Quilted Barns and Barn Quilts! Give-Away!

Hey, Everyone!

I am thrilled to participate tonight in the release of not one, but TWO fabulous books that go hand in hand.

It is completely KISMET that both of these books ended up in my hands the very same week and I love how these TWO books compliment each other so greatly that we are posting about them both at the same time!

I present to you Build A Barn by Julie Sefton and Following the Barn Quilt Trail by Suzi Perron!

Suzi herself is a quilter, a folk art collector and an avid kayaker. A native of Florida, Suzi has no stationary home –the bus holds everything that Suzi needs to travel with Glen as she speaks to quilters and civic groups across the country.

Doesn’t that sound amazing?  You can find out more about Suzi at her website BarnQuiltInfo.com.

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Quilty Things from Where I Stand!

My Tumblers are screaming at me to get them done!

We have just about a month until the NEXT Leader & Ender challenge starts.

Will you be ready?

I’m kind of excited about it, actually, even if this tumbler Leader & Ender project is just that much shy of being done.

I have worked on it ONLY as Leaders & Enders through the year and I love seeing how much has been accomplished with no “real” construction time or wasted thread in between the lines of sewing other bits of patchwork. I LOVE all the scrappy bits in it!

And if we DO start the new Leader & Ender project in July….maybe I can then kick THIS one into primary status where it doesn’t have to be a strictly Leader & Ender thing anymore.

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A Quilted Memorial Day, 2016!

Memorial Day is an important day in America. It's a day to give thanks, to pay tribute and to remember those who gave their lives to protect our country.

To those who served and gave their all, we thank you! Our debt to you is one we can never repay.

Happy Memorial day, everyone!

I am posting our Quiltville Quote of the Day at the top of this post instead of at the bottom just because it IS Memorial Day and I hope it will remind you of all that was lost so that we might have all that we enjoy. 

Whether you are spending your time with family and friends, or are one of the working force today, I hope you will take some time to reflect on those who gave all.

The quilt behind this quote was found just yesterday during an antiquing jaunt in West Jefferson, NC!

And oh the quilts I found!  MANY!  Some evidently have stories that will remain untold, but we can learn a lot just by looking at what we can see.  Take a look:

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What Does the Fox Say??

We had a visitor yesterday late afternoon.

I was busy sewing at the machine, ear buds in my ears, listening to the Jim Brickman channel on Pandora as I stitched happily away.  I tend to listen to “only instrumental” things when I’ve got my thinking cap on.  I can hear my own thoughts that way and lyrics don’t clog my brain.

Anyway…I look up to see arms flailing trying to get my attention.  Ear buds out, I could hear Sadie whining like crazy.

There was something outside of our window.

Oh my word – a grey fox had come to nibble at the deer feeder!

I was armed only with my cell phone at this point, and I quietly slid over to the one window that was minus a screen – we had removed it just for this purpose.  It’s not fun trying to get photos with window screen as a barrier.

I zoomed in as closely as I could, as far as my phone would let me:

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Some of This, Some of That…

It’s that time of year.

The time of year where you don’t dare go out without bug protection even if you are just going to the end of the driveway!

And if you are hiking with a dog through the woods and along mountain roads, you definitely want to protect yourself.

Bugs LOVE me.  The feeling is NOT mutual.

The worst of the worst, possibly even more than chiggers are the biting midges, or no-see-ums.  Bites from these critters don’t show up on me for 24 hours or so…then become raised welts that take a long long time to heal.  I’m wearing some bite marks that I got in April BEFORE I went to Mackinac Island. They are still here. They still itch.  UGH!

Don’t go out without spraying down first!

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A Finish on the Mountain!

I finished the binding, the hanging sleeve and the stitching down of the label on this quilt last night!

It was about all I could do after settling in….grab a bite of dinner, throw the shoes off, climb into my comfy chair and watch something on Netflix and just unwind and bind.

Usually I am in for something mystery related, or a historical fiction, or even chick flick comedy.  Something with a plot and a hero/heroine, something that touches either my heart or my sense of good guys/bad guys in a crime/legal/police/lawyer drama.  Medical drama sometimes, as long as they are not too bloody gory.

And then something happened last night while flipping through “What’s trending” –a documentary on SUGAR and the sugar industry called “Sugar Coated.”

If you have Netflix, be sure to watch it.

I worry about our quilters. Quilters and chocolate and sweet things go together.  We laugh about it, we tease about it, but this is serious. Sugar is the most addictive drug that is out there.

