Bonnie and Alex and Ricky! Oh My!

Bonnie with my Yorkies
(Top to Bottom) Riley, Katie and Murphy

So, spending a day (or five) with Bonnie K. Hunter in her workshops is wonderful.  Having her stay in my home was so much more!  I had a chance to get to know her and watch her process of keeping the 'Quiltville' ball rolling and I have to tell you it is quite a sight to behold.  

Sunday we sewed... Bonnie had a deadline looming for a submission to one of the magazines to which she contributes.  She needed a new block design and so armed with pencil and paper off she went!  

 

Within a couple of hours she had designed, cut (from my scrap bins!) and sewn together her latest creation. I was so impressed.  She makes it all look so easy!  And it was a wonderful block!  I'm so excited to see it on the glossy pages of the printed magazine and know that it was designed in my house, cut from my scrap bins, and sewn on my Singer 301, Danika (named after the female race car driver because she sews so fast!).  

 

But the BIG day was Monday.  On Monday, we got in the
car and headed to the studio of a local fiber artist who was lending her studio space to 'The Quilt Show', an internet broadcast staring Alex Anderson and Ricky Timms.  And there I was, acting as Bonnie's assistant and having the time of my life!  It was a quilter's trifecta!  

Although admitting to nerves, Bonnie did a great job keeping her cool while taping the interview segment with Alex and Ricky and then doing the demo section.  It was a bit intimidating with camera, lighting and sound equipment everywhere but Bonnie handled it like a pro... must be all that experience on Quilt-Cam! 

 

 

It took all afternoon to film what will probably be less than hour of broadcast time but I can't wait to see it. 



Talking with the Director

 

 



The monitor where Bonnie and Alex
 could see what was filming 



 



Bonnie and Alex while filming

 

 



Bonnie and Alex giving me
a photo op!



Set up for the interview segment
 with Bonnie's quilts in the background



Bonnie with Ricky filming the demo

 

 

Talking the demo segment through

 

It was such a great 4 days but all good things must come to an end and so with great reluctance, on Tuesday, I dropped Bonnie off at the airport to return to her 'hubster' and home in North Carolina.  I did, however, FINALLY get my head together and took a 'selfie' of me, Bonnie and my dog, Murphy.

I learned a lot from Bonnie; in her workshop and watching her work and getting to know her.  I'm proud to call her a mentor and friend.

 

Until next time-

May your seams be ¼ inch and your bobbins full!
 

Irene

Star Struck!

It's been a whirlwind in the Hafer house as we make our way through the month of February.  This was the month of visitors.  Great friends of ours, the Lowells, dropped by for a visit.  They are living the good life; retired and traveling the highways and byways of the great United States.  We've known the Lowells for about 25 years;  Yeow!  Our husbands served in the USAF and were stationed together at McClellan AFB, Sacramento, California in 1988.  We have kept in touch throughout the years and manage to get together every now and again.  It was great fun seeing them here in San Antonio and we really look forward to seeing them again soon!

The Lowells weren't our only visitors in February! 

As you may recall from my last blog update, I spent 5 days in Plano, Texas

taking classes with Bonnie Hunter at Fabric Fanatics.  At that class she mentioned that the New Braunfels Area Quilt Guild had been added to her calendar for Feb 22nd and that she would be filming a segment of The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Timms the following week.  Well, when I heard that I immediately got online joined the guild and signed up for her class. 

So, keeping a long story from getting longer, I offered to host Bonnie at my home and

SHE ACCEPTED!

What great fun!  Bonnie arrived on Friday and we immediately headed to the Riverwalk for a river boat tour and some lunch.  We also walked to the San Fernando Cathedral which is absolutely beautiful.

 

 

The Cathedral sits on the official center of the City of San Antonio and is the final resting place of Davy Crockett, William Travis and Jim Bowie.  It's absolutely breathtaking so if you are ever in our fair city I highly recommend a visit!






We also stopped by St Joseph's which is another beautiful Catholic Church in the downtown area. 

Beautiful Pipe Organ in the choir loft!

Now, you may be thinking, "Where are the pictures of Bonnie?" and all I can say is that I didn't take any pictures!  I was just too "STAR STRUCK" and didn't do it.  EPIC FAIL!

While we didn't try to go to all the quilt shops in the area, we did stop by my favorite San Antonio shop, Las Colchas.  This is a wonderful shop with personality and style.  Truly a sight to behold! You should stop by and say hello to shop owners Francine and Toni if you're in the downtown area.  You can find all their info on their website just by clicking here! 





