Allietare! Linking up with Bonnie!

 Bonnie has asked us to get to know each other in our linkys so in case you are new to my blog I shall introduce myself!  I am Andee in AZ otherwise known as Angela.  I love Quiltville quilts and all things Bonnie!  I found Bonnie when I first really got into quilting through her blog and then her yahoo group while they were working on Carolina Crossroads. I fell in love with mystery quilts though I was new to quilting.  I truly learned most all I know from reading Bonnie's blog and doing her mystery quilts.  I have made them all and have a parade here if you are interested in seeing all my Quiltville quilts.
I finally met Bonnie in January of 2013--she facebooked me and invited me to breakfast.  If I was not her number one fan before that, I was after (you can be her *other* number one fan!).  She is one of a kind and in addition to her generous nature and quilting knowledge, she is an all around great gal for me to look up to.  I love how she has fun and eats yummy food yet gets in her steps and does healthy too!  She has influenced me in more ways than she knows!
Since then I have taken several workshops with her and went on the Caribbean cruise this past Spring.  I am one of her Open Studio moderators on facebook and am still inspired by her everyday!  Four years ago, in 2012, five of us got together at one of our houses on Black Friday and started sewing Celtic Solstice.  The idea of a mystery Kickoff  Party was born.  The following year we had an official party with 12 people, last year with 24 and this year 14 (though about 30 wanted to come, it didn't work out for many).  Our favorite part of the get together is sharing our completed quilts from the year before.  For the procrastinators in our group this is a real motivator!

I love seeing how very different each quilt is!

This past summer my family met up in Rocky Point for a week of sun and sand.  It was my first time on a private beach.  My brother made Kathy and I Moscow Mules and we enjoyed them while the sun set.  This memory has stayed with me as one of those perfect moments in life that we don't get enough of.  When I was trying to decide how to change up the colors I realized I wanted to use copper and turquoise and sand along with my neutrals and I figured brown (or sunset yellow) would round it out.  So here are my fabric choices though my scraps aren't pulled yet.  I pull them as I find out what size strips Bonnie is having us use so it will be scrappier than this in the end.  All my fabrics came from stash, but I do need to order more or a different sand fabric as the biggest chunk I have is too dark--I should get on that in case that comes up in clue two!

Here I am sewing away at the Kickoff Party!

This year I managed to socialize and finish clue one all the day of the party!   Feels good to be caught up and ready for clue two!

Linking up with Bonnie at Quiltville and hoping to get to visit and comment on each of your linky's each week too!