Progress on Two Quilts

I have so many projects partially finished, and it is fun to change from one to another.  I finished my 3rd Benjamin Biggs Wedding Quilt block this weekend. It is my favorite of the three blocks I've made so far.  If you want to see this original quilt block, you will find it (Here)  The patterns are free for a month, and are available on the first of each month.




Talkin' Turkey, a Bonnie Hunter pattern, is coming right along.  I made all the parts for one complete row, and part of the second row.  There are six rows, and after I get all the parts made, I still have to sew them to each other.

I have all the string blocks made, all of the big nine patches made, and am now working on flying geese, and small nine patches.  I am liking it so far, and have good memories of the class I took with Bonnie in early April. 

Monday is my time to check out what everyone has on their design wall. Talkin' Turkey is on mine right now, but will come down for assembly very soon.  If you want to see what everyone is doing, check out Patchwork Times Blog 

Quilting With A Best Friend

This week, my best friend is visiting from St. Louis, MO, and she is making a quilt for her brother.  I love the optical illusion of depth in this quilt, and it is so easy to put together.   We worked together on the cutting portion, and I was her assistant on the sewing together part.  Here's a picture of Dee, at work at the sewing machine:

She doesn't like to have me take her picture, so if you know her, don't mention that her picture is here.  hee,hee

Friday, here was our start:

We cut squares 8.5 by 8.5 of focus fabric, and then cut black fabric strips, one at 2.5 by 6.5 and one 2.5 by 8.5.  We added two background squares, each 2.5 by 2.5, to the black rectangles (at 1:00 PM and 7:00 PM position on the focus fabric squares, and each completed block, with it's "shadow" is then 10.5 inches, unfinished, finishing at 10 inches.

Here is the quilt now, as we are adding a scrappy border on the outside:



Doesn't the "shadow" make the focus fabrics pop?  The sashing finishes at 4 inches.

My New Little Doll Quilt!

Cathy (blog is here) sent this little civil war quilt to me last week, and today is my birthday, so I am treating it as a birthday present!  Isn't is lovely?

I had seen somewhere on the internet, the idea of using a magnetic towel rack to hang something on a metal door, and this quilt fit the little towel rack perfectly.  It is hanging inside the door, so everyone can see it in my front entry hall.  It's the perfect spot for it, and it looks like it's been there forever.

Cathy's blog has a picture of a beautiful trillium as her header, and trillium are my favorite flowers in the spring.  

Here is a small bouquet from my garden.  They are so delicate, and start out white, then turn pale pink as they start to fade.  

Besides the doll quilt, Cathy sent me a little bag, with a zipper, with a safety pin motif from the fabric on the little zipper tab.  So cute!  I'm just learning to hand quilt, and I'm putting all my hand quilting supplies in this little case.

Also, a third gift!  A little pin cushion.  It is with my other small doll pillows, on the doll chest of drawers in the front hallway, and I smile every time I walk past it.  Such a cheerful addition to my little pillow grouping, don't you think?

It's the brightly colored one in the front!  I love it!  Thank you Cathy, for such lovely birthday presents!   I'm 71 today, and feel my life just gets better and better with every passing year.  I am blessed!

Lori's Doll Quilt Exchange

I love to make doll quilts, and this week I finished a little doll quilt that will be sent to someone else as part of Lori's (of humblequilts.blogspot.com) doll quilt exchange.  It is fun anticipating someone opening up a package and finding this little quilt.

Here's a picture of it with some white rabbits out in the screened porch:

It was a fun quilt to make, and I used indigos and white.  I love pinwheels, and when I had the top together, I noticed that some of my fabrics didn't meet together very well in the center of the pinwheels. 

 Then, I remembered a little jar full of pearl buttons in the sewing room.

The little buttons were soon spilled out on the quilt, and one was sewn in the center of each pinwheel.  Each little button covers the center of each pinwheel and also served the purpose of securing the batting, backing and front of the quilt together.

I used heavy button thread, double thickness, and double knots to secure the tiny buttons.  After adding the striped, bias cut binding, it measures 20" by 22", and the hst's are 2.5 inches square.

I also hand quilted the border, as I found out that the recipient is an advocate of hand quilting.  I am not very good at it, but I enjoyed trying hand quilting.

Happy Easter everyone!  I hope the new owner likes her little pinwheel doll quilt!  If you are in Lori's little doll quilt exchange, this one might be coming your way today.  I'm heading to the post office right now.

A Bonnie Day at our Guild! Part II

My last post about Bonnie Hunter's visit to our local guild is continued below, with more pictures of Bonnie's bodacious quilts!

