5th Annual Quitville Mystery Kick Off in Chandler, Arizona!

We had 18 people at our 5th Annual Quiltville Mystery Kickoff party in Chandler, Arizona this year.  If you want to attend next year and will be in the area, let me know.  We invite people until the seats are filled!  One day we are hoping to have Quiltville Co-Moderator Irene (and her mom) and maybe one day Bonnie Hunter herself (she has to eventually be visiting family on Thanksgiving weekend right?).  Well, we can dream!

Some of our regulars were out of town or working but were with us in spirit!  One of my new Quiltville Cruise friends, Cynthia, came in all the way from Vegas!  Well she has family here and had the holiday with them but I am sure our party was the draw, wink!  I think another gal drove in from Buckeye! 

 Kelli could not stay but stopped in to bring us GOBS of scraps to pick though!  She is the current president for AZ Blankets for Kids and she invited us all to join in their next sewing session.  I have not gone in awhile and need to get back there!  Thanks Kelli for the scraps and all you do for the kids in Arizona!

 

Barb with En Provence

 A few gals had already gifted En Provence so their quilts are not in our picture, and Barb had to leave before picture time but we got one of her alone.  My favorite part of this get together is seeing all  of Bonnie Hunter's magnificent designs in different colors up close.  Each one is its own masterpiece!  I somehow you missed out on getting this pattern for free last year here is where you can get it instantly

Phyllis Marguerite, Laura, Andee (me), Jennifer, Celeste, Andi, Heather and Charlotte!

 Some of us doing duck lips some of us not so much!

 Here is my En Provence.  Love how it came out!  You cannot go wrong with a Bonnie quilt!

Close up of my quilting done by Ros

This year we got a shot of the backings and the labels.  Everyone oohed and awed over the fabrics chosen.  Each attendee is gifted a label made simply with your picture in MS Word.  I just add in designed by Bonnie Hunter, made by blank and info about the party and year.  SEW much fun.

Close up of my autographed label!

 
 Here is the whole crew minus Kathy who was taking the picture,  and Barb and Kelli who left before we got this far.  Left to right starting at the top:  Laura, Marguerite, Andee (me), Jennifer, Celeste, Andi, Heather, and Ros.  Second row:  Marlene, Limbania, Tina, Jill, Cynthia, Charlotte, Fran and Phyllis.

 This is the first year Kathy did not complete her quilt top in time for our next Kickoff party.  She did get her very first block together and is looking forward to finishing this up soon!  Here's hoping she keeps up (with my help) this year!

So to make that happen, Kathy and I are tag teaming on her quilt which will be gifted to my baby brother Sam and his fiance Ashley.  We are doing it in her colors and keeping her posted of our progress.  Makes it extra fun!  I am also doing a Packer colored quilt.  

We managed to complete both clue ones before bed!  

Thank you Bonnie for this gift, I have made every mystery (some more than once) and look forward to it every year.  I even have a tab on my blog devoted to the mystery quilts and another one with a Quiltville Parade of quilts!  Linking up with Quiltville for clue one's Monday Link Up soon!  Looking forward to clue two of On Ringo Lake!

En Provence is Done!

Played Quilt-O at guild this past week and both Kathy and  won a few goodies.  I forgot to get a picture of the loot though.

I am still crazy busy with teaching and had not sewn a stitch in weeks.  I am so far behind I do think I am first.  HAHA!  This morning when I could not sleep at 6 AM I decided to just get the binding on En Provence.  I had to clean the quilting studio and make space as things have just got piled and piled in here!  Then I got it done, feels good to have it ready for the party in November.

 Ros did the quilting and used a green thread.  I LOVE IT!

The label is even quilted in and signed by Bonnie.  I am already looking forward to the next mystery in November.  

Kathy got our BOM for 35th Ave. cut this afternoon while watching her Patriots and she has her block about done--I will get my done during Fall break (in one week we are off for two weeks).  We are also planning a trip to San Francisco with my mom (Alcatraz and Winchester House, China Town, Pier 39, etc.) and I am super excited about a few days there.  The other thing during break is training back at my old VRS job.  That is three days of training so I should have time for teaching prep AND sewing with any luck!