Saturday morning we headed out to New Braunfels for the STAR STUCK Workshop (so wonderfully appropriately named!)  Bonnie encourages using scraps and stash fabrics to make her quilts and that is exactly what I used.  This is one of my stars.  I managed to get three blocks done at the workshop.  If you look closely, you can see that Bonnie signed my block in the neutral print just above the big flower.   You can find the pattern to Star Stuck on Bonnie's Blog...just click here. And another EPIC FAIL because I didn't take any pictures at the workshop, either!  And my camera was sitting RIGHT THERE! This is what happens when you are blinded by a star!  Lucky for me Bonnie did take pictures and you can find them here.  She even took a picture of my tan Singer Featherweight, Loretta Lynn.  I named her Loretta because she just sings when she sews!

After the workshop, Bonnie and I headed to Gruene, TX which is just north of New Braunfels.  I love Gruene.  It's a bit touristy but the area is beautiful and has lots of shops to wander through.  We decided to hit the Gristmill first.  The Gristmill is a fantastic restaurant that sits on the Guadalupe river.  I have never had a bad meal there and the setting and atmosphere cannot be beat!  We arrived early and were able to get a river side table.  When we left, there had to have been about 75 people waiting for tables.  Timing is everything!  After dinner we strolled past the Gruene Hall and into the Gruene Antique Company.  We saw two great antique quilts and this was my favorite-

It was in wonderful condition and very well done.  We admired it and wondered about the person or persons who put it together and then showed great restraint by leaving it in the store but I sure was tempted to bring it home ;-) 

It was a great day but the real excitement would come on Monday. I'll tell you all about it in a future post!

Until then-  Stay Calm and Quilt On!

Irene

Let's Catch Up!

Hello my friends!

Well here I am again...much like a bad penny that just keeps turning up.  It was a crazy end to the year 2013 and has stayed that way through February of 2014 and it doesn't look like there will be any change in that pattern for a while.  So, here's a quick recap of the last few months where life took over and this blog took a back seat....

Mid-December we had a beautiful wedding!

 

   The groom is my son, DJ and his lovely bride is Natalie.  It was absolutely beautiful and because this is San Antonio, TX, an outdoor wedding in December was not a problem! 

 

 

We celebrated our 29th Wedding Anniversary...

 

 

Where David proposed...again!

 

And of course there's Christmas!

 

 

 

This is my grand-daughter Lillian...

I bought her a sewing machine for Christmas. 

Gotta get the next generation quilting!

 

My mom and I worked on a quilt or two...

 

Here is my mom's quilt Antique Rose.  I finally finished the quilting!

 

 

And we worked on this Quilt of Valor...

 

Can you see the quilting?  It's a Cowboy boot pattern that I love!

 

To ring in the Year 2014, I had the pleasure of traveling to Fabric Fanatics in Plano, TX. where

Bonnie K Hunter of Quiltville was teaching! 

I originally signed up for three of Bonnie's classes...

There was:

 

Smith Mountain Morning made of Re-purposed Shirts

 

Roll Roll Cotton Boll

 

And a Mystery Block that you will soon see in one of Bonnie's articles.

 

And then I got really lucky and a spot opened up in another of Bonnie's classes...

 

 

Scrappy Bargello!

 

I had so much fun! 

I learned so much from Bonnie and if you ever get a chance, I highly recommend them. You can find these patterns in her books and a lot of free patterns on her blog so take a moment to check them out by clicking here. 

I spent a little bit of time in Washington state visiting my Mom and Dad.  It's so beautiful and relaxing here.

 

 

 

This is the view from the deck and from the top of the driveway.

 

 It was a great trip that gave me some time to work on a couple of my "handwork" projects...

I finished the wool applique on       

 

 

It's A Grand Old Flag

 

And got another couple of blocks done of

 

 

Merry Merry

 

You can see that I still have to finish the block on the bottom right.

Six more to go of this BOM / UFO.

 

Mom and I put a new belt on my Grandmother's Singer Treadle and it sews beautifully!

 

 

Isn't my mom pretty??!!

 

We returned home the first week in February and then turned right around and

headed to Phoenix AZ.

 

Dave's mom, Carnell, whom I dearly love, and I hit the road and headed to AQS Quiltweek while Dave and his dad, also Dave, hit the golf courses.

 

 

Here's mom in front of a Quilt of Valor Quilt.

