Under Pressure!

I woke up with a Queen song in my head today…Under Pressure! Not a bad kind of pressure really, just a lot to do and not so much time to do it in!

You know how it goes --- I’m leaving for Texas this afternoon, but playing on my mind is my need to make a baby quilt for DH’s assistant controller and his wife who are expecting their first baby any week now.

On Sunday DH was telling me how he TOLD Michael not to worry about buying a baby quilt, that “WE” would take care of that. ((Did you get the “WE” part?!?)) Uhhuh!

And it isn’t that I don’t want to do it, I do….but it’s a matter of when, and what to do --

Michael is from Kenya, his wife is from Uganda. A couple weeks ago we were invited to a lovely Kenyan meal at their home, and I got a good taste of the décor, featuring bold colors, a definite African influence, and wonderful accents!

For our dinner, they even were dressed in the clothing of their home country, and I would so like to do something that fits with their culture and life style. Little baby pink bows and cutesy bunnies are just NOT going to do it! ((Oh, yes, we've been informed that it is indeed, a girl! :cD))

And did I mention the TIME frame?!

Somewhere….SOMEWHERE in this basement, is a handful of African fabrics that had been gifted to me. And, I started digging for other things I could use…for instance:

I pulled a bunch of batik parts and unceremoniously dumped them on this chair, along with a selection of background yardage….

I sorted through the 2.5” strip bin and pulled out any batiks, brights and fun textures that might work for “SOMETHING”

Oh, and then there is THIS box of Novelties that was gifted to me from someone who thought they might be useable to me, but when I opened up the pieces, this is what I found:

Well, might be useable if I were planning on making a hanging thing for a bean bag toss, but?!? Well wait a minute, if I layer the good parts between the circles, I can probably get some quarter square triangles that would have the straight of grain on the long side --- We’ll save this box for another time!

And all while I’m deciding what to do, how to do it, what to use, and worried about how much time I don’t have --- I still need to repack the trunk show and pack my suitcase for my flight today!

I guess I should take care of “first things first” and then use the extra time to worry about the baby quilt. Do you see why my theme song today is “UNDER PRESSURE?!?!”

((And you must excuse me for my love of music that takes me back to my highschool years! I was a HUGE Queen fan in the 70's & 80's and this music just takes me back!))

Better get to it!

A Little Help From My Friends ---

That would be YOU!!

I’m not going to Quilt Market in Salt Lake City this year….I’ve got to be in Tyler Texas! I fly tomorrow, Have two lectures on Thursday, and a workshop on Friday, and I’m home again Saturday. How is that for a quick whirlwind trip?

I’m repacking the trunk show today….because, on my jaunt home from Pennsylvania last week, I got an email from Kansas City Star reminding me that quilts were needed for the booth at Market!

And since it was easier….and more of a direct route, and would get them on the road a day sooner rather than a day later, I stopped in Richmond, Virginia on my way home from Philadelphia and went to Home Depot. I bought a shipping carton….and I unpacked and repacked in the parking lot, choosing 4 quilts that I thought would best display what my new book is about into the carton, sealing it with zip-ties.

Up the road I went 1/2 a mile to Fedex!

I guess there is one thing to be said for “strip mall” America --- You can always find what you need in any city, be it 3 states away or in your own town. Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Fedex, Sam’s Club – I’m a happy girl when I can get the job done! And it goes without saying how much I love my GPS ((most of the time)) for getting me where I need to go!

This is the shipping tub on the scale –off to Kansas City, to be packed with all the other Quilt Market Stuff and driven to Salt Lake City! These quilts have a long way to go, and many hands to handle them!

Where YOU come in is this ---

Are you going to SLC for Market? Would you like to be my eyes? I really REALLY need pics of my quilts hanging in the Kansas City Star booth. Will you take pics for me? Don’t worry if other people say they will take pics too, In this case, too many is better than not enough!

You can email them to me when you get back from Market, and I would be ever-so-grateful!!

I’m happy to report that I slept the whole night through last night! Oh Happy Morning!

Today there are other mundane things on the list like getting the car inspected, and going back to get the new tires re-balanced because the car shimmies over 50mph. ((AUUGHH!!) But I think I feel a mani-pedi coming on to make up for that otherwise boring trip, and I’ll be packing for tomorrow….

And hopefully finding time this evening to work some more on some bindings!

And THIS was the movie I watched when I couldn’t sleep yesterday morning…..And it had me bawling by the end, and that probably made me more unsleepy --- but it’s a good one! I really enjoyed it.

I’m sorry to report that I haven’t come across ANY good free kindle books lately. It seems all there is are “how to invest in the market” kind of books, or ones that seem overly pushy-religious to me, and I prefer a good story without it being laced with a whole bunch of fictional dogma, if you know what I mean. And then there are those who are so far the OTHER direction, and I’m really not into reading steamy trio scenes either so ----That’s why I haven’t posted any suggested readings lately. There haven’t been any that I am interested in. I am keeping my eye open and will let you know when something comes along that interests me that I think might interest you!

Auntie’s Antics!

It was one of “THOSE” nights.

One of those where I was tucked into bed by about 10:30pm or so, thumbing through quilt magazines, drooling over antique quilts, fabrics, colors, textures, stitches…..and off to dreamland I went--

Only to be rudely awakened by NOTHING AT ALL----No reason, whatsoever ----at 3:45am.

Toss, Turn, Toss, Turn, ((If you get up, it’s all over, you know it, don’t you?)) Toss, Turn, Toss, Turn.

OH! ALL RIGHT!!

I’ve been up since 3:45am. Quilting. At least I’ve been productive, right?

The picture you see above is representative of how I feel as I type this..No, I don’t have a new kitty, but after seeing this guy I wish I did!

So what am I quilting on?? Teehee!!

Just quilting through these whacky combos of fabrics makes me giddy! Maybe that is why I couldn’t sleep? The quilt is begging to be finished? Or…it is giving me nightmares? Nope –I’m definitely over the moon for this quilt!

See the M&Ms right in the middle? Whooooo!

So the quilting is now done…and I’m ready for a NAP! But before I head off to take one..I wanted to introduce you to someone special to me:

This, Y’all, is Little Miss Elizabeth Caitlynn! She was born just last week to my brother Mike and his wife Nicole, and weighed in at 8lbs 2 oz!! I tell you, she will be ready for pre-school next week! She is that brilliant!

And you can see what stole my heart with this picture, other than that crop of dark dark hair? She is sleeping on the Little Monkey quilt that Auntie Bonnie made for her!

I am assuming this is Mike’s finger in his daughter’s mouth. Why he is doing this, I have no idea..but I assume he washed his hands first!

My handsome brother is already wrapped around his baby daughter’s finger….Isn’t family wonderful?

And now…about that NAP!?

Home for the Weekend!

You know, it doesn’t happen very often that I’m not teaching somewhere on a Saturday, or using a Sunday as my travel day to/from somewhere. I decided a couple years ago that I was going to try to schedule the week around Mother’s Day off as a treat for myself…and it has been great to be home this week!

The one hard part about the scheduling is, fitting in all the stuff I want to do in the amount of time there is to do it. For instance, I’ve got a guild local to me….within an hour’s drive away, that has been trying to schedule me for some time for JUST a Saturday when I could just come and do a workshop. Just down the road…would be fun…easy access, fun day, sleep in my own bed without a lot of travel, but I would have had to give up YESTERDAY in order to do it, and sometimes a girl just needs her own Saturdays, no matter how badly she wants to spend time with the guild ladies down the road.

There is not another place through the whole year that that Saturday for them will fit. It’s crazy! So now, we are looking at any Fridays…I sent them to the calendar to see if any openings I have will coincide with openings that THEY have --- if they can narrow it down for me it helps.

But in the mean time….I tried to not feel too guilty that I was able to spend time this week working on my own things on my own time frame in my own basement!

I took time this week to grab dinner out with Lisa – and we took Shelby for a walk afterwards!

On our walk up the street, we were approached by this orange and white fella who was VERY curious about just what Shelby was! Shelby IS kind of cat sized you know?

Things were going along just fine! Little orange kitty let us pet him, was very affectionate and not afraid of us at all….and Shelby was ready to get into the act and see what all of this was about as well….

They got closer and closer, just about to touch noses --- lots of sniffing going on…..

