Spring Break Big Jobs!

Yesterday was the first "nice-ish" day we have had in a while.

Spring has not come in easy this year - it's been up and down and all around with nowhere to settle in.

It's been an angry toddler throwing an embarrassing baby breakdown in the middle of the grocery store.

Just when we thought it was going to behave it would storm off again.

But yesterday - without a retreat group filling up the parking lot behind the QPO studio, Hubster Dave set out to begin our next Very Big Job in our constant push to beautify this 140 year old house turned quilt retreat.

It's time for the old big rock to come out of the side yard along the drive to the parking area, in preparation for a retaining wall.

;

Just a Day Trip -

My 2 hour drive to Winston Salem gave me ample opportunity for.....

You guessed it!  An Antique Mall wander before my designated eye doctor appointment time.

And what you see on this shelf is an immediate reminder of my maternal grandmother who passed when I was 5.

Somewhere - I wish I could find it - I have a photo of my brother Mark and me sipping rootbeer floats out of these tumblers.

;

Spring Break - Day One!

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

I wish I could say that I took a lot of time for this - I should have taken more!

Yesterday was my first day of Spring Break - I've been longing for these two weeks in-between retreat groups and yesterday did not disappoint!

The rain and mist and more rain from the day and night before did not reappear.

Instead there were cattle grazing down below the back porch and I set about cleaning the porch and getting things ready for porch season to actually and truly begin.

;

Last Minute Stitches!

Sew Long, Farewell -

And would you check out that green green grass?  It's BACK!

This makes me so happy.  Now if only the trees would get leaves.

And....stop raining?

It poured all day yesterday and through the night.

I guess that means we are still in the season of mud.

But just look at these beautiful quilts!

;

Quilt City Mysteries Gift-Away!

Yes!  He's done it again!

And the Hadley Carroll story continues with another mystery - taking place in our favorite Quilt City of Paducah Kentucky!

Have you been keeping up with this series? I love it!

Honestly, I keep checking my inbox for when Bruce sends me another message of "It's that time again!" because I know he's got a brand new book release and I have an instant need to catch up with all of the charactors and see what shenanigans they can get into next.

;

Quilting Through The Weekend!

The Sewciologists are working on their PHD's! (Projects Half Done!)

And they are making beautiful things - it does my heart so much good!

The weather has been fairly yuck - I'll admit it.  Saturday was perhaps the worst with morning temps in the 20s and it just never got warm.  It was drizzly and fairly yuck -

But there is something so comforting about walking into the Quilting Quarters to find that the fireplace is going and everything is toasty and beautiful things are up on the design walls.

;

Quilting And Cats!

Irene finished her Fair and Square quilt from my book Scraps & Shirttails II!

No, she didn't finish it here at retreat, but had started it on a previous retreat and brought it to put the binding on so she can sit in the Hen Den and enjoy some quieter hand binding time.

Look at the fussy cut cats in the block centers! SO CUTE!

;

Good Friends, Good Eats, Good Times!

I snapped this photo before everyone had made it to the kitchen to pick up their dinner plates!

Irene's Sewciologists are in the house!  Her shop  Cotton to Quilts hosts 3 retreats a year at Quiltville Inn - March, June and October.

If you or a friend don't have a permanent group and would like to attend - Irene proves lunches and dinners cooking for everyone herself.  Talk about being pampered!

She also has a newsletter, so head over to  Cotton to Quilts and sign up for the newsletter and use the contact information to let her know you'd be interested in future retreats.

;

Slicing, Sewing, Dicing!

It's not much.  But I got some time to sew some short strip sets - 

And then I set to cross-cutting them on my Accuquilt Studio.

It makes things so easy!

These were all of the leftover short strips cut from charm squares for my Unchained quilt. 

I had charm squares languishing - so why not put them to use this way? It worked great - but I had leftovers.

And leftovers are not a bad thing either!

;

Fond Farewells and Catch Ups!

The past week has been a complete blur.

And yesterday - all I could do was little to nothing.  Do you have days like that?

I had ZERO energy.  

The big weekend family-packed wonderfulness. The Richmond Express departure Monday morning and the scramble to get yesterday's Big String Quartet and Kiss Me, Kiwi! live in the Quiltville Store.

And the Gift-Away post up!

Jason's departure yesterday left my mama's heart feeling a bit sad and empty.

And about all I accomplished was my next task at hand - pulling all the quilts for my exhibit at the Quilter's Hall of Fame and getting all of the blurbs written to go with them.

;

Big String Quartet Gift-Away!

Happy First Day of Spring, 2024, everyone!

And that sounds about right because it was spitting snow last night on our way home from dinner with temps dropping to a brisk 22 degrees when I woke up this morning.

It looks like we'll have to deal with brownish grass and bare trees just a bit longer.

I'm not letting that stop me though!

It's time to get the  PDF pattern for Big String Quartet in your hands, and get this gift-away going!

;

Family Through The Weekend!

Somehow we fit it all in.

I had both of my sons - and grandson time - and Hubster Dave's 64th birthday - and plenty of workshop time with the Richmond Express gals all through the weekend.

I am exhausted.  But SO HAPPY!

Casden and Jeff came up on Saturday afternoon to hang out with Jason and we had a family dinner - cooked on the blackstone and Casden got to spend the night with us, which was so wonderful.

;

A Day of Many Triangles!

It was a day of many triangles - MANY triangles!

But we made them so easy with the use of my Essential Triangle Tool!

The key objective for the day was to build variety by cutting from short strip sets.  No more than 8 repeats per strip set - we want VARIETY when these blocks start coming together so the same thing is not next to the same thing too often, etc.

You know how it goes!  FABRIC MUST NOT TOUCH ITSELF! LOL!

;

March String Madness!

The Richmond Express is chugging along!