 

We always have a good time with the Senior Hafers playing dominos and drinking coffee with a shot of Bailey's Irish Cream to add to the fun factor :-)

 

Well, that almost brings us up to date....  ALMOST.  I still haven't told you about my friends who stopped in for a visit.  Next time!

 

Meanwhile..

 

Keep Calm and Quilt On!

 

Irene

Sew Little Time, Sew Much to Do!

Dear Friends!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!  It was a relatively quiet one here.  We usually are sharing the feast with friends and family- two years ago we had about 25 people here!  But this year it was only two of our three kids, our daughter-in-law, and one friend.  We still had a wonderful day but as I said, it was quiet. 

 

Of course 'quiet' meant that I could spend time preparing for the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt, Celtic Solstice.  I needed to get a few things done...

 

I've been working with Gammill Bea to get a quilt top done.  Its a custom quilt job and has taken me a looong time but I am almost done.  I'll post pics of that quilt when it is complete...hopefully by Friday. 

 

I have also been working on a quilt for my Nina (god-mother) Mary. 

 

 

It needs borders and then it will be ready for Gammill Bea which means I need to get the custom quilt done!

 

I also got this top done...

 

 

This is called A Quilt for Abraham. 

It's a Thimblecreek Quilt design and I love it!  The lighting is terrible in this pic (sorry) but you get the idea.

 

So, with these projects well on their way to completion,  I was ready and willing to get started on the Bonnie Hunter quilt!

 

 This is my first Bonnie Hunter mystery and I have to tell you I am so excited to take part in it.  She released the first clue last Friday.  (It's not too late to join in...just click here to go to Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt.) 

 

Bonnie provided several methods for the cutting and piecing:  Specialty Rulers called Tri Recs, Templates,  Paper-piecing and Inklingo which is a relatively new method where you print the patterns directly onto your fabric.  I don't know much about Inklingo but if you are interested you can find information by clicking here.

I chose to use the Tri Recs Rulers. 

 

 

I would normally go for the paper piecing method but I decided to step just a little out of my comfort zone and give these rulers a try. They are a little slick which made cutting a little more difficult but this was easily solved.  Whenever I have slippery rulers, I use some of that no-slip cabinet liner.  It works great and if you accidently cut into it, it won't damage your rotary blade. 

 

Now, the thing about Bonnie Hunter and her quilts is that she is pro stash use.  Her quilts are designed to be scrappy and she encourages you to use your stash as much as possible.  Well, in for a penny, in for a pound!  So, to my stash I went.  I am proud to say that using paint chip numbers and colors from Lowe's that Bonnie provided to help us with fabric selection I did NOT buy a single piece of fabric for this mystery.  Here are my fabrics with the paint chips.

 

 

 

I chose to make the king size quilt which means I needed 140 orange triangles, 240 neutral triangles and 380 PAIRS of blue Right Triangles.  It took me the better part of two days but I got them all cut out. 

 

 

Notice two things: 1) I used those Clover Binding Clips to hold groups of 10 triangles together. This makes it easy to keep count of how many I have. (A trick I learned from Bonnie.) I like the clips better than trying to use straight pins.  2)  I cut way more than actually necessary for each color.  I wanted to make sure that I had variety and if there were any "imperfect" triangles or blocks I did not want to have to go back to cut additional pieces.

 

Now, just  little note about cutting out the right triangles.  When I started cutting right triangles I would put two fabric strips right sides together and cut the triangles out. 

 

 

 

With these results

 

 

 

Now when these go together with the other triangle they will form a square.

 

 

Do you see what I see?  The right triangles are always on the same side. I want more variation so to resolve this, after cutting a couple of triangles with the ruler face up

 

 

I flipped the ruler upside down.

 

 

With this result...

 

 

 

Much better.  I could have put the same fabric right sides together with the same results but I didn't want a lot of the same fabric pieces.

 

So, now, with 1140 triangles cut, it is time to sew sew sew!

 

So far I have managed to sew together 70 of the 380 units. 

 

 

When putting these together, remember that triangle cut pieces are NOTORIOUS for stretching out of shape so make sure you are careful when you press so as not to distort the pieces.  I don't use steam for this very reason.  I also make sure I use an up-and-down motion actually "pressing" with the iron rather than a sliding or side-to-side motion.

 

So, with 70 units done, I better get the sewing machine running.  The next clue comes out on Friday and I want to be ready.

 

Be happy and keep quilting!

 

Irene

 

 

PS  To see other bloggers working on Celtic Solstice click here.