I was signed up for Quilt Camp but decided the timing was bad (I have another commitment that weekend and we will be just back to school that week) so not going this year.  Hoping to get together with Barb and have an all day sew day at home quilt camp.

On a Roll!

 Ros quilted up my En Provence this week!  I need to pick it up and get a binding on it.

Here is a close up of the quilting she did.

 Here is my Bonnie signed label.  I have to right my name on it.

I also was on a roll this week--I quilted up this Bonnie inspired tablerunner.  I was super excited to see Bonnie's pattern will be coming out in Quiltmaker but here is what I came up with after seeing her pumpkins! I may be keeping this one.

Barb gave me this tablerunner and so I finally got it quilted. It will be gifted to someone soon.

I also finished the piano key border on the Betty's Choice and Amy's alternate blocks.  I made a backing and this one is ready to go to the longarmer.

Linking up with Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Angela's Blog!

Spring Quilt Camp with NimbleThimbles

 I went up to quilt camp at Emmanuel Pines last Friday for the weekend.  It started snowing on the ride up and snowed and snowed!  Very little of it stuck, but it was snowing for hours.  I have not seen snow in quite awhile so it was fun--really felt like Christmas on April 1st!  I worked all day Friday and a good bit of Saturday on making Bonnie Hunter's Love Shack!  I love how it came out. It was a super fun project to do at camp because it involves lots of different  blocks.

 I have wanted to make Love Shack for a long time but it involves several patterns on quiltville (maverick stars, strings, happy scrappy houses, wonky hearts and letters) and also lots of size adjustments which are not my thing.  I was so proud of myself for figuring all this out--even though I counted the blocks wrong in the one column and so made the blocks too big and had to eliminate a maverick star or start over!  I will be keeping this one and hanging it in the living room or dining room.

 Saturday Kathy, Kathy, Becky and I took a hike to stretch after all that sewing. We wound up going four a half miles (20 min for each mile) and made it out to the road.  Really good conversation all the way too. So glad to have quilty friends who sneak exercise in too!

 Saturday night Barb helped me make sixteen trivet Christmas presents.  I made them all out of Christmas fabric and will be making more in other fabric too.  They are made from a hexie ruler and lots of fabric folding.  The tricky part is pinning them just so.  That is the part Barb is much better at than me!  You stitch around the outside and flip them out at the center and they look great!  When I was done with all that and the quilt auction I continued working on En Provence.  This quilt A is for Adaminaby from 2012 was my auction quilt and Kathy O (the tall Kathy from the walk picture) won it for 25 dollars.  I ran across this little quilt which I had forgotten I made two of and decided it was a good auction quilt.

 Sunday morning we hung out some of the quilts (some people did not hang anything out--not sure why) and you can see the center of my En Provence on the right top.

I would never have even gotten it out if not for the fact that Marguerite had not brought her finished top and her daughter Laura was busting butt working on hers all weekend (along with other stuff).  Seeing Laura making progress motivated me to get to it!  Not sure why I was dragging my feet on it as I usually am right on schedule with getting the mysteries done but this year the trip to New Mexico to get my my son and his girlfriend and her kids (flat tire, no money and diabetic ketoacidosis and hospitalization was involved) knocked me off track.  This quilt has his hospital gown fabric in it.  Stitching the memories in.  Sunday morning I got the borders mostly made but thought I was four star point units short...turns out I was not.  I got home and discovered I started with the wrong star point color.  Of course I did not figure that out til I made the four star point and attached them.  HAHA!  Last night I fixed and attached the first borders and did some ironing.  So this morning (Monday) I attached the last border, did ironing and made the backing and cut the binding.  I still need to get a picture of it though.

Midweek Sewing!

 This week is Spring Break where I teach so I planned a little midweek sewing time at Barb's  I brought along my Playing with Jacks (which I quilted on my own following the backing earlier in the week) and put the binding on.  I am happy to cross this one off my UFO list!