We started our Emerald City workshop from my book String Frenzy yesterday - and as string quilts are my favorite thing on this planet - it was so much fun to see folks digging in and learning how fun simple string units could be - 

And there are so many things you can do with them.

Strings are so versatile.  You can cover any shape, trim them to any size, combine them with traditional units, use them as block corners, centers, setting blocks, and borders.

This is not your grandmother's string quilt!

;

Family Shenanigans!

There has been something in the works for about the past month and I can now finally talk about it!
Who do you see here with Hubster Dave and me?
Son JASON is here!⁣

As I said - we have been planning this for weeks and this morning I drove to Charlotte to pick him up after an overnight flight and sneak him home.

⁣

It was a total birthday surprise as he thought I was out hitting estate sales with my friend. Martha! LO l! It's great to have a friend to help build your cover.

⁣

Looking forward to spending this week together and celebrating Dave's big 64 on Saturday.

;

When The Wind Blows Hard -

Yes.  There is a rainbow crossing through our photo.

It's March!  St Paddy's Day is less than a week away - and maybe there are leprechauns about!

But more like - it was super cold and windy (though sunny) and we dove outside to take a series of 3 quick photos and then back inside we went.

We had a marvelous time with Gail's Quilt Buddies on retreat at Quiltville Inn.

Birthdays were celebrated.  Surprise first grandbaby showers went off without a hitch.

Who cares if the weather was less than pleasant?

;

Officially Lost My Mind.

If anyone finds my mind while out wandering around - please return it to me post haste.  I am missing it.  I need it.  I can't seem to function without it.

Just what am I talking about?

I posted early early yesterday morning.  I hobbled out to the car with my banged up left knee the morning after Sunday afternoon's face plant in the parking lot.

We drove all the way to Boone.  In the dark.  Because, you know - TIME CHANGE.

I got to the front counter at the Dermatologist after waiting in line.

"I'm Bonnie Hunter and I have a 7:00 am appointment."

;

Way Too Early!

It's Monday morning - the day after "Spring Forward."

I thought they were going to stop doing this time changing thing!

The clock says 5:30am, but my body still knows it's only 4:30.

I'm out the door to the dermatologist to have two moles surgically removed - appointment 7L00am.

Time to get there? One hour to Bonne.

There will be a nap!

But to keep this little post quilty, I have a finish!

;

A Showery Kind of Day!

Rain poured all night.  It rained all day.
It was a misty, drippy, constant light right kind of day.
But what did it matter?
The quilters were all inside quilting - just as we are want to do on a quilt retreat.
It was the best kind of "Nowhere to go, nowhere to be but here and sew all day kind of day!"

;

Plaids, Plaids & More Plaids!

This is what occupied most of my day yesterday.

All of the strips that were too short to go into blocks - all of the odd pieces of shirts that I could cut strips from where cut down and sewn into strip sets ready to be subcut for a checkerboard border.

Scrappy everything - very few neutrals (Just enough to add a spark) and every color in the bin.

There is something so satisfying with just simply putting pairs of strips through the machine, one short pair after another short pair - creating as much variety as I could so there was little chance that the same thing should end up next to the same thing in the border - 

You know how that goes, right?

;

Donning O' The Green!

Gail's Quilt Buddies have arrived!

And in preparation for the next couple of retreats - I pulled out all the green things - because even though the rain was falling ALL. DAY. LONG - the grass is turning green, the daffodils are beginning to bloom, and even the dogwood tree is showing little buds that will be popping within the next few weeks.

;

Bye Bye, March Quiltvillians!

The best sunny day for photos came on Saturday -

We had folks leaving on Monday morning and Sunday I had evening plans.

So we got to work with what we've got to work with and make it count.

But look at that blue sky!  It was definitely a turn for the better as compared to the days previous where we had to even light the fire in the Quilting Quarters fireplace for a bit of cozy warmth.

;

Relax and Quilt!

No, this is not mine!

This is Barbara, comfy and cozy in the Hen Den, hand quilting away on her Bristol quilt made with recycled shirts in plaids and stripes.

And you know how I feel about those fans - I would hand quilt them on EVERYTHING if I could.

I believe she has marked hers with a Crayola washout marker.

I've used them before and they are marvelous! Just be sure to test the different colors before you mark everything.  Scribble on a scrap piece of fabric and throw it in the wash and see what the result is.

I have had no problem with the washout markers at all.  And I love things that can be used for quilting that are not necessarily MADE for quilting.

;

Sew Much Quilty Through The Weekend!

Would you just look at this?  

Do you see short sleeves and sunshine? 

Wasn't my last photo post of ice coated trees and bushes?

I should have titled this post "Me and My Big Mouth." HA!

But since I mentioned I was going to be quilting my little March Mini Charm Challenge quilt on Saturday (It's small - how long could it take?) the hint of "They are ALL small, how long could it take?" was joked about, and before I knew it - I had a plan to quilt one after the other  - 5 in total - at the same time.

;

March Mini Charm Challenge!

Check out these cute ladies!

I love that Sylvia is wearing her "Quilting with my PEEPS" shirt - 

Surely that means it MUST be close to spring?

And what are they holding in their hot little hands?

Mini charm packs given by Sharon, along with a challenge to make SOMETHING from it during retreat using as much of the charm pack as you can.

And did I want to play along? Boy howdy!

;

Fine Finishes & Mutant Strawberries!

Now how's THAT for a title?  

I hope it grabbed you - because yesterday just had some crazy things we didn't expect.

But before I dig in - check out Jennifer's fun Jelly Roll friendly scrappy top!

There's a pattern or tutorial out there somewhere, but it's basically rail fence blocks paired with plain squares, sliced on the diagonal and stitched into half-square triangle units.

The use of navy as the background is wonderful!

;