I bet you’ll learn something you didn’t know.  Something you didn’t WANT to know. And it is going to change how you do things if you care about your life.

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Someone’s Getting a Quiltmaker Goodie Bundle!

Evening, everyone!

I made it up to the cabin for the long holiday weekend and just like I promised, I’m ready to do our drawing for this wonderful bundle!

I arrived by 5:30pm or so –and while my car said that it was 94 degrees in the Costco parking lot, it was nearly 20 degrees cooler here on the mountain.  PERFECT.

It looks like they had some rain this afternoon.  The pavement was wet in places, and oh the trees and foliage look like they’ve had a happy refreshing drink.  SO lush and green here in this corner of North Carolina right now.  Love it.

The car is unloaded, groceries are put away and before I pull out anything quilty and find myself sidetracked, I’m going to ramp up the Random Number Generator and see who is going to be the recipient of this bundle:

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Feeling Like This!

This is where I go to take a breather when I’m here at home in Wallburg, North Carolina.

My covered back porch with the yard stretched out before me.

Sometimes I’ll just sit out here in the morning and look at the green.  Oh, the green!

I love to listen to the birds.  They become very active here about 5:45am.  Sometimes they wake me up long before I am ready, but I do like an early start to my day, so I throw off the covers, and get going.

I woke up wondering what I was going to post about today, and it is going to be a bit more personal and wordy than quilty.

Because I’m home.  I’m not on the road.  There are no workshop photos, and heck, I just shared with you the finished quilt from yesterday that still doesn’t have binding on yet…

I admit it.  Sometimes I feel like I am just spinning my wheels.

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H’s to the FINISH!

There are days when you put off writing the blog so that you can finish the quilting, and get some photos in!

The Quilt is Calling and I Must Obey!

Actually, it was one of those “The birds are calling at 5:45am and now you are awake.”  I have a sneaking suspicion that there WILL be a nap this afternoon. 

I was so wound up after last night’s Quilt-Cam that it was hard to settle in and fall asleep….so extra short night, last night.

Whatever the reasons, I came down to the studio extra early and finished the quilting on the H quilt!  Can you see the H’s that found their way on to the backing in the above photo?  This is just as they were rolled up and visible on the take up bar as the quilt was advanced to the next area.  So much fun!

I’m really glad I took the time to do these….even though it DID take time, it was so worth it.

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Quilt-Cam! 5/24/2016

Meet Caroline!

Her mama Karen sent along this photo during our LAST Quilt-Cam, the first one ever they had watched live together!

She writes:

Hi Bonnie -- we've recently found your archived quilt-cams and were hooked from the first!

My 8-year-old, Caroline, and I started to watch our first live quilt-cam last week when your sound went out.  

She is just starting to sew and was working on a baby quilt for her new cousin that is due in a few weeks.  She found a charm pack that she loved and we went from there.

We're trying it again tonight -- and we just finished up the last round of borders on the baby quilt. 

Sending a picture of the pinwheels in progress and one of the finished top  :)

Working on hexies tonight.  Thanks for a fun evening!
Karen and Caroline Dawson
Wauconda, Illinois

Check out the baby quilt that they made together:

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Quilt Late & Sleep In!

I am SO happy to be home for more than a week that I couldn’t wait to jump into getting the H quilt into the longarm as soon as some deskwork and mail order duties were done.

H blocks were calling!

You mean there are MORE H blocks?

YES!  Remember when I was at the Vermont Quilt Festival last June, and an entire guild had gotten together to make me H blocks so I could get this quilt done?  I ended up with a plethora of H’s!

Only.

They didn’t know what size my blocks were and their beautiful blocks turned out a different size than mine.  WHAT TO DO!?

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Classroom Quilt Sharing!

These ladies are so busy quilting away!

I had a great most-of-a-week with the Pride of the Prairie Quilters in Plainfield, Illinois.  Three days of workshops, and a day to run around with an evening lecture –perfect! 

It gave me enough time to get to know these gals, meeting some for the first time, and many for a second time as I was here with them just 4 years ago.

What they have accomplished in 4 years is amazing.  What they have done with their lives outside of quilting in the past 4 years is also inspiring!

And our after-lunch-time show & share was varied and uplifting and oh so fun!

I love seeing Allietare finishes, this one in an easy wall hanging size.  Remember when the mystery comes out that if you do half of the units you’ll have enough, or mostly enough to do something like this without too much time investment.  Didn’t it turn out lovely?