Bodacious

This one is appropriately named Bodacious!  Her bow ties are made from four patches that were leaders and enders.

Easy Street

Easy Street Back

East street front and back.  Bonnie sure has me opening up to use more on the backs of my quilts than just plain muslin.  And to use colors I don't think I like!

Winston Ways

Midnight Flight

Narragansett Blues

Love, love, love this one.  Of course, because it's blue!  It's in Bonnie's new book, which is just released, More Adventures with Leaders and Enders.

Lazy Sunday Morning

This quilt is so bright and cheerful!

Roll Roll Cotton Boll

Remember on the first part of this quilt show, when Bonnie Hunter said she saved the small half-square triangles cut off from Starstruck rectangles?  Well, they are here in Roll Roll Cotton Boll!  Lots of them!

This was a mystery quilt, and I remember making a gazillion half-square triangles, and if I use Bonnie's scrap user system in the future, I will already have them as bonus triangles from another quilt.  What a concept!  Bonnie talks about it on her blog (Here)

Blue Skies

Blue Skies, which has yellow and blue - two of my favorite colors.  Lots of strings here.

Cotton Candy

Bonnie has no daughters, and said she just had the urge to make something totally "pink".  It is sure beautiful! Love the backside also!

Cotton Candy Back

Pineapple Crazy was just amazing in person.  Bonnie took leftover pieces from everywhere, and created a paper-pieced lovely quilt, using fabric that many quilters would have (or did!) throw away.  

Pineapple Crazy

Next up was Jamestown Landing, and it is on my bucket list.  I love it!

Jamestown Landing

She used creams, tans up to "brown paper bag" color for the neutrals, and lovely blues.  

She closed the show with this wowzer!!!  It's her hexie quilt, and she's nearing the finish on it.

Some of the pictures are a little fuzzy, and I apologize, but most of the time my mouth was open in awe, and my hand wasn't too steady on the camera.   Thanks to Bonnie Hunter for the amazing show of her quilts.  She is one of my heroes.

Here's what I worked on recently:

I'm directing you over to Judy Laquidara's blog for Design Wall Mondays - my favorite Monday morning activity is looking at all the quilts there.  (Here)

A Bonnie Day at our Guild! Part I

Bonnie Hunter came to our guild and talked about her scrap user system.  You can read more about it (here)

She also brought many of her beautiful quilts to show to us.  Enjoy the show!

Starstruck

Bonnie said to notice the red plaid that was sewn into the corners of the rectangles on Starstruck.  She sewed another seam on the piece that she was cutting off, creating a small half-square triangle that she saved and used later in another quilt.

Virginia Bound

Bonnie used one orange man's shirt for all of the orange squares in the outer borders.  

Smith Mountain Morning

This quilt uses brown and blue - the two most common colors in my stash.  I really like the color combination.  I will have to make a brown and blue quilt!

Tumalo Trail

This quilt is so beautiful, I wanted to keep snapping pictures of it over and over again.  I think it will go on my bucket list.  

Bricks in the Barnyard

I love the red border and all the spots of red in this one.  Bonnie said there were several different reds in it, and she showed all the matchy-matchy people that it didn't matter.  If you put enough of different ones in, it will work.  

Hawks Nest Cheddar

She pointed out that on-point blocks have on-point borders, and straight set blocks have straight-set borders.  I love the triangles in the border on this one.

Rectangle Wrangle

Interesting point made by Bonnie on this one:  The center has a darker "feel" and the lighter border lightens up the whole quilt.  Even though the border is a lot of work, it really is worth it, and makes this quilt wonderful.

Boxy Stars

Another Boxy Stars

This quilt show will be continued on the next blog post.  

Bonnie Hunter Class on Talkin Turkey

Bonnie Hunter visited our guild and taught a class on her quilt, Talkin Turkey.

She is so nice, and just as I had pictured her, very down to earth, and real.  I felt like I already knew her! She de-boned a shirt for us:

My friend JoAnne McPherson (Patriotic Quilter blog) and I sat together. JoAnne is so creative, and I really like her blog.  Please visit her blog - she's a great quilter! 

JoAnne thought about the red string squares we were making in the class, and came up with the perfect luncheon potluck dish.  Doesn't her beautiful jello mimic the layers of red fabric in Talkin Turkey's string piecing?

So clever!  We had a great time sewing together.  Here's a picture of Bonnie's Talkin Turkey, from the front and also the beautiful plaid back which shows the quilting:

Just lovely!  My next post will show Bonnie's quilts that she brought to our guild meeting.

I'm connecting with Design Wall Mondays (Here)  to see what everyone else is doing. I have Talkin Turkey on my design wall this week: