Monday Mayhem!

Today is the day I give notice to the chiropractor that I quit! This will be my last week. I've given them a month to find someone to replace me, but so far nada, and it is just NOT working for me. Isn't it funny how you think something will work great, and then you try it and it turns your life upside down, and you feel like a machine, and it just doesn't fit with your life?! I liked things better the way they WERE...where I could quilt in the mornings, schedule my clients in the afternoon and make it all work around MY life...so everything is a learning experience.

Here are some pics! I am calling the red/black/butterscotch quilt "Road to Camp Gravatt" in honor of putting the whole thing together at retreat. :c) I figure if there is a Road to St Louis, Road to California, Road to....? That there can be a Road to Camp Gravatt. No other names worked....and everything else I could come up with reminded me of food. I really don't like quilts that are named after food...*LOL* I really like how the wonky star points in the sashings turned out. Fun fun fun!

The other quilt is a maverick basket that I finished for a customer. It was her husband's great aunt's quilt top or something...and let me tell you this thing was not only wavy in ALL directions and had poofy spots in each and every block, but was a trapezoid as well! The only way to work this thing was to square it off, and add borders hoping to stabilize the whole thing. I squared it....added the top and bottom pink borders, and then the two green ones. I just thought you would get a chuckle of how EVERYTHING goes down hill on this quilt. Truly a happy ending for it. Spots were SO puffy that I had to use thick poly batting to suck it all up. It worked!

Bonnie

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Quilt Camp!

I'm home from Quilt Camp! What a fun time was had by all.

First off, this retreat was the best put together retreat that I have EVER been on. All we had to do was set up and sew! Meals were provided, snacks were plentiful...we had a full 6 ft banquet table PER PERSON (no sharing!) so there was lots of room to spread out......

The accomodations were great....it was an episcopal church camp, and we were in no way "roughing it!" If you have any interest in coming to SC for a retreat, definately contact Joyce or Sherry at Just Stitchin' Retreats to see what retreats are underway in the future!

The pic of the camp shows the lake....and the trails, the pines, it was a very relaxing place for a retreat! Plans are underway for a fall retreat in October, I can't wait!

During the retreat I had the pleasure of being the on-staff massage therapist, and we had ALL slots full! I gave 12 massages over the weekend, and it was a treat to get to know the ladies a bit better. I've been a member of the Devine Quilter's guild in Columbia since moving here 4 years ago, but this is the first retreat for me, and a great way to get to know the ladies. (We are called the Devine Quilters because we meet on Devine Street in Columbia, but I would like to think we are just Devine in all ways possible ;c)

I finished two quilt tops while at the retreat. I'll have to get pics tomorrow...it's dark now...but here is a pic taken by Sherry of me working away at my machine in between massages!

Bonnie

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Small Hopes & Big Dreams!

Our guild is having a log cabin challenge this year....the quilts will be displayed at the public library. I wasn't going to do it, but I pulled out my mini-logs and figured if I made the quilt smaller than I intended.....I only needed to piece two more blocks...and border the thing. So it is done.

I killed many birds with one stone with this quilt! The blocks are paper pieced and used up my smallest crumbs. (Proving the fact that if it is still ugly, you just didn't cut it small enough!) The inner border is leftovers from my random sampler quilt border that I finished piecing at Tonyas. I only had to cut one more 1.5" strip.....so that cleared out some pre-cut strips.

The outer border fabric is the fun black with the colored squiggles that I picked up with Tonya while we went shopping in MD in October. See!! It didn't stay in my stash very long...I used it! :cD

The four basket blocks in the corners are UFO blocks....3 were pieced...one was cut out and needed to just be pieced. I didn't like doing them because of the set in seams....it just was tedious and time consuming, so it was the beginning of an abandoned project, and now they found a home in the borders of the little-logs-that-went-big quilt.

Some facts on this top: Started in 2001. block size: 3" finished. Number of blocks: 324. Pieces per block: 17. Total pieces in center: 5,508.

Definately a machine quilting project because it is very heavy with so many seams!

Bonnie

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Busy Weekend!

I am quilting furiously....but I wanted to post something I found on ebay! Isn't this a great maverick stringy quilt?! I love it..it looks very patriotic to me.

