Bonnie Hunter is coming to town!

I was contacted a year or so ago by Jo, of Jo's Country Junction, asking if I would be interested in giving my presentation/trunk show during their Bonnie Hunter retreat. Well...SURE!  Bonnie and I have e-mailed back and forth, but we have never met in person.  Initially I was just giving my presentation and going home, but then I thought it would be fun to stay for the whole thing and take the classes from Bonnie and Jo & Kelli.  I was lucky that they had room for me.  And....my friend Nancy, from California, is coming too!  And even more exciting?  You can come too!  Not for the whole retreat, but you can come for our presentations.  There is a small vendor area that opens for shopping at 5:00 - I will be set up and have lots of good stuff - then I present at 7:00 and Bonnie is up after that.  This is all taking place at the middle school in Oelwein, IA - here is a link to Jo's blog for more information.  Hope to see you there!

I have admired Bonnie's quilts for several years, and always consider joining in when she offers her annual mystery quilt, but have never done it - there just isn't enough time in the day!  But, she also puts out a leader/ender challenge every year.  I'm not sure what made me do it, but a few years ago (3 years, I think?), the challenge was a 3" bow tie block.  I've never been a big fan of bow ties, so I'm not sure why I decided to do this, but I'm glad I did.  Leaders and enders don't really work out for me when I'm making my jewelry, and that is mostly what I do all day, every day, so this project didn't move along very quickly.  Instead of making the blocks by l/e, I mainly just cut pieces for it when I had some scraps, and worked on it once in awhile when I wanted to just sew something easy.  A few weeks ago, I gave myself permission to take a day and play with bow ties.  I already had one big section done - it's one fourth of the quilt.  and had piles of bow tie blocks pieced.  Here is what I came up with...

 It's 72" square.  I was planning to add a bow tie border to it, but it was going to make it way too big.  So, now I'm working on bow tie quilt #2!  Well, I'm not actively working on it, but maybe someday!  You can see this in person at the trunk show - I packed it yesterday!  If you aren't familiar with Bonnie, you really are missing out - here is a link to her website - she posts on her blog daily, and offers a ton of free patterns, and her books are all really great.

Now back to the KC quilt show - I was so busy showing you the quilts in my last post that I forgot to show you my purchases.  I usually don't have much time to shop, but Sew Graceful Quilting is offering a new block of the month that I wanted to see in person, so I made a bee-line to their booth early one morning before the show opened.  I signed up for the BOM (you know, because I didn't already have enough to do!).  It is called Simply Vintage, and is designed by Cherie Ralston and Alma Adams from Blackbird Designs.  The book is out of print, but Sew Graceful has them.  Here is the first block - this isn't stitched, but I did finish stitching it last night, but didn't take a pic.

Here is the full quilt - it looks totally different than the cover of the book - it was done in needle turn applique.  If you want to check it out (and sign up!), here is the link to Sew Graceful

Then I had another weak moment and bought this!  (Also in the Sew Graceful booth!).

And just so you know that I do finish things now and then...here is my finished Merry Christmas, designed by Buttermilk Basin.  My friend Kym Ward of Reds Threads machine quilted it for me - she does amazing work - message me if you want her info - she would be happy to quilt for you too!  I made this quilt as a BOM, also through Sew Graceful - they do a great job choosing wool and fabrics.  I think they are running this again, so you can sign up for it too!

Oh my...I rarely edit my pictures, because it just takes too much time and then I won't get anything posted.  But, I see that I should have edited out that ugly foot!  My toes were really meant to be someone's fingers - they are long and skinny - and it's all my dad's fault - they look just like his!  Lol!

Ok, now get your friends together and make plans to head to Oelwein, IA on Friday night!