A Night at Cody Creek!

Out in the middle of mostly nowhere Dobson, NC is a very unique place called  Cody Creek.

It’s more than a restaurant – it’s a whole getaway! 

There are cabins to rent, a covered bridge, a little church that also straddles the creek with the creek burbling underneath.

It’s a place for family reunions, for weddings, for other events, but the biggest draw of all is the restaurant.  Be prepared to wait a LONG TIME to get in – the place is huge, but so is the clientele waiting to be seated!

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Decisions, Decisions!

I finished what I thought were the last two Carolina Chain blocks…only to find that I had TWO too many.

I must have miscounted somewhere.

That’s okay, I don’t mind….this allows me to switch out the least compatible blocks….maybe something is too blendy and disappears, or I have too much repeat of one color or one fabric.

Having extras is a good thing.

I know I’m late writing this this morning – it’s a holiday weekend and I’m on holiday hours, which means that I slept in, took Sadie for a hike, took a shower, enjoyed a big holiday breakfast, sewed a couple blocks, laid them out, took photos..and here I am.  And it’s only 10:00am so I’m not THAT far behind on my day!

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Get Some Nature!

Every once in a while you have to STOP treadling and go for a 4-wheeler ride!

But do it AFTER 6pm when it is a bit cooler on those dusty dirt roads.

The areas around our waterfall and pond have been under construction – new landscaping, putting in benches, Adirondack chairs, foliage and pathways.  It’s beautiful!

I haven’t seen it since they began the make over, and we didn’t get to it earlier in the week when Tonya was here, so it was time.

We headed over to pick up Rick and Mona in their side by side, and away we went up the road.

The photo you see here is our pond….they’ve also added gazebos and garden areas at the far side of the lake…BEAUTIFUL spot to sit…but bad for bugs.  Even with spraying my ankles are suffering!

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Back to the Chain Gang!

Yesterday’s No-Sew day left me not much to post about this morning, but that’s okay with me!

For those who are more interested in where I go and what I do while on the road, don’t worry – I fly out again on Wednesday, spending a few days with the quilters in Bloomington, IL!

September is going to be a crazy travel month and that is why I am so happy to have had as much cabin time as I have in August.

I'll go from Illinois to home to Ketchikan, AK directly to Buffalo, NY on a red eye flight then home and on to Davison, MI to Sault Ste Marie, MI and home again!  There won't be cabin time in September at all by the looks of it.

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A No Sew Day?!

This is the town of North Wilkesboro, NC.

It’s about a 30 minute drive from the cabin to downtown North Wilkesboro, and since I had Mona as my co-pilot, I took to her navigating and I saw some things in the area that I did not  even KNOW where here before.

Including a great thrift shop that benefits the Children’s Home, and the prices were AWESOME. 

No, I didn’t buy any shirts, but if I were still in the collecting, this would be a great place. 

I think shirts were $3.00, and they also have sales.

But what’s better is that 100% off the proceeds go to support the Children’s Home, so I know where I will be donating when it is time to unload my closet.  Goodwill is a corporation.  They have their good points, including providing employment and training, but their prices have gone outrageous lately.  I’d much rather donate to a place where the proceeds stay right here within the community, helping fund the Children’s Home.

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Leader & Ender Lozenge Challenge Update!

There is a lot of Leader & Ender Lozenge-ing happening in between the seams at Quilt Villa!

It occurred to me that we haven’t had an update for a while…how are yours coming?

I know several fell so head over heels with this project that they dove right in and finished it within weeks.

((That is NOT a Leader & Ender project at that point, so I hope they had something ELSE they were using on the side!))

You will find all the details of the Leader & Ender Lozenges challenge under the Free Patterns tab at the top of the blog.  Just scroll down to L!

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Wednesday on the Porch!

I had very busy legs today as you can see!

I pulled the treadle out onto the front porch, and Sadie and I spent about 8 hours just loving the beautiful day. 

Did it get warm?

Yes, but the porch is shaded, and the ceiling fans add a nice breeze.  Our humidity is way down today, so it was very pleasant.

Having all the blocks cut out meant that I could just sit and sew to my heart’s ((And feet’s!)) content!

What a perfect August day.  Balm for my soul!

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Quilt Show, the BOARD GAME!! GIVE-AWAY!

If you want a really FUN game for your retreat or small group gathering….you have GOT to pick up  QUILT SHOW, a board game by the wonderful Judy Martin and her hubby Steve Bennett!