Aaaaaannnndddd----

YIKES! I guess that was close enough! The kitty hissed, reached out a paw….and the blur of Shelby you see is her getting the HECK outta Dodge! LOL!

We really enjoyed our evening walk, and made plans for Lisa and Karen to come to my house to sew the next day ---

Morning arrived, and my doorbell starting ringing! Lisa set up her FW at my sewing desk and started piecing on her project, a shop sample in blues..

After the previous night’s shenanigans, Shelby was going to stay close to “MOM” under the desk!

Karen and I loaded her 4 patch scrap quilt in the machine….and commenced to quilting! She has a house guest coming, and you know, there is nothing to spruce up a guest room like a new quilt on the bed, especially when the house guest is an in-coming guild teacher!

We used a variegated purple thread, and the 4 petalled posie pantograph called LAVISH by Hermoine Agee of Lorien Quilting was perfect for spring!

It was so perfect, that I also used it to quilt the CRUISE QUILT!

Doesn’t it look pretty on the aqua blue border!?

And I’ll give you just a sneak preview of the corner treatment..LOL! I’ve worked it out with Sew Many Places, that the kit I provide will be called a “STARTER KIT!” And just like Stone Soup, by the time we all bring some extra fabric and share with each other, we’ll have a good mix for the center which will be very scrappy, just my style!

Even those aqua cow spots don’t look so bad when quilted! LOL!

Neither does that art deco aqua and peach thing on the other side of the hopscotch blocks! I love the whole texture that the quilting gives…..

The binding is ON…it just needs an evening or two of hand stitching down…and I’ve got a hanging sleeve to make…a good way to use up MORE of those aqua cow spots maybe?!

Today has also been a great Mother’s Day. DH and I headed out to Concord Mills to use a gift certificate that was nearing expiration date. It’s over an hour away, and I stitched hexagons in the car the whole way. Nice eh?

We got there too early! They didn’t open until 1pm, and it was 11:20----what to do? We went and watched a matinee movie! We saw Source Code, and it was quite interesting. After that we had no trouble finding things to spend the gift certificate on. I got new summer sandals! Happy Mothers Day Feet to me!

We enjoyed a nice lunch at Texas Land and Cattle….and I napped all the way home. Here I am, 5:40pm, a late blog post, but I’ve enjoyed this weekend so much.

Happy Mother’s Day, Everyone!

And The Two Winners Are~~

It’s Saturday morning! And you know what that means? I have two winners who are about to each receive a copy of “100 blocks vol 3” by Quiltmaker Magazine!

This was really REALLY a great blog tour….I had fun visiting the other blogs on the tour as well, some that were new to me. What a great and amazing tool the internet can be! My life is so enriched by connectivity to wonderful women who inspire me, lift me, encourage me, keep me laughing!

Our first winner is Linda in PA! She has been contacted by email since her email address was available in her blogger profile.

Linda’s comment was:

I really like your block. I am using your scrap saver system and am enjoying having useable strips and blocks ready to sew. I am also using your leaders and enders technique. My double delight quilt top is just waiting for me to decide if I want to add a plain or a pieced border. Thanks for all the great mysteries and quilt patterns that you give us. Thanks for the chance to win a copy of this magazine.

Linda, send me an email with your snail mail address, and I’ll be passing it on to the folks at Quiltmaker Magazine. Your copy will be coming direct to you from them!

My second winner is Teresa in Music City!

Teresa wrote:

Congrats on having a block in the magazine again this year! Your block has SEW much character!!! I love the way it has the potential to give that secondary design.... everything you do has that deeper level. Like the fabric to honor Oscar - such a special touch for a special kitty! =^..^=

I’ve also contacted Teresa by email, and her signed copy will be mailed from my house to hers as soon as I have her snail mail address!

Congrats everyone! This has been a great drawing, with 538 comments!

Don’t forget…if you didn’t win, you can still pick up your copy of 100 blocks, vol 3 either by ordering it online, or check local book stores such as Barnes & Noble. It hits newsstands this week! Don’t delay though, all of the previous issues have SOLD OUT in no time. You can still get the earlier versions in digital format from Quiltmaker, so you won’t miss out on any of the previous patterns.