Barb finished up her 35th Ave. BOM from last year so I can mail it off with mine to Alycia for QOV.  Kathy still has about five blocks to go!

 I then sewed on En Provence for the first time in forever.  I made it this far before Barb wanted to run out to the quilt store.

 This morning I did a bunch of teaching prep stuff then found myself with a little time before work (I leave in a few minutes!) so I sewed up the blocks and then laid them out to see what this quilt will look like!

Now hopefully I will get this one stitched up and off to my longarmer.  This mystery has taken me longer than any of them.  I just lost my mojo for it, strange since I do really like it!
Well, off to work!  Super excited that I am hiking the Grand Canyon on Sunday!

Catching up on En Provence!

 My cousin Tara and my Godson Koi (the shark lover) got me these cool metal quilt blocks for Christmas.  She has two more waiting for me in Wisconsin!  I love them!

 We took an unplanned trip to New Mexico to rescue Coleman and his girlfriend (Randy's daughter) Heather and her six kids when their van blew a tire (and another one after we got there) and he went into Diabetic Ketoacidosis.  Was not a fun trip, I missed work and footed the entire unexpected bill.  Sigh.  The things we do for our kids.  I am now dubbed Instagrammy and these kids are a delight.  Things have been crazy around here!  Randy lives down the street so they are staying there at the moment but we see them plenty.

 I added a ladybug onto Garden Party where there was a little hole (seam must not have been a quarter inch!).  Bonnie will be here Thursday so I can show it to her!  I have another tiny spot to cover and a bee to add, but Stash Kitty decided to bat the bee around someplace where I cannot find it!

 Do you see hospital gown fabric?  Figured I might as well commemorate the three days we spent in Santa Rosa at the hospital with Coleman.

 I was behind on the clue since I was out of town...caught up on five.

 Cut six.

 And last night finished sewing six, though I did not take off the triangles/dog ears that hang off.  I also cut my yellow squares since the final reveal is out!  I still have the last set of hour glasses to make in the other colorway but here is sort of what the block looks like.  I even missed the linky since I had no progress to report and was out of town.  First one ever I think!

Hoping to get more time to work on it this week, but Thursday Bonnie will be here and I am in the Midnight Flight class.  I am all prepped for that since I did it ahead of time.  I have six boxes of books and rulers in my trunk for Bonnie too!

I have been working like a mad woman since we were out of town and video relay interpreting is so brain/mind numbing after a certain point.  I come home and crash.  We did trade in my Veloster since it made me carsick, was awful on the bumps and too small.  We got this 2017 Toyota Camry.  I am in love with it.  So much more room and a great ride.  Off to take a hot bath since I have another ten hour workday tomorrow.  Oy!

En Provence--Clue Four is Done!

 

I love the colors I am using for En Provence...I can hardly wait to sew with the reds and yellows!  The only color I kept the same and in the same place as Bonnie's is the yellow.  

 Here are my clue four pieces.  I am super happy that these units are coming out so much better than they did in clue two for me.  If you remember I learned how to use the notch on the tri recs ruler for that clue (I have made at least two other quilts with that ruler and did not even notice the notch!) but this time around I felt like I was making more accurate units!  Super happy with that.  I also find that I am just enjoying sewing and not rushing as I often do.  I have at least 30 different neutrals in this quilt and I love the variety it will have.  I cut Kathy's neutrals too as she is still working on clue three (sewing as I type!).

 I just could not resist digging out the other parts so I could sew them all together too.  The reds and yellows are going to make all this pop!  I tucked them all away in the bin to come out to play later on.  I have a feeling we have more than two more clues to go...seems like it cannot all come to an end so fast this year but Bonnie always surprises me!

Did you catch Quilt Came tonight?  Bonnie held up my Garden Party and showed it off for me!

Linking up with Quiltville Monday Link Up!  A friend of mine made this cute little ornament and posted it on facebook.  I like it so much I might have to make them next year!  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwanza or Happy Holidays for whatever it is you celebrate with your loved ones!