When they sent me a sample game to try, I knew that bringing it up here for my cabin time with friends would be the perfect time to try it out.

You can have 2 to 4 players, and the game can last anywhere from about 35 minutes to an hour depending on how you play and how many players there are.

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August 26th–National Dog Day!

 I just NOW found out that today, August 26th is NATIONAL DOG DAY.

I guess that explains why Sadie was so disgusted with us…we didn’t heap praises and gifts of adoration ((And people food)) on her ---

WE SEWED!

Well, TONYA sewed.  On a secret project.  That I am sworn not to divulge.  So I won’t.

But it is fabulous!

As for me….I was bitten by the cutting bug.  And when the cutting bug hits it must be obeyed.

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Sewing Box Kite Blocks!

This was last night’s LAST BLOCK sewn before heading to bed.

I’m loving these little gems.  Each one so quirky and fun!

FUN is the main thing here….maybe I’ve sewn my share of stuffy straight-laced quilts during my life time as a quilter, or maybe in my 50’s this is my version of MID LIFE CRISIS ---

But sewing funny blocks out of ridiculous fabrics and strange combos just makes me feel SO ALIVE!

Hello Kitty with Cheddar ((Of course!)) And red batik!  Heck YEAH!

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And Lisa Came to Play!

Lisa came over to play this morning!

She had to be in Boone anyway, and we are right off the highway and up the mountain so it took no arm twisting at all to get her to make a stop and spend some time.

This is the photo she posted to Facebook…not too flattering, but here is Tonya and I hard at work on our STUFF.

Not only did she bring a gorgeous quilt to bind, but she brought a HUGE bag of fabric scraps for us to paw through!  I don’t think there has EVER been as much fabric at the cabin as there is this week!

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GF Retreat, Day 3!

Sadie Behind Bars.  LOL!

It’s so funny to watch her come down spiral stairs.

It’s almost a bunny hop….hop the front feet down a step, hop the back feet down a step. Repeat as needed.  She’s got it down to a system!

But this is her look at me as I went immediately to the kitchen breakfast bar turned cutting station and started playing with the fabric…..MOM!  I need a walk!

Okay.  Fabric can wait.

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Rainy Days for Retreating!

The living room looks like a fabric-filled bomb went off…full of good things!

I brought up several boxes and bags of random scraps that had not been sorted yet on request from Tonya to “Bring me things to dig into!”  And dig in she has!

There are piles everywhere….things being sorted.

One box for crumbs, one for strings,

Another pile of large-ish hunks and chunks destined to be stripped down via Accuquilt studio when we get around to it.

There isn't a whole lot of sewing going on with her yet, but she is happy as a clam to be digging in the scraps and gleaning pieces that are going to be just right for the projects she has in the works!

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Questions and Answers on a Rainy Morning!

With all of the getting ready to come back up to the cabin to retreat with friends this week, I forgot to mention the Winston Salem Open tennis tourney!

I’ve had a couple of emails and comments saying “Waiting to hear!”  “How’d it go”"?”  “Did you take hexies?!”

No, I decided to be a good “normal” spectator and spend my time with eyes honestly on the court instead of in my lap.

But by hour 3.5 I was wishing I had relented and brought them!

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Two at Quilt Villa–Waiting for #3!

Tonya and I are here at the cabin ((Along with Sadie!))  taking a break for dinner and a bit of computer checking as intermission to our fabric fun.

The only person we are missing is Siobhan, and our trio will be complete!

It’s been fun showing Tonya around my digs here, and I think she can get why I love it up here so much.  The quiet, the peaceful easy feeling…..yes, I’m about to break into an Eagles song here, showing my age!

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Are you a “No Reply Blogger”??

It happens every day.

I get a comment that I would love to reply to, but I can’t…because when I click reply, there is no email address attached to that person’s profile. 

Instead I get the dreaded noreply-comment@blogger.com.

It is especially heart breaking with a giveaway ---the random number generator gets all fired up, and I am all excited about Susie Quilter being my drawn winner, but there is no email address on her profile to contact her.

Most folks don’t know that by DEFAULT your email address is not shown in your profile.  You have to tell it to do so.

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Ding Ding Ding! And the Winners Are!

I’m home from Quilt Villa…and it about a bazillion degrees out with 1000$ humidity!

And lucky me…we’ve got tickets to the Winston Salem Open ---and it’s OUTDOORS.  And I was asked to “dress up” for this event.

