make me totally happy, but I'm not willing to do that.

SO....My mind goes back to all those wonderful antiques I saw at the Sisters show. How many people would have said "too brown" or "too blue" or "too red" to those wonderful quilts?

That is probably why that wonderful quilt with the bright solid cheddar background was STILL THERE this year....is there such a thing as too much cheddar?! (No, i think it had to do with the price!)

How many of us would have said "oh, I would remove that border, not crazy about it, it's the wrong width"..or instead, like me...would we just enjoy them for the quirky vintage quilts they were, intrigued at the choices the unknown maker used in putting her quilt together?

These are the things going through my mind. I'm not looking for something that is perfect for someone else....I'm looking for something that is perfect for me :c)

And I DO love these mini baskets. I DO love the memories from when Lucy and I were trading the little cut out pieces....stuffed envelopes in the mail! I loved how when she came to visit me that first time, we sat at my kitchen table and sewed and sewed.

Up Late....

But only by East Coast standards? If I'm still on Pacific time it's only 9:22pm! Yeah..I'm still struggling with this time zone thing!

So......how many of you have been hanging around with me since the "EARLY" days? Do you remember when I started massage therapy school?

Do you remember when Lucy and I exchanged cut out pieces for these baskets for THIS quilt?!?



I spent tonight taking off the outer brown border. It never sat right with me. I'm not crazy about the inner gold border...but I think it can stay. It was just WAYYYYYY too brown for me, and I still feel that way. Don't get me wrong. I like brown. But it was Brown Over Kill. I'm a color girl! I like things quirky and colorful, and too much brown was just too much.

I toyed with the idea of what to do...do I want to do half square triangles? No, that actually means CUTTING and SEWING something.

Did I want to do just a different color border? Nope...still too blah for all the scrappiness going on with these adorable baskets.

Then it hit me.....there is a rather LARGE suitcase still sitting in my living room, as of yet unpacked. :c/ I ran up there and dug out the extra long length of piano key border that was left over from the Sister's Oregon quilt top I finished last week....

TADA!! What do you think? Does it add enough spark, enough color to the outside edge of this boring brown thing?! Please say yes, but please MEAN IT!

Because right now I'm too tired to think of anything else. I just want this to be right. Maybe I can do some kind of corner block? Something Something?



I'm going to leave it lay here over night and go dream on it some more. I'd love to start the hand quilting on this....Maybe it will look better by morning light!

I Feel Like THIS!

LOL! This is the little guy that was passed out next to me on one of my flights home. I know just how he felt! Red eye flights home always make me feel weird for a couple of days, but I'm doing better today.

I arrived in Charlotte around 6:45 am, and then had to drive home from there, about 100 miles. I was listening to a book on MP3 to keep me awake, but you know what? I can't remember what was going on in the story! I even left the bags in the car, and just came in, kicked off my shoes, peeled off my clothes, slid between the sheets with two kitties purring, one on either side, and slept for another 5 hours.

Needless to say, no uploading or editing got done between the show and yesterday's early morning arrival home. So I spent some time today uploading the shots from my favorite part of the Sister's show...the antique vendors area!



sisters oregon antiques 2010

There are a ton more pics than would fit in the slide show, so be sure to click through to the album and view them there. SO MUCH INSPIRATION! As much as I love the show, and I do...nothing compares to the viewing and handling of the antique quilts. NOTHING. It's just where my heart is at.

This quilt top just had to come home with me:


It is wonderfully wonky, and the fabrics in it are just terrific!




And THIS little goodie!



He was just too cute to pass up....just jumped right into my shopping bag (after paying for him of course!) What's one more vintage toy machine? It's a vice...I know..we all have them...but I like these guys! He needs a little mini quilt, don't you think?

Days 3 & 4! (and maybe 5!)

Well, this is the way it is. I have been at the sewing machine pretty much straight for the past two days, so there isn't much time for writing lengthy posts, nor was there a lot that I could show you...but....



This is my workstation.....you can see much strippy-ness is going on! Remember those umpteen million gazillion 3" 9 patches that were OVERKILL!? Let's just say that a piano key border has become mandatory to this quilt to use up the pre-sewn strip sets.



Of course...THIS BAG couldn't possibly be enough to go all the way around the outside of a quilt could it? NO INDEEDY! We must sew..MORE!! (Yes, echoes of Karen and Lisa saying "Sew Bonnie Sew!!" Are still floating through my head)



I dug into my big ole bag of oldies and oddities...1.5" strips are sewn to pairs....recycled fabrics mixed with scraps, no attention paid to color, just including as much variety as possible, and doing my best to annihilate all the shorter pieces...

Twosies were sewn into foursies....



I'm cutting the foursies into 5" subsections....but what do you do when you can't get another 5" section and there are leftovers? Cut them 1.5" of course!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these little stacks of 4-squares, but I could do 16 patches and use them as the center of stars or something...for now they are baggied up!



Sewing sewing more sewing..do I have enough yet? I'm not sure, I better sew some more, there are still strips left in the bag, keep going...get rid of the uglies...

By the time I finally stopped, and went to iron this lovely piano key border...there was more than enough to encircle TWO quilts...LOL!!!! SO..I see a Chinese Coins quilt in my future, or some strippy thing somewhere...

And there are still old ugly 1.5" strips in the bag I would like to see go away!

SO....tomorrow! (Saturday) is the BIG SHOW in Sisters. We are leaving here at 7:15 to get there early enough to be able to get decent parking for the car, and hit the antique booth first FIRST! It's a tradition. And we love to watch the quilts going up on the side of the buildings. The mornings are the best!

I'm meeting up with a bus full of Ladies from the HGTV message boards at the park at 1pm...I can't wait, it will be so fun!

After that, we'll finish seeing anything we somehow missed, and we are usually out of town by the time the heat of the day has hit it's peak.

The week is flying by..We've been taking long walks every morning..I've finished writing the directions to 4 quilts so far...it's been a good good place to be!