Talkin Turkey Flimsy Finish!

Hi Everyone,

It was just over 6 weeks ago that I got to spend the day with Bonnie Hunter working on this project.  As you may recall, I took it to my retreat in April and did a whole bunch of work on it.  I was hoping to finish it there, but I didn't get all of the flying geese completed, and then I realized I had cut the scrappy sashing strips incorrectly (9" instead of 9.5")  I lost the momentum at retreat but when I got home, I put some of the finished blocks up on the design wall to relook the sashing.  I was going to cut more scrappy pieces, but as I was pulling out fabric, I came across a patriotic, star-studded piece that I really liked.  I thought it would add a patriotic touch to my Talkin Turkey.  I cut a few strips and put them up, but couldn't get a good enough look, so I cut even more.

See the strips with the stars and light red stripes?  

I started second-guessing the choice.  I thought the stars were a bit too "bossy"--that they took over too much.

This is with the scrappy sashings--the way Bonnie made hers.  I liked it fine, but I started thinking about putting my own stamp on the project--I could make it like Bonnie's and it would look nearly exactly like Bonnie's.  That would be okay, but it wouldn't be "mine."

So I was stuck in indecision, and I hate that.  Meanwhile, I got distracted working on my Blogger Girls BOM, etc.  Once I finished it, I got this back out.  I really wanted to finish it prior to moving, as I didn't want to lose any of the pieces.  I got it out and put it back up on the design wall to make a decision.  And my decision was just to finish it already!  Sometimes it is possible to think too much--I needed to sew.  

Actually, I had several more of the blocks to finish, and then I made the 200+ flying geese for the border and when it was time to start sewing everything together, I just went ahead and used the star sashing strips.  I reminded myself that they would be a half inch narrower, once the sew allowances were sewn, and that may help "minimize" the bossiness.  I think it did.

I finished it on Saturday.  I couldn't photograph it outside that day as we had contractors here installing a new door to the back deck.  On Sunday, it was too windy, so I finally got some pictures Monday.  Although it looked nice and still outside, once I took it out, sure enough--a breeze came up.  Doesn't that always happen?

Here's a closeup so that you can see the star sashing sewn in.

The middle went together very easily, but the borders took forever.  Have you ever noticed that?  You get a fairly complex quilt done and think the border will only take an hour or so and it takes an entire day.  Or two!

First was a completer border, comprised of the final row of the nine-patches with strips of three rectangles in between.  I made and sewed on all four sides of that.  Next was the first of the flying geese borders.  Some of them needed a spacer square in the middle, and some needed an HST at the ends, etc. so I really needed to pay attention to constructing the border strips and getting them attached correctly.  After that was the string-pieced border.  The directions said to sew them all together into one long, long strip, so I did.  Then I carefully measured through the middle of the quilt to get the correct measurements, and then I carefully measured out the correct lengths and cut them off.  I did two for the sides, and then two for the top and bottom.  In both cases, the first strip went on perfectly--the strip fit exactly.  In the second case for each strip, it didn't fit.  For the second side, the strip was a tad too short, and for the bottom, it was way too long.  I had no idea what was going on.  The only think that I can figure is that the string-piecing made for a really "springy" border.  Literally, it was almost like an accordion.  Although I was careful not to stretch it while measuring, I must have.  Anyway, I just added another string to lengthen the side, and I trimmed off the excess on the bottom border.  Finally, the end was near!  Just one more round of border--another flying geese one, again with spacers, and HSTs, and other squares on the ends of the sides.  I was a bit nervous, too, that it would fit okay with those two string borders being off, but they fit perfectly!  I was done!  Well, almost.  I quickly determined that I was going to need to stay-stitch all around the perimeter to help keep things from falling apart before it can get quilted and bound.

I love this quilt for several reasons:  First and most importantly because it represents my class with Bonnie Hunter.  Secondly, because I've always wanted a red/cream quilt.  And finally, I love the complexity of Bonnie's patterns and all of the pieces and kinds of fabric that went into it.

 I think that I listened to at least 3 Mitch Rapp books by Vince Flynn while working on it.  I like Mitch Rapp, but he's no Jack Reacher, or maybe I "kept my distance" from the series a bit since I know that Vince Flynn passed away last year, and there may not be any more books.

Have a great day!
JoAnne

Bonnie Hunter's Lecture

Hi Everyone,

Even though my class with Bonnie was over, I was still looking forward to her visit to our guild meeting.  The guild, Colonial Piece-makers meets on a Saturday morning.  Did I mention that it is the second guild that I have joined in the area?  Most of my bee friend are in the other guild--Peninsula Piece-makers--so I asked them if they would like to go with me as my guests to see Bonnie.