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Quiltmaker July/August 2016 Give-Away!

 While I make my way home from Chicago with a few slight delays, I thought I would throw THIS goodie out here for fun!

Besides, writing a post takes up some time.

Before I left for Illinois, I received this lovely issue of Quiltmaker that just screams SUMMER at its best!

Aren’t you ready for summer? I know I am!

Inside this issue you will find many ways to spend your available quilty time.  From patriotic to summer splash, it’s all in here!

Take a look:

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A Day with Texas Tumbleweed, Pride of the Prairie Style!

I love the resilience of women!

In any group I visit, if I stop to think about it, there is a wealth of knowledge, an ocean of compassion, a force of determination, and a mountain of friendship and open arms ready to welcome in visitors and members alike. This is what quilters do.  This is who quilters are.

Now, I know someone might say that “well, MY group isn’t like that…..”  and my answer to you?  If you find that your group is lacking in any area – BE the thing that is missing yourself!  BE the one that welcomes, that encourages, that helps, that shares, that smiles.  It all starts with ONE person. YOU.

In the four years that have passed since I last visited with the Pride of the Prairie quilters of Plainfield, Illinois there have been many changes.  There has been loss of loved ones, end of employment, illness, cancer scares, BIG life changes for many.  And I love it when I walk into a room and catch little bits of caring conversation and hugs, laughter, conversation and connection.

BELONGING.  And I’m so happy that this group has made me feel part of them.  I can’t wait to come back at some point.  We had an amazing 3 days of workshops, but more than that, we built friendships.

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Someone is Getting a May Quilty Box!

Hey everyone!  It’s a beautiful sunny evening in Joliet, Illinois!

I’ve just returned to my room after a really fun Texas Tumbleweed Workshop day with the Pride of the Prairie Quilters and friends, and a yummy dinner out for Mexican in Plainfield.

My trip here is winding down and I head home tomorrow.

But before I start packing ((There are still several hours that I can spend with a sewing machine in my room this evening…)) I wanted to do the drawing for the May Quilty Box!

ONE lucky winner is going to find this box coming their way!

Is it you?

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A Happily Scrappily Irish Day in Illinois!

Check out Susan’s shirt!

When I came to teach to Susan’s guild a couple of years ago, a friend gifted her this shirt as she knew what a Quiltville fanatic Susan is.  I was so happy to see her walk in the door for our workshop yesterday wearing her “Proud to be a Bonnie-fied Quilter!” shirt!

How fun is this?

I’ve been thinking long and hard about doing a line of Quiltville tshirts for cruises, retreats and guild events, and also for on the website.  Wouldn’t that be fun? I’ll keep thinking on it.  I just need to know where to go to get them going, figure out sizes and colors and what to say on them, and how many and try to keep it affordable, and how many sizes to carry, and oh my!  That is a lot to think about!

But we WILL do it!

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Some Sewing, Some Shopping, Some Show & Sharing!

I’ve had plenty of time to work some stitching into my visit with the Pride of the Prairie Quilters of Plainfield, Illinois!

I am working on those Scrappy Mountain Majesties blocks, thanks to a loaner 301 and the card table to go with it provided by Cheryl!

She even included a mascot to keep me company.  See the little punk troll? 

So fun!

Mona and I had started working on these blocks together, and if you remember, her top is all ready for quilting and I am behind as I have been working on other deadlines.

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Tulip Fields with the Pride of the Prairie Girls!

Is there anything better than mothers and daughters stitching up the scraps together?  I don’t think so!

And I hope that I’ll still have the opportunity to be quiltin’ with my mama when she reaches 81 years young!

These two had their featherweights just a hummin’ all day long sewing up the string blocks.

I swear that pile kept GROWING instead of going down!

But what pretty blocks they were turning out!

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A Mackinac Walkabout!

What’s a girl to do on the sunniest warmest afternoon when workshop day is done and there is 2 1/2 hours before dinner time yet  to fill?

Put on your running shoes and hike around the island!

Take a jacket, those Northern Michigan breezes coming off of the water will still chill you in spite of the sun, but if you get up a good walking pace, you’ll soon find yourself shedding the jacket and tying around your waist as you explore various corners of the island, most within easy walking distance from the hotel.

Head NORTH up the hill from the carriage lane and you’ll find yourself at this crossroads telling you what is where and how far you need to go.

