Bonnie Hunter Club Gathering For the Summer!

Alas, the summer meetings of Bonnie Hunter Club comes to a close for me--what fun it has been!  I must bid farewell to the BH gals for this summer.  Every gathering has been productive, creative and absolutely a learning experience.  I think whenever you have textile people together, you have a winning combination--always a chance to learn from each other.

 

And with our fearless leader, Jessica, BH gals get an added bonus--someone who knows their way around fabrics.  This  top was brought to Jessica for her expert hand at long arm quilting.  The quilt was made with all plaids and is perfect for fall.

One of our regular gals, Susan, had show & tell--this wonderful 1930's fabric with embroidered baskets of flowers

Such delightful baskets!

Judy was displaying her BH mystery quilt from 2013 winter time--BH's pattern "Celtic Solstice"

I think Judy is the only one in the group that finished this mystery.

Look for BH's 2014 fall mystery (free on Quiltville) sometime around late November

Pam showed this top, which would be perfect for a quick gift, also great for Quilt of Valor

Every once in awhile, we have a visitor from out of state drop by the shop and this time, our visiting quilter was working with these fabrics

to make this quilt top--didn't get the name of the quilt pattern though

This one is called "Cheese and Crackers"!

Quilted by Jessica

And this super duper dragon quilt was also quilted by Jessica!

Each dragon is lined with seed beads--just outstanding work!  But, Jessica commented that it was a 'dragon' to quilt with all those beads!

Pam is working on these string blocks for another one of BH's patterns

This will be the center block--can't wait to see the finished top!

Another good day spent with Bonnie Hunter gals!

Thanks Jessica, Judy, Susan, Pam, Tall Pat, Little Pat, Cheryl, Marsha and other BH gals for a great summer. 

See you Summer 2015!

All Those Little Pieces---More Orphan Blocks.......................

Orphans!  Yes, I'm having so much fun with all my orphan blocks....................guess it's the creative function that is the fun!  And.................all those blocks that I thought would just be thrown away are being used.

 

Once I had these all placed on the floor, I thought 'this looks super great as a folk style top' and guess what............

every one of these pieces in this quilt are ORPHANS!  I did not make one extra block, half square triangle, flying geese--nothing extra was produced to create this!  Now, that makes me feel really good and my scrap pile is diminishing!

Here is another orphan put together.  Pam had a large panel and all these outer blocks to use--clever gal, she used the smaller blocks as a border!  Perfect for a child's room!

Oh my!  how to use those odd blocks?  Well, here is another one of those ways to create a top--it might not all be in the same theme, but by golly, it works!

a super way to use all those paper pieced flower blocks around a large block completed in a workshop.  And I love to do embroidery, but no rhyme or reason how to use--  What do you think?  It works for me!  I even found a yardage in my scrap bin to use for the background--hurrah for me!

Remember this from a previous post?  Jessica's pink/brown orphan blocks?

 

Well, here it is finished!  Notice that she changed out the middle block

By changing out that center block, the quilt has a totally different look.  I think she changed out a lot of other blocks--hmmmm?

Rocky Mountain Quilt Workshop with Cristy Fincher

I took my lunch time between my workshops at Rocky Mountain Quilt Fest to walk through the quilt exhibits and vendors.

 

I didn't have time to stand in line to purchase so took some quick photos of items--future purchases, maybe!  I love Fall--but, just got to stop myself from going there!

I thought these were great 'skinny' wall hangings!

I found this patriotic quilt--thinking this will be a great and easy put together

and another pattern for Quilt of Valor

Here was the great prize winner by Barbara Monroe of Loveland, CO

The blocks were great example of applique

such whimsy! with small pieced quilts

I hope that Barbara will enter this quilt in other exhibits--it deserves many awards!

 

Lunch is over and it's time to head back to class and a workshop with

Cristy Fincher, Purple Daisies LLC

Paperless Paper Piecing!

Can you believe?  I really do enjoy paper piecing but taking all that paper off the back is time consuming and troublesome, so I thought this would be a great introduction to a different method

We received our pattern--thoughtfully planned out and marked well.

We had selection of fat quarters, took up scissors, pattern and began...........

On doubled freezer paper, our pattern was printed which enabled us to cut what we need to use as templates

Here are the templates we will use

The templates are ironed onto our fabric with 1/4" allowance around--using liquid starch around the edges, we press close to the edge of the template--and place on the back of the layout pattern

and we have a completed square after taking the pieces to the sewing machine and stitching the seams together.

 

Rocky Mountain Quilt Workshop With Laura Wasilowski

Rocky Mountain Quilt Festival came to Loveland, Colorado in August--a cool respite in the middle of a hot summer month!  I have attended in the past just as a visitor to see exhibits and vendors.  But, this year, I decided I would take a workshop or two.  My first workshop was with

Laura Wasilowski.  I was familiar with her fusing work and since I enjoy fusing applique, knew she could give me some good pointers.

 

 

We began with these lovely hand dyed fabrics

Each strip had the Wonder Under fused already and we were ready to go

We used small amounts of color to get the 'hang' of the process

"free cut" shapes and fused!  Weird, I know, but she said just cut small shapes free style--never know what your brain says to your hands!

We learned how to use transfer

to make birds!  lovely happy birds!  These are Laura's bird samples

The eyes of the bird makes a difference!

And samples of Laura's work to be inspiration for our birds.

nesting bird

legs for birds and composition

other objects for birds

my table mate's birds

And my birds!  What a fun workshop & I learned how to fuse small pieces to create a larger object.

Check out Laura's website--she gives advice often.