My hair is already plastered to my forehead, and makeup will soon be sliding its way south – but what’s a girl to do?

Focus on something else other than the fact that hexies are probably NOT allowed or at least frowned upon at public tennis events.

Let’s draw for the 2 lucky winners of Quilt Now, Britain’s new premier quilting magazine!

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She’ll be Comin’ round the Mountain ---

This morning’s view on a very windy hike!

A warm wind was blowing from the south --- oh, it’s going to be a hot one! 

Unless some storm clouds can gather and rain down to cool everything off.

I’m feeling SO productive!  I am nearly ready to assemble blocks for the mystery!

I know there are some that are the “one block at a time because I have to see how it is going to really look and I don’t want to be bored on the assembly line” type ---as for me, I’m a unit girl.  I power through.

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Quilts that aren’t Quilts!

Does this look like a modern quilt to you?

Well, it could be….only the shapes are cut from painted bits of paper.

This is the work of Henri Matisse, and these photos are shared with us by Stephen in London ---I thank him for sending them because I’d not seen these works before and the whole concept is fascinating!

Words from Tate.org regarding this exhibit:

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Gifted Scraps, Strips, Crumbs & Strings..What to Do??

You may remember my “Please Don’t Feed the Quilter!!” post a few months ago.

If not, you can catch it HERE!

With a nice stretch of time at home, I had tackled the “DARK SIDE” of the quilting studio..the corner of the basement where things brought home from trips, and things that had arrived on my doorstep had been piled waiting for a chance to become something – to be made sense of, to be usable!

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Galaxy-Gram! My Day in Photos!

I know that my day is going really really well when I am so content with where I am that I nearly forget to write my evening blog post.

It's all very simple. I slept like a log. I got up and took a long walk with Sadie. I have sewn my brains out in complete Quilter's bliss.

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Show & Share Wednesday!

Welcome to my outdoor office!

Sadie Jane and I have already hiked 2.5 miles this morning, and I am relaxing on the front porch and writing my post in the open air with the sound of birds chirping and bugs humming….oh yeah, and Sadie snoring softly at my feet!  Poor girl – I think I wore her out.

I don’t usually DO Show and Share on a Wednesday, but here I am at Quilt Villa working heavy on our November mystery and there isn't anything I can show you!

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All in a Dog’s Day!

This is what it's like to drive up to the cabin with Sadie Jane.

Riding shot-gun.

Loving whatever sunny spot she can squeeze her cute self into!

We hit the road about 10:30 am this morning, after a quick stop at the post office to drop off a smattering of book orders ….AND….all of the blocks for my Addicted to Scraps column and a block for a future 100 blocks by 100 designers issue….They are OUT THE DOOR!  Whoowhooo!

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Meeting Susan Shie--Quilts and the Written Word!

Some of the other quilts I got to say hello to at the Birmingham Quilt Festival were the works of Susan Shie, a lifelong sewer who has been making unique and often whimsical painted quilts since 1980.

You need a lot of TIME to see Susan’s quilts--she describes her art as “personal diary work,” and she fills in everything she paints with detailed spontaneous handwritten diary entries that record whatever she is thinking and feeling at the time.

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Quilt-Cam 8/18/2014

Oh my….as I’m getting ready to set up this post I notice I am wearing the same shirt as in this photo.  Do I have time to do a shirt change? LOL

Maybe you are like me, and when things are casual at home you just grab whatever is folded at the top of the clean pile…at least it’s clean, right?

Sigrid posted her photo to our Quiltville Friends facebook wall with the following caption:

Hi Bonnie,

after a 2 weeks camping holiday and a full week of work since Monday I finally have time this Saturday to watch your latest quilt cam from the archives.

Time to hand quilt while listening to you chatting away, how relaxing!

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Goodies from Great Britain! Give-Away!

I brought home some goodies from England for you!

It was fun to see all the various publications that we can’t get here.

The covers are intriguing, and I wanted to devour each and every one ---some things are the same as what we can get here, I think the internet and digital media has made it so we all see what each country is doing in live time, and that is wonderful, but I also love to catch glimpses of how things are different, how things THERE reflect the life and the times of the people in that country.

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Cabin-y Things!

Laminate floor is IN!!

This floor came from Sam’s Cub…and I love it.  It has the padding already attached to the underside of each plank.

It is thicker than most laminates, and the price was really good.

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Galaxy-Gram! A Morning without WiFi!

Technology is a good thing, and a bad thing!