Wednesday my friend Randy arrives from California...and thursday we leave for our quilter's retreat near Aiken! I am trying to decide what projects to take. I will be doing massage at this one, and as of last count we had 9 massages pre-paid, so my quilting hours will be in between that. I have a quilt I need to finish piecing (embroidered blocks done by the client) before I can do the quilting. This will probably be good time to do that. I'm also thinking of just taking my bin of strings and string piecing my way through the weekend to see what I can get done. Nothing that requires too much concentration!

I switched to the "new" blogger. Up to this point, blogger wouldn't let me do it, it said some things on my blog were untransferrable. But this morning it gave me the chance to switch again, and so I bit the bullet. I have no idea if my template is going to be screwed up when I post this or not, so here goes!

Bonnie

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My Blue Heaven Pattern

Hello to everyone out there in Quiltville!

I'm writing to let you know that I have just added a new pattern to my website! (Those of you who have been with me for a while know how long it took me to get this together!)

"My Blue Heaven" is a two-block quilt! A modified puss in the corner block, and an hour glass star block, both in 8" finished size. All from 2.5" blue and neutral scrap strips! You can make this quilt as big or small as you would like depending on the number of blocks you make. This quilt uses 45 star blocks and 45 puss blocks and has a pieced hourglass unit border. Finished size as shown is approx 81X89.

It would be great in any color combination. Mine is in blue/neutral. I'd love to see what you come up with as you dig into your scrap strips and try your own version of a 2-block 2-color quilt! I can really see this one in brights, or in red/neutral. It would be great!

You can find the pattern HERE

Bonnie

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Retreat Pics Quickie Post!

I'm running out the door...today is the day I tell the chiro that Nope....not going to take the job! (but I'll cover for him til he replaces me, or til feb runs out whichever comes first)

Here are some pics of what I worked on at retreat this past weekend.

I finished the borders on the quilt that Tonya and I worked on together. It reads:

"True Friends Are The Brightest Scraps In The Patchwork Of Life" and has my name and year on the bottom border.

I finished the sawtooth and inner border on the kaleidoscope, and the binding on the "crayon box" quilt. Look at the back...it's all big huge florals that I was never going to use....they are now OUT of the stash, and it made for a fun back!

Gotta run!
Bonnie

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Retreat Weekend!

I'm getting ready to leave for my Hilton Head retreat weekend! My guild has been having their retreat in Hilton Head this same weekend for years and years. It is also the same weekend as the Jinny Beyer Convention, and though we don't take classes, we do go down to where the convention is and do the quilt show and shop the vendors mall that is set up there.

I am taking my massage table..There are 4 people who want massages so far, and that is going to cover my expenses of the retreat, and still leave me plenty of time for quilting on my own projects!

Big decision, big reversal. I worked at the chiropractor's office on wednesday, and decided that I am NOT going to take the position. It's hard to explain, but it isn't about the money. I want to fit the massage AROUND my life, not have it BE my life...and it would take too much time away from things I love dearly, including most of all my freedom and flexibility. So. I will tell him on monday that I will work for him part time through the month of feb while he finds someone else to take the full time position. I won't leave him high and dry, but I don't want the job. I need to do what is right for me! I'd rather be quilting on other people's quilts than down there at that office every day.

I finished the binding on "My Blue Heaven". How long has this thing been hanging around? It's a blue albatross which might be a better name for it....*Heheh* But it is done.

I used a simple homespun in tan/blue for the backing. I had JUST enough, so it was good to get that whole piece of fabric yardage out of my stash! Close up pics show some of the weird old uglies I used up in this thing! My fave is the little cow, and a pair of cowboy boots and horseshoe in the other pic. You may also see a few noah's arks floating around. Don't be afraid to use weird fabrics in your quilts! I think it adds a lot of interest to them!

I'll be working on UFO's at the retreat. One is a batik kaliedoscope I made about a year ago...just needs borders. It was made from the remnants of strip piecing donated to me by a guild member. I want to finish this. I think it is a cool quilt. The other one is the crumby quilt that Tonya and I did. I want to work on the borders for it too. I'll take one other quilt that needs the binding finished on it for evening work, and a bit of hand quilting,and that should be plenty. Especially since this retreat ends sunday?!? Just what do I think I'm going to be able to accomplish in a day and a half?! *LOL* Oh well..better too much than not enough as far as projects to bring go.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Bonnie

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