Take a RIGHT and wind your way past pastures, stables, island cottages, a fort or two, and on to the bike path through the trees.

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Happy Mail & Show & Share!

THIS was waiting for Sadie when I got home from the cabin yesterday!

A BOX!

A BIG BOX!

Addressed to Sadie Jane Hunter.

With a big paw print on it!

WHO would be sending Sadie presents, and for what occasion?  I didn’t remember ordering anything, and no one had mentioned anything to me about a package coming for her.

I was mighty curious! 

So I dug right in and opened it right up.

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Who Wants a May Quilty Box?

Look what showed up on my doorstep!

Actually, it has been waiting for me while I've been in Michigan and up to the cabin this weekend.

But it is very much worth waiting for!

The MAY Quilty Box is full of goodies that every quilter will want – Fabric, patterns, rulers, notions, oh my!

What is a Quilty Box?

• Quilty Box is a monthly subscription box of fun quilting supplies. We offer plans from $44-48/mo.
• 5% of the profits of multi-month subscriptions are donated to Quilts for Kids - a non-profit which donates quilts for children in need
• Each month we have 4 or more products (Fabric, patterns, thread, or notions)
• Our retail value of the products in the box is always more than $50
• June's Quilty Box Featured Artist will be Heather Gavins from crimsontate.com
• The next Quilty Box will ship around June 11th. Subscribers will need to purchase before June 10th to receive this shipment.
• We will be using the hashtags #QuiltyBox and #GetQuilty

Your support is appreciated. If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to contact me.
Get Quilty!
Patrick Claytor, CEO
Quilty Box
Subscribe today at www.QuiltyBox.com!

I LOVE that 5% of the proceeds goes to Quilts for Kids!  We get a happy Quilty Box in the mail, and the kids get more quilts to cover them with love. It's a win/win every way you look at it.

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A Sunday to Assemble!

It’s kind of fun to sew a variation.

I look at it this way – I already KNOW the pitfalls.  All of the math has been figured out.  I simply need to do some counting, some cutting, and some assembly line sewing and before I knew it I had the baby pinwheel quilt top together!

It felt GOOD to do a smaller project. 

Do you realize this is the 2nd small quilt I’ve finished in the past month?  Or as in this case, just got to the top stage, but it still counts!

I am thinking there needs to be a book on baby sized quilts in my future!

I have been mulling that over for a project down the road, and I think it needs to be brought closer to the front burner.  I've sure had fun doing the past couple of small quilts that have come my way.

As far as I know "Winston Ways" the small version has arrived for its place in the silent auction which benefits Quilts of Valor.  I'm hoping that someone will attend and take photos so I can share them here with you.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!  Someone get photos of ALL the quilts in the silent auction!  I'm so anxious to see what else was turned in.

I appreciate your efforts!

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Oh, That H Quilt!

There has been a lot of this going on since I arrived at the cabin on Friday afternoon.

I just needed to add the “completer” border to the outside edge of the H quilt so that the design from the center went all the way to the edge.

I did some rearranging of the sewing nook at the cabin so that the long table was to my left, and this allowed me to sew with a machine in a cabinet facing the window.  This gave me a nice FLAT surface for attaching borders to a large quilt top.  Less edges to catch on.  Easier moving of the quilt top as the borders were applied.

You may not have seen this machine before, it’s a Wheeler,1950s, made in Japan.  I had bought it from my friend Diane a few years back, and it is finally functional, and I brought it up here to give it a good work out.

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Grand Illusion Reveal at the Grand!

SO MANY Grand Illusion Quilts made their way from all over to be shared all at once during our show & share evening at the Grand Hotel!

To have so many quilts together at once, all shared at the place that inspired this design was an amazing thing to me.

I just can’t explain the joy that I felt to have all of these quilts here in one place!

And finding a place to photograph them proved to be a bit tricky.

There were SO MANY!  ((This is a good thing!))

But how to fit ONE photo together?  There is no way to do a photo shoot off of the porch as there is no porch rail.  There are geranium planters all around the edge of the porch.  We couldn’t hang quilts over the world famous Grand Hotel geraniums!  And even if we did, there would be no way to fit us all in one photo.

So we took to the stage in the theater!

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Look What’s Going On Over at C&T!

I was recently interviewed by Heather Kojan as a “Getting to Know You” for the C&T Blog!

This all coincided with my 2nd Monday of the month postings over at C&T and I was really happy to answer each question as frankly and inclusively as I could.