Just returned from a long morning hike with Sadie and tried to upload of video to youtube only to find that wifi is not working at the cabin.

I may need to come back up later this week and have Wilkes telecommunications come out and see what the problem is, but for now I am going to just have to send this as a Galaxy-Gram!

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When Bonnie Sews!

I'm sewing in black and white today!

Can you guess what I'm working on!? :-)

I wish I could show you in life and living color, but that will come soon enough.

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Morning Walks where Sadie Loves Best!

This is the vew of my beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains this morning.

We headed up to the mountains yesterday afternoon around 4pm ---and you should have seen how excited Sadie was to go for this car ride.

She KNOWS!

She knows when bags go in the car and the cooler goes in the back that we are headed to her favorite place, as well as mine.

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Making Scissors by Hand!

I just came across the most fascinating video on the BBC website about hand made scissors.

What an art form!

Yes, I’ve been trolling BBC even more since getting BACK from England!

There is an embed code for the video, so I decided to share it with you!

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Birmingham Festival of Quilts, 2014!

This crowd is representative of what it was like to get through piles of people to view the quilts at the show, to get from one vendor’s stall to another, it was crowded and full of energy, you could just feel it!

I love wandering shows and just listening to conversations that folks are having as they look at this, as they look at that.

I get a big kick seeing what people are buying, the fabric they are petting, rulers, tools, notions, patterns, books, and how excited they are to meet their favorite designers who are there walking the floor or working in their own stalls.

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24 Hours to Simplify---

I’ve been upside down since returning from England.

I came home to a burgeoning inbox, and spent most of yesterday deep in desk work trying to make sense out of the emails, the contracts, the calendar dates and my life.

((This is the kind of thing that happens when my dang body clock wakes me up once again at 4am!))

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Shakespeare, from Beginning to End!

This humble house is the birthplace of William Shakespeare!

His exact birth date is unknown, but he was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564.  Which means this house has been standing since before 1564.

He was 52 when he passed away, also in Stratford-upon-Avon, the same age that I am at the moment I am typing this post.

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Peru, 2015!

Come to Peru and the Amazon with me!

October 31-Nov 10, 2015!

In October of  2015 I am traveling with Jim West and Craftours.com on an amazing adventure you won't want to miss!

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When Tired Girls Return Home! ((Drawing Time!))

I have never been so happy to see this sign!  ((Pardon the dirty splotchy windshield!))

My son Jeff picked me up at the airport…carried my luggage, and DROVE me home….It took 2 days to get me home from Birmingham, I can only imagine what those folks felt like who spent 3 months on a ship to cross that ocean!

It was however, the very FIRST time that I got to fly on the upper deck of a 747 Jumbo.

Yes, I was giddy.

Fewer passengers to share the one lavatory up on that level.  Sitting bulkhead and having legroom were a definite benefit on this flight!

For those wondering how many hexagons you can stitch on a 10 day whirlwind tour around England, here you go:

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Gardens, Peacocks & Castle Walls!

During our stay in Stratford-upon-Avon, we took a day trip out to Warwick Castle.

I’d heard from so many that it was a spot not to be missed, and I think half of the entire United Kingdom agreed and came along for the day!

The crowds were wild this day, and the day was hot….but the gardens were lovely, the castle itself imposing and majestic and we made a day out of it.

I was wishing all along I’d thought like the British and carried in my picnic quilt to spread out on the grass with a home packed lunch to share!

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Meeting, Greeting, and Chance Encounters!

I love fabric.  I will always love fabric, and books and patterns and notions and quilts hanging at the show and all of the hustle and bustle ---

But the best thing by far was meeting people that I’ve known online for a long time!

Or folks that I’d heard of or read about but never dreamed about meeting.

And even better than that was running into people whom I already knew from the other side of the pond and getting to talk about things on THIS side of the pond and wasn’t it wonderful that we were all here together!

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Stratford-Upon-Avon!

Welcome to Shakespeare’s Stratford-upon-Avon!

Charming charming charming and lovely!

I can’t say enough about how lucky we were to have the best week of summer weather ever.  And our hotels were all WONDERFUL!

While in Stratford-upon-Avon we stayed at the Alveston Manor!  The original hotel comprises a beautiful Tudor building with many authentic features such as an Elizabethan staircase, wood panelling, leaded windows and open fireplace.

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Bourton-on-the-Water!

We left Bath on a beautiful Thursday morning, heading toward the Cotswolds and enjoying the scenery.