And the weekend continues Chez Quiltville! I’m in the studio kicking up a mess of creativity! Scraps have been sorted, sliced, diced, kitted up for future projects! You know, they don’t look half bad once you iron them and cut them to size! AMAZING! :cD

The cruise quilt is going on my machine today --

And now that things are finally under way, and are starting to feel REAL!! ((As in, her travel arrangements are made, so she can’t back out now!!)) I get to share the cruise excitement with my good buddy Lori from Humble Quilts! Lori is coming as my assistant and I am SO PUMPED to be spending this time with her.

((Yes, It’s my 30th wedding anniversary and I’m spending it on a cruise with my quilting buddy instead of with my DH! LOL! But he is coming with me in November instead, as it works better for his job!))

Lori and I go way way way back, to somewhere around 1994? 1995? To a little old email list serve called INTERQUILT, way back in the day. Any of you remember that list serve? We had to pay $20 a year to be on that list. Yes. We paid money to have daily flame wars in our inboxes..LOL! But it was our first internet contact, and our friendship has grown over the years. I’ll be retreating with her the week of the Sister’s Oregon show in July – we do this every year! AND…she is coming on the Caribbean Cruise with me in August/Sept!

At last count, there were still just a few spaces left..If you want to join us, contact Sew Many Places! There is more info in the Cruisin With Bonnie tab at the top of this blog!

Christ Church, Philadelphia ((And Betsy Ross too!))

I was born in Minnesota and raised in San Jose California. My boys were both born in Oregon, in towns that had their beginnings in the mid to late 1800s. To refer to something as “OLD” there has a completely different meaning than what it is to refer to something “OLD” on the East Coast! I learned that when we moved to South Carolina and visited Charleston for the first time.

The dates didn’t just start in the 1800s, they started 300 years before then! And loving history like I do, I found it fascinating to learn the details of what was founded when.

I get chills when I visit buildings that have been around since the early 1700s, such as Christ Church in Philadelphia.

Can you read this plaque? The bells that proclaimed our Independence rang from here. They rang for freedom on July 4, 1776, but they had hung there since 1754 – 22 years!

What I think is amazing is that this is still an active church, not just a historical site.

I loved the light from the windows inside, and the box pews!

This was the George Washington Family pew box..the name is on the brass plaque:

I sat down for a minute and just pondered and thought about what life was like then…The patriots didn’t KNOW they were going to win. They could have just as easily lost? How different would life be now if that were the case?

The light was kind of bright at the front altar. I really liked that the church was not overwhelmingly overrun with stained glass. The clear windows let in so much more light.

Back of the church toward the organ loft. I wish someone had been playing. I would have loved to listen to that!

As was the custom in the day, there are graves in the floor of the church, down the aisles. I love the backwards “N” in November! This parishioner died in 1734.

The grave of John Penn. Anyone know what the “XLI” at the top means? And in the picture before this one it says “LII” at the top. I have no clue….interesting? huh?

This is my picture from across the street…but it doesn’t show you the steeple like the picture at the beginning of the post does….What an awesome visit!

From here, it wasn’t too far to head down to Betsy Ross’s house….

That’s it folks! It’s just a tiny little thing, stuck in between more modern buildings! I almost couldn’t get this picture, there was a huge tour bus parked in front of it!

This tour did charge a fee, but it was worth it for me……It’s a self guided thing, you read the signs on the walls to see what is what. No picture taking was allowed. She was a remarkable woman, and I bet she would love to see what we do with fabric and machines NOW!

Next Stop? Elphreth’s Alley!

Elphreth’s Alley is America’s OLDEST residential street! And it is still lived in today!

The row houses are adorable, to say the least…..it was just like stepping back in time to walk down this street!

Look at the cute red cellar doors!

I loved the display of window boxes and blooming garden containers!

Hard to get persepctive here too, the street is very narrow and the two rows of houses face each other….

This was in walking distance of where I was meeting up with Elsie Campbell and her son for dinner!

It was the perfect end to a perfect day of sight seeing, and we enjoyed a terrific Mediterranean meal and talking about everything we could come up with! Her son was a real trooper for hanging out with us “old ladies” and we really had a great time.

I loved this visit to Philly, and I know I will be back. Already there have been so many posts saying things like “Where are your pics of the Rocky statue!?” “Did you see the Love Statue??” and I know there were other things I missed that I will have to catch next time….and I will!