If you head on over to the C&T blog, you just might find something out about me that you didn’t know.

For instance – what is this crazy pieced patch doing on top of this humming bird quilt?

Click HERE to visit my post!

Please leave a comment on the page letting them know that you read my interview. Please leave any comments or questions there so that they know you are reading!

I look forward to learning more about the other C&T authors and designers as well!

I was also going to do a Quilty Box extravaganza giveaway, but upon reading the email that was sent to me, I need to wait a couple of days to reveal that goodie.  Oh darn!

And it’s a good one!  So that will be coming soon.

While you are here, I have need of your help!  This just in from Carolyn at Quiltmaker Magazine:

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A Day to Play Catch Up!

When we first arrived at The Grand Hotel a week go, all you could see here was a field of green leaves.

Each and every day when I left the hotel to go for a walk, or go down to the Gatehouse for dinner, I’d look at these tulips, and every day there were just slight changes.  Maybe the stems with tight buds were “just that much” taller over night.  Maybe the buds grew fuller, not quite yet ready to open, but reaching for the sunlight through chilly spring Mackinac Island breezes.

Every day I’d wave at them, say hello, and add a word of encouragement – YOU CAN DO IT!  You can bloom before I have to leave this wonderful place.

Overnight –tight green buds began to open to pink.  I didn’t get to see them open all the way, but any day now this section will be vibrant with color.

How quickly things can change in just a week!

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Grand Memories of Midnight Flight

I have always said that quilting is much more than fabric and thread, pattern and construction.

It’s about relationships.

The BEST part of what I do is the meeting people from all walks of life, all levels of experience and learning who they are as PEOPLE.

You might look at a room full of quilters and just see women, old and young – all wearing that same label QUILTER as if we are all the same.  But we are SO different.  Everyone has a story, everyone has past experiences that we can only imagine.

I love asking my ‘more mature” students what they did before they retired.  The answers will surprise you!  Lawyers, doctors, chemists, accountants, engineers, architects, nurses, teachers, designers, every kind of experience that you can imagine is in this one room gathered at this place in time.  Wouldn’t it be great to bottle all of that life experience so we could draw from it?

Last night I spent a pleasant hour in the ballroom with 3 generations of women: Mother, daughter, and granddaughters who all came to spend a girls week over Mothers Day weekend and take in the needle art seminar together. The two granddaughters are 11 and 5. They spent time in my classroom this week while their mom was in my class and those girls were so well behaved.

We just danced and danced to big band music. So fun! I am heading home a happy woman for having my path cross that of others in these amazing places.

Thank you Needle Art Seminar, Thank you, Grand Hotel!

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Grand Hotel Needle Art Seminar, Day 5!

 
Debbie and Xenia are favorite students who brighten a room whenever I see them!

So fun sharing the week with these super ladies and sharing in their conversations as well as watching their pieces coming together!

Debbie’s hubby Rick has been here with us this week too, and he has been Mr. Awesome, watching over us all, letting us know when the lunch line to the dining room has dissipated enough that we don’t waste sewing time standing in a line waiting to be fed!

He puts up with a lot being surrounded by so many women, taking it all in stride!

He and Debbie have become like family to me as they come to see me whenever I get close enough.  They were last with me in Sioux City Iowa a couple weeks ago!

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Two Days of Grand Illusion!

Our Needle Art Seminar here at the Grand Hotel has been a “destination vacation location” with the added bonus of Mother’s Day happening while we are here.  We have several hubby/wife couples.  What a fantastic Mother’s Day gift for the quilt-woman in your life!

We’ve also got several sets of mother/daughter teams and it is so great to see them stitching together. What a fabulous way for mother/daughter pair so make the most of Mother’s Day Weekend!

It’s always special to be here, but to have our workshops going on over mother’s day weekend was just a bonus and a gift to each other!

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100 Blocks Vol 13 Winners!

Yes, I know it’s late!  But sometimes you have to enjoy dinner out with the other teaching staff, followed by a leisurely beverage up in the cupola of the Grand Hotel and talk shop!

It’s been a long but rewarding day, and before I head off to bed I am posting our winners for the 100 blocks by 100 designers volume 13 giveaway.

I hope you had as much fun looking at the different sites and seeing all of the beautiful blocks!

I am excited about my block, Dawn’s Early Light, and I will be anxiously awaiting the time when I can start making a full quilt with these fun blocks!