A perfect spot along our way was Bourton-on-the-Water, a place to park the coach, and walking paths to take us into the cutest little town ever with a river running through its center.

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Bath Abbey: When all that’s Left are Words…

I love visiting old cathedrals, churches, grave yards and monuments.

I know that some folks think that is weird, but hey –to each their own, right?

I just want to know who these people were. 

Who were the artisans who built this Abbey on this spot?  According to the history, there has been a church on this spot since 757 AD.  Stop to think about it!  Who were these people?

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When New Old Friends Meet in Bath!

Meet Julia, Dawn and Dawn’s daughter Bekah ---

These sweet ladies came to meet me for dinner and a  “how do you do?” while we were staying in Bath.

Julia was the first one to suggest a meet up ---she lives right there in Bath!

Dawn, Julia’s friend lives a few hours away, and came down for the weekend, stopping in Bath to join us before heading to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham with her daughter.

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Kaffe Fassett Exhibit!

The American Museum in Bath is a great spot…even for those of us from America who didn’t really want to be seeing AMERICAN OLD STUFF on our tour of ENGLAND!

This was a bonus for me.  I don’t sew with a lot of “Kaffe”  or really from any one particular designer.  I love them ALL!

I want my quilts to be recognizable as mine…..not have someone look at them and say “oh that’s a Kaffe quilt”  NO…it’s a BONNIE quilt, which means I have used Kaffe fabric, but not solely Kaffe fabric and you’d really have to look hard to distinguish it from all the other fabrics in my mix…but this was fun!

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Come Walk a Bit in Bath, UK!

Of all the places we’ve stopped this week, be it the big and busy city of London, or the unbelieaveble standing stones of Stone Henge, from the Cotswolds and the birth place of William Shakespeare and everywhere in between, I think the place that has captured my heart more fully than any other was the lovely city of Bath.

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Take me to Big Ben! ((and everything else!))

There are some things in London that are SO big, you just can’t get far enough away from them to fit them into a photo.

Parliament would be one of those things.

And every angle is a new view.

And you take so many shots trying to capture everything, only to find that many of the photos are back-lit behind the building because you are there on a summer morning with the sun shining from the east!

And you suck it up anyway and take the photos knowing they are going to show up in silhouette because that in itself can be a very cool thing as well.

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A Night at the Savoy!

London’s West End.

Where those who love a good musical, a comedy, a classic drama play, a night of symphony or opera flock to lose themselves amid a flux of like minded patrons of the arts who have traveled in from near and far to create a global mix of audience.

We love having our emotions tapped and directed by the plots and the music, to forget who we are for a period of just a couple of hours, living the lives of the characters portrayed, to become part of this experience we know as theater.

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Hop on a Double Decker bus!

We managed the bus routes on our completely free days to do what we wanted, to see what we wanted!

Photos are mostly of buildings, of buses, of beautiful churches…

There really is no rhyme or reason for them, I just loved what I saw.

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A Wee Bit of Liberty Love!

How do you get to Liberty?

Turn on this street and just keep going, past crowds and hoards of people out enjoying the beauty of a gorgeously glorious and sunny August Sunday afternoon.

You can’t miss it…it’s the Tudor style building that you can see with the classic Georgian building on the right, next to the modern glass building on the left.

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Kensington Palace!

I had a special treat on Sunday ---I had a chance to visit Kensington Palace!

Now, I knew tour guide and long time London friend Stephen was making plans for a tour of somewhere, but I had no idea that it would be Kensington Palace…..what a dream come true!

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From Bath with Love ---

We left London this morning, exuberant at the things we saw, did, ate, bought, heard, touched, smelled and committed to memory!

I’m jumping around a bit here because there was SO MUCH in London that I could spend the entire rest of the trip still posting on London and I thought tonight would be a good time to skip ahead a bit.

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Take me to the V & A Museum!

This is not going to be a post showing you everything I saw in the Victoria and Albert museum.

It would be too lengthy, too in depth, and somewhat still fall short because you can spend days, weeks, and more exploring the wonderful exhibits here.  If you were to come to London for ONE THING and one thing only –make it the Victoria and Albert museum.

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Tower Bridge, Tower of London and the Thames!

Someone please pinch me, because I can’t believe that our hotel is within walking distance of the “Queen’s Walk”  that goes right along the Thames river!  And within walking distance is London’s magnificent icon ---Tower Bridge.

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