The Second Annual Quiltville Mystery Kickoff Party!

 As I sure most of you out there in Blogland know, yesterday Bonnie released the first clue for Grand Illusion!  Today was our second annual mystery kickoff party!  We have doubled in size since last year's party!  You can read about that here!  Of our original twelve folks, we were missing Jan (who moved to Minnesota) and Becky (who had her kids this holiday weekend) all the others came again this year and we added more!  We had it at the Chandler Police Station this year, so we could fit more folks!  This first picture is of me, Ann, Celeste, Kelly, Kathy and Ros with our flimsy or completed Celtic Solstice from last year!

 I love that they are ALL so different!  We then decided we should wear them like capes and get more pictures.  It really was fun!

 Kathy Kreig's Celtic Solstice arrived after our picture session, but I snapped a photo of it with her on the left and her longarmer Barb on the right!

Here is our whole group sans the picture taker Karen.  She did a great job working everyone's camera and phone and kept it moving along!  What a great looking group of ladies!  Really a fun group and I made some new friends and hope everyone else did as well.

Top row:  Ashely, Candy, Ann, Sheila, Celeste, Kelly, Kathy, Laura, Marguerite, and Ros.

Bottom:  Terri, Angela (me), Jeanette, Laura, Kathy, Jennifer, Andi, BJ, Andrea and Limbania.  Not pictured:  Barb who came later and Karen who took the pictures.  

 We sewed from 9-5 and ate potluck and snacks when we wanted.  Some of us walked to the nearest quilt shop (The Cutting Edge) and others walked for Subway or coffee.

 It was a great day and I am already looking forward to next year!  Kathy and I paid for labels and Ros designed a label and printed them all and heatset them twice so that we could give everyone a party favour.  Here's to hoping we will have lots of Grand Illusions to wrap around our shoulders next year to show off!  All thanks for our mutual love of Bonnie K. Hunter of Quiltville.com!

*edit* Still without a good laptop (and got bad news on the old laptop) so I am just editing this post so I can link up to Quiltville for the Grand Illusion Mystery linkup!  I have less than thirty blocks left to go (with partial units sewn) for clue one.  My sciatic nerve is on fire for some reason tonight and I just cannot sit and sew anymore!  This week is nutso with work and such but I will try to get in some each day til they are done so that I am set on Friday!  Loving my Grand Illusion colors and the first clue!

Clue One in Progress

Hawk's Nest or Cactus Patch?

I have been thinking that is time to start another Quiltville quilt (not that I don't already have several going, but I have this itch for another!).  So the difficulty is in deciding which one to choose!  In Tuscon I got to see Bonnie's Hawk's Nest in person and it is FAR MORE exquisite in person than this picture can even begin to capture!  It really is fabulous, and of course I love cheddar so that makes it even better!  This picture is Bonnie's and this quilt can be found in her Scraps and Shirttails 2 book.    

 Here is the close up I took, it shows more of the COLOR than the farther away picture.  I love it!

 And I already showed you Karen's version too, which is also fabulous! 

And while I was browsing through all of Bonnie's books (I have them all, of course!) I ran across this Cactus Patch quilt which also speaks to me!  I know it too is in my future!  When I asked Kathy which one should be next, she picked this one too!

Cactus Patch is in Bonnie Hunters' Scraps and Shirtails 1 Book and this picture is on her website at www.quiltville.com and if you haven't already been to that site you are in for a treat!   

So since I cannot decide between these two quilts, is there anyone out there that is dying to make one or the other of them who would want to join me?  Always more fun when a few of us get going on a quilt!  If could be persuaded to one or the other (or BOTH) if someone was sewing along with me.  Any takers? 



Up Bright and Early!

SEW excited to get to Weight Watchers this morning and then to meet Becky and get on our sewing trip!  However, I wanted to post and tell you if you are a Bonnie Hunter/Quiltville fan you should join our facebook group!  Just started yesterday and well on our way to 4,000 quilters!  It is like an online guild--how fun is that?
Also, I see that Bonnie has announced the next leaders and enders challenge!  We will be making lozenges...so since I am up so early (for me) I am off to prep a few to bring with me to quilt camp!