Bonnie Hunter!

Bonnie Hunter was the speaker at my guild meeting on Tuesday. She was fantastic! She's such a nice person and a really excellent speaker. I was busy during the meeting folding (touching!) all the quilts in her trunk show (and I forgot my camera) so I didn't get any pictures at the meeting.

I have a few from the workshop, though. Here are (L-R) me, Bonnie and my best buddy Beth with the Sister's choice quilt we were making in the workshop:



Here are a couple of pictures of Bonnie's gorgeous Dear Jane at Sea quilt.




Close-up of H-6 Pie Sale, with storm at sea sashing

I just love this quilt. I love the pinks and chocolate indigoes she used. And the sashing really appeals to me. Of course I don't want to think about how many more pieces that added to the total. I'm guessing about 4000: 19 pieces (2 sashings + cornerstone) * 169 blocks = 3211, then you have to add the sashings and cornerstones around two outside edges and the points in the next border. She said she did the sashings and cornerstones as she went along. If I decide to do this, I have some catching up to do. Not to mention I have no idea what I'd do with the triangles I've already done. Maybe I'll save this setting for the "next" Dear Jane. Yeah, right.....

On to the workshop. I started with my backgrounds and points pre-cut and a box of 2.5" strips:



I added a couple more strips on the "non-dark" side of the box after this picture was taken. I pulled the top strips from the piles and made a few 9-patch blocks out of them, like so:



I tried (and failed already, but not in that block) to make sure I didn't have the same background pieces twice in one block. I still haven't decided if I'm going to fix that one. It wouldn't bother me so much if they weren't right next to each other . I'm not sure I love the individual blocks, but I think they look better when you put a bunch of them together:


Can you find the block with the duplicate backgrounds?

I have a long way to go to finish the other 65 blocks. I'm not sure when I'll get to it. I have some other projects I need to work on. Not the least of which is my Dear Jane, if I'm ever going to acheive my goal of having it half done at the end of the year. I'll have to average 1.2 units (block, triangle or corner) a week through the end of the year to get there. I'm having some doubts about that, now. Some of the other goals are just Not Gonna Happen.

Have you ever seen such a cutie-patootie 17-year-old?


"Ahhhh, Papa's lap...."