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A Grand Evening of Show & Share!

My busy little bees on day 1 of Grand Illusion!

Breaking down a quilt into two full days of sewing pleasure meant we were taking our time, examining our habits, finding areas that we could improve as far as cutting, seam allowance, and construction methods and enjoying our day!

It seemed like we just got started, and it was time for lunch.

It seemed like we had just gotten back from lunch and it was time to pack it in for the day!

That old times flies thing, you know?

Most of the photos from our 2-day sessions for Grand Illusion and Midnight Flight will be shown AFTER the second day of classes, so in the interim, I’m going to throw in what else was going on at the hotel during our day!

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A GRAND Day for Charlotte’s Baskets!

Hello from the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan where yesterday’s Charlotte’s Baskets workshop from my book String Fling was in full swing!

It was a wild and crazy day full of string piecing, half square triangles, and more, and we had a great time!

Chain those triangles, Pam! 

Pam and her hubby have joined us from Southern California, and she is one of those gals that I just love seeing wherever she turns up.

This time I got to meet her hubby, and I can honestly say that the husbands are enjoying their trip to the Island and the Grand just as much as the ladies are.

If you have a chance to come to the Needle Arts Seminar in the future, don't miss it!

In fact, plans are underway to make sure I come back in May of 2019, so set your calendars and start saving!

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A Grand Place to Hexie!

It’s just after 7am as I sit here at my little writing table in my room at the Grand Hotel.  I’ve got the window cracked open just a bit for some fresh air and I can hear gulls calling to one another.

Every once in a while the bird call is interrupted by the sound of horse’s hooves clip=clopping up the hill from the ferry docks in town.  The sound is barely audible in the distance, but as the horses draw closer, the jingle jangle of the reins and tackle, the turn of the carriage wheels on pavement, and the murmur of excited voices as passengers arrive at their destination is heard.

I love this sound!  I love this place!  And this hotel, it goes without saying –if anyone asked me where my favorite place to teach would be, it would have to be here.

There are just no sour-puss faces here.  How can you be out of sorts when you are in a magical place like this?

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A Grand Arrival!

Good Morning, from the Grand Hotel, Mackinac Island, Michigan!

Yesterday’s travel turned out to be pretty un-eventful, and even fun!

Oh, don’t get me wrong, getting up at 4am to catch a flight is never peachy, but I was so excited to get where I was going that it didn’t seem to bother me that much.

Son Jeff on the other hand?  Well, he doesn’t like being woken up at 4:45am to drive his mom to the airport!  But he is a trooper and he and Sadie and mama were on our way with plenty of time to spare.  There was NO WAY I was going to miss this flight!

I landed in Detroit, made my way to my next gate with enough time to grab a bite of lunch.  I was sitting in the gate area when I heard a familiar voice, turned my head to greet a familiar smile!

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Quiltmaker’s 100 Blocks, vol 13 Blog Hop!

Yipppeeee!

I’m so excited for my day to play on the blog hop for volume 13 of Quiltmaker Magazine’s 100 blocks by 100 designers!

I have had my copy for a couple of weeks now, and these blocks are just FABULOUS.

So many ideas, so many ways to combine them, and best thing of all – they are all the same size as each other so will work seamlessly together.

This is my 12th issue, I’ve only missed one in the whole run of volumes.  I missed the deadline on the first issue, but I’ve made SURE I’ve followed along in each issue since.

I love the challenge.  Because I know it is coming up every six months, my little quilt-pickin’ mind is always wondering what I should try next, what something else would look like, what if I took this element and combined it with that one, would it give it a new look -

I’m eager to share my block with you, Dawn’s Early Light:

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A Sioux Falls Antique Stop!

X
Come see what I found in Sioux Falls!

I made really good time driving from Sioux City, Iowa to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to catch my flight.

Who KNEW that you could drive 80 miles per hour in South Dakota?!?!  I was like…holy cow!  It felt like I was screaming at 80, yet people were passing me at nearly 90.

I think this is the ONLY time I have ever gone the speed limit and didn’t push it just above….it was crazy driving that fast!

I had a great time driving my big red Jeep Patriot – how they knew I’d need this for all of my luggage, I’ll never know, but it was PERFECT.

While exiting just before Sioux Falls to fill the gas tank, I spotted a sign for the Dakota Plains Antique Mall, just across from where I was filling the jeep and being about 45 minutes ahead of schedule, I ran in for a quick browse.   The building didn’t look like much from the outside, but I was pleasantly surprised by what I found!