  I love this picture that I took--even if you can't totally see everyone's face.  The ladies on the left, Janice, Lorna, Linda, and Trish are my bqf's  (Best Quilting Friends)  here in Hampton Roads.

We arrived early in order to find a parking spot and good seats, so we had time to browse Bonnie's goods as well as visit with lots of other quilting acquaintances.  It seems pretty common for people to be in both guilds, so even though my friends were visiting, they still knew many others.  In no time at all, the meeting got underway.

It began with an introduction of Bonnie and then she got started talking.  Let me just say that I knew she was a great writer (from her blog), and an excellent teacher, but I think her best skill is speaking!  She was terrific!  She began by telling us that because she drove here--she was able to bring many more quilts than if she had to fly.  Lucky us!  Anyway, she has this quilt behind her that illustrates her scrap saving system.  She talked about how great it is to have all these pre-cut pieces at her disposal and that if you simply cut up your leftovers after each project (just like you do your dishes after every meal) then you, too, can be ready to quilt at a moment's notice.  If you are interested in this system, Bonnie has blog posts about it over at Quiltville.com.

She also talked about re-purposing shirts, pj pants, and even hospital gowns for fabric.  As long as they are 100% cotton and you like the feel--you should be comfortable using it in quilts.

One other important part of her scrap system:  She divides all fabric into two groups:  colors and neutrals.  She doesn't like to say lights, mediums, and darks because if you put a medium next to a light--it can look dark, and if a medium is next to a dark, it looks light.  What is a neutral?  In her system a neutral is any fabric whose background color is lighter than a brown paper bag.

Then she began showing her quilts.  I've seen many of them on her blog or in her books, although she did have many of the quilts from her newest book, which weren't as familiar.  I took many pictures--and I'll share them here, but they look so much more spectacular in real life!!  Even great photography can't capture the details and colors.

First up was this one:

This is her Spinning Stars pattern which is in her first book, but is also a free pattern on her blog.  This is the same pattern that our bee used to make our Quilt of Valor, so it was neat that it was the first one that she showed.  Do you see the little red hourglass shapes?  She had us notice them because when she was making this, the red triangle were made by using the "flip corner" method.  She talked about how she runs those units through the machine, and then sews again on the "waste corners" and so when she cuts them off--she has HSTs all ready to go.  She even has a template on her website that you can use so that the waste triangles are the perfect, usable size.  If you have never visited Quiltville--you should check it out.  She has a tab called "Tips and Tricks" that has tons of great information.

She showed this quilt as an example of "the border making the quilt."  She mentioned how many of us work away on the inside of the quilt and then maybe want an easier border.  She said if you work on the stars as your leaders and enders while you are sewing the interior of the quilt, then the border is nearly made with almost no effort.

This is Zuckerwatte from her Strings book.  I was thrilled to see it, not just because it is an awesome quilt, with perhaps the best back ever, as shown below...

(yes, this is the back)

...but also because she wrote a tutorial on how to scallop a border.  I've done a scalloped border a few times and I used her tutorial with great results.  

She brought her pineapple quilt!  This is the one paper-pieced from tiny crumbs and leftovers from all her travels and workshops.  I think the blocks are 4.5 or 5 inches!  It is just spectacular.

This is, of course, Roll Roll Cotton Boll--one of her mystery quilts.  (I have made this.)  I'm showing you a picture because those sawtooth HSTs that surround the blocks are the "waste HSTs" that Bonnie made from that first quilt--Spinning Stars!  So not only does she save all of those leftovers--but she uses them, too!  This quilt also illustrates two other points that she made.  1.  If you put your blocks "on point," don't create challenging math for yourself by doing a straight border--make a border that is also "on point."  2.  If you are string piecing, variety is your friend.  If all of your strings are cut from muted prints in the same shade, you may as well not string-piece, as it isn't going to show up as well.  

Even though she brought an extra amount of quilts--it didn't take too long to show them all--and then her talk was over.  I wished it could go on and on because she is such a great speaker and has so much valuable information!  My friends and I decided to top it off with lunch out and then we went home.

I had left the house shortly before 8 and I think I got home around 1.  When I pulled into the driveway, my husband was vacuuming the yard with his leaf blower.  I went inside and the first thing I noticed was out the back window I could see our sheets hanging on the clothesline.  He took it upon himself to strip the bed, wash the sheets, and hang them on the line.  He also had unloaded the dishwasher, fed the birds, and he even went to the other side of our fence, cut down a bunch of bamboo (the homeowners of this house actually planted bamboo--NEVER do that!  It takes over everything), threw it back over the fence into the yard, loaded it into his truck and took it to the landfill. He did all of that while I was out having fun with my friends!  Best husband ever!

Have a great day!

JoAnne

Bonnie Hunter!!!

Hi Everyone,

Well, the alarm clock went off early Friday morning and I immediately sat up and exclaimed "It's Bonnie Hunter Day!" with every bit as much excitement as an 8 year old on Christmas morning (if not more.)  As it was 5 AM, my husband was not interested in sharing my enthusiasm.

I had packed and loaded in the car everything I needed for the class the night before.  I got ready for the day and was waiting to head out.  Bonnie's facebook post/blog came up and she said she was almost ready to head over to the meeting location, so since I'm a half hour down the road, I grabbed my purse and headed out, even though it was a half hour before I planned to leave.

When I arrived I saw this pulled up to the door:

It's Shamu!  Probably the most famous minivan in the quilt world!  My van wanted to get a photo with it, but it didn't work out.  (Just kidding!  I think...)

I went inside and found a table.  I was saving a place for my friend Judy from Small Quilts and Doll Quilts blog.  The class project was Talkin Turkey.

I saw Bonnie right when I got in and, gosh, she is just a regular person!  Ha ha. Seriously though, she was just like I expected, only not as hyper as I thought she would have to be to get as much done as she does--but she isn't.  Once everyone got there, we got started.  I think there were 29 of us there.

Bonnie demo-ed string piecing, and in particular, how to do it for our project.  I've done lots of string-piecing before on Roll Roll Cotton Boll so I knew what to expect.  We got busy sewing for a while.

We pieced on phone book pages and then squared up to 5.5" blocks.  Then we cut across them diagonally for triangles.

String pieced triangles

Next up was making nine patches.  Once they were complete, we attached the string triangles to all four sides and then did some "squaring up."

But before we cold proceed any more, it was already time for lunch!  I don't have to tell all of you that if you are partaking in a potluck provided by quilters, you are going to be stuffed full of the most delicious food ever.  I signed up for jello.  I make a really fun, pretty jello mold, usually with all rainbow colors.  In the spirit of our project, though, I made it with all different kinds of red jello.  Here is a picture of a slice--you can see that it looks just like our string pieced blocks!

Even Bonnie had some!

After lunch came Show and Tell!  Lots of us brought in our Bonnie projects.  There is one lady in the guild that has made at least two version of every mystery Bonnie has done!

Here I am showing "Aliamanu Daydreams," my version of Perkiomen Daydreams from her first book, Scraps and Shirttails. I really love this quilt--it is made up entirely from 10,000 one inch squares.  I also took my two mystery quilts, Roll Roll Cotton Boll and Easy Street, but I won't take up space here showing them.

After some really extraordinary show and tell, and I should say here that Bonnie was every bit as enthusiastic as the rest of us, we got back to working on our project.  I say that about her because some quilt designers can be a bit prickly about people altering their patterns, etc. but Bonnie loved all the innovation.  Anyway, we had another demo on making flying geese.  Bonnie showed us at least 4 ways.  I had brought my Fit to Be Geese rulers to use, too.  This quilt requires many, many flying geese, but I love making them, so it won't be an issue for me.

While we were working on the geese, Bonnie came around to everyone to sign books.  While she was signing mine, Judy asked her about the next mystery.  Bonnie shared that she hadn't settled on a color scheme yet but that she knew she didn't want to include the Pantone Color of the Year--radiant orchid.  I bet you can guess what I was thinking!!!  Before I got a chance to speak up, Bonnie mentioned that she hadn't done a red, white, and blue quilt in a while.  (By then, she already knew about me.)  Judy helped my cause by adding that it would be a great choice since so many people like to make Quilts of Valor.  So, you never know what might happen!  I'm crossing my fingers!!

Later, she was helping Judy with her seam allowance.  I had a bunch of geese done and I was sorting them out into piles of 8, as we needed 8 to go around the blocks.  We were supposed to be making one block, but I was working on 4 or more, since I usually crank things out pretty quickly.  It isn't that I rush, I just feel confident in what I do and don't spend much time "dithering" or over-thinking things.  Anyway, Judy commented on all I had done and Bonnie said something like she enjoyed watching me work as it reminded her of herself!!!!!  OMG!!!  Best moment of the day!!!!!

So I sewed the geese into strips to add around the block from above.  I didn't finish any of them, though, as they announced that it was nearly 4 and we had to be out by then.  Four?!!  How did it arrive so quickly?

I packed and loaded up.  It was a fabulous class--but for me it wasn't about learning how to make a quilt--it was all about spending a day with Bonnie Hunter.  Luckily, I still had the guild presentation to look forward to the next morning.  I'll share about that tomorrow.

Have a great day!
JoAnne