There was, of course, a lot of Plains Native American collectibles.  I loved the woven blankets and the baskets, much like the feel of Wichita.  You’ll also find a lot of Lone Star or other 8 pointed star quilts in this area, also very popular with the various tribes.

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Quilt-Cam! 5/3/2016

Hooray for an extra day to play this week, giving us Quilt-Cam opportunity to make up for the bust that happened last week when we lost sound!

Funny story, though maybe not so funny because it just shows that I am indeed losing my mind – All week I’ve been thinking that I fly to Michigan tomorrow, Wednesday.  On my drive home from the cabin today I was suddenly alarmed that I did not get my usual 24-hours-in-advance email allowing me to check in online.

I checked my Delta App.  It said I had 19 hours until check in.  OOPS!  And HOORAY!

This feels like a bonus evening, and I get tomorrow to pull my stuff together to head to Michigan on Thursday.

Does this machine look familiar?  This Singer 500a or Rocketeer belongs to Jessie who sent it along during a past Quilt-Cam to share the Scrappy Trips blocks she was working on.

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An Extra Day to Play!! Quilt-Cam Tonight!

Okay, this is a quickie announcement!

I thought I was flying to Michigan tomorrow.

Um.  No.

I fly THURSDAY!  So here I am, home from the cabin, with a free evening ahead of me and I wanted to throw an opportunity for Quilt-Cam out there for those who might want to do a bit of sewing!

I was a bit leary after the sound went out last week, but I've done a test and all systems seem to be a go!

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H Blocks to the Finish!

This was the better part of my day yesterday.

H Blocks to the Finish!

Or maybe now it’s just the beginning. Because some projects have a habit of spinning off into something else – what if I did THIS instead of THAT? Or what if we try this other thing to make it more universal to everyone, not just those with an H in their name?

Ideas start to take over my brain, and I want to try them in fabric SO BAD..but I am on a deadline.  I head home this morning to pack for Mackinac Island and the Grand Hotel Needle Art Seminar – I fly to Michigan TOMORROW!

New project on back burner, concentrate on getting THIS top together!

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Sunshine on the Mountain & Some Finishes!

This morning the storms have finally gone away, leaving my mountain bathed in sunlight, highlighting my morning with a chorus of birdsong.

I can’t believe how the trees have leafed out into fullness with the last great push over the past 4 days that I’ve been up here.

The rain has a comfort all its own – we were VERY dry and needed the rain desperately.  But as human as we are, 3 days of solid rain leaves us a bit impatient for the sun to return.

Watch.  Now the sun will turn everything hot and humid and I’ll wish for the rain to come back and cool things off again.

Fickle humans that we are!

There have been some finishes here during my mountain time:

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Someone Is Getting Happy Mail!

I have had a wonderful time visiting all of the participating sites in the blog hop for Barbara Cline’s newest book release, Amazingly Simple Triangle Stars!

Have you been following along?

Barbara has wrapped up the hop with her post HERE.  She includes a video in today's post on how simple these stars are to put together!  Give it a look-see!

While I am doing my drawing for our winner tonight, the other sites are on their own schedules so look for the list at the bottom of this post and go enter on the sites you haven’t visited yet and learn more about this reawlly fun book and easy technique.

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Some Wichita Antique Quilt Sightings!

When I taught in Wichita, Kansas a couple of weeks ago (How can it feel like much longer than that already?!) I had the morning free as my flight out happened mid afternoon.

I had met Jean in one of my Wichita Workshops with the Prairie Quilt Guild, and she, also being a lover antiques, quilts and machines, offered to  be my partner in quilt-crime and hit some antique places she knew about, and finish up with a nice Mexican lunch before dropping me off at the airport for my return trip home.

We ended up hitting only ONE place.  Paramount Antique Mall was so huge and had so much quilt-eye-candy that by the time we were done, it was time for lunch and airport drop off.

I have held on to these photos for a post since returning home!  There were other scheduled posts that had to happen on certain dates, there were things I wanted to post about my own projects that these lovely quilts have waited until now to make their appearance here on the blog.

I needed TIME to edit the photos down.  And I got to revisit each and every quilt-find as I did so, remembering exactly how I felt the moment we first uncovered them.

Some extraordinary.  Some simple and well worn.  ALL wonderful in their own right!

There were also other things sewing-related that I had never seen before.

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