Bonnie Hunter's Newest Book

Bonnie Hunter has a new book coming out in a few weeks and I ordered mine and mom's copy today....YIPPIE!  Can't wait to see all of the beautiful quilts she has in this one.   Head on over to Bonnie's blog and you can pre-order your own copy.

It will be time soon to pull out all of those strings and stips you have in your stash and work on some of Bonnie's newest quilts.  Isn't it amazing how fabric that you never would have purchased together or pieced into a quilt together works perfectly fine in a string, scrappy quilt? 

I've been doing some additional drafting with pencil and paper today on my block for the Red, White and Blue blog hop.  I am so excited to be included in this event.  I plan on having a tutorial and a finished project to show.  So I have got to keep working on this.  I have several options and I am having a time deciding which one I like best.  I really like them all!

Monday night we had Anita Bowen as our guest speaker at the quilt guild meeting.  She is a wonderful lady who is a lecturer, teacher in South Carolina.  She always teaches at the Quilter's of South Carolina Quilt Guild Retreat.  Anita did a wonderful trunk show for us.

Each time we have a speaker I try to make sure that I learn at least one great tip form them.  Anita's advice to quilters is the stretch yourself.  Take classes, do guild challenges, do round robins and learn new techniques.  Each thing you do will make you a better quilter in some way and you will have more to pass on to the next generation of quilters.

Here's Anita talking about one of the challenges she participated in.  The challenge was blueberries.  So she made "boo-berries".

 Here is a closer look at "boo-berries".  She made the bowl of berries into halloween jack-o-lanterns.  How cute.

 Anita's husband is a professional cycler and she made this quilt in another challenge which had to represent movement.  Everything in front of the bicycle is stationary and everything behind is curvy and represents movement.  It was awesome.

 This quilt represented her son's bowling shirts.  He went to school on a bowling scholarship.

 Another challenge.....had to represent ships.  Anita's husband hand dyes fabric and most of her quilts contain fabric that he has dyed.

One of the classes that Anita has taught at alot of the state retreats is Galaxy Stars.  It is a beautiful quilt to behold.  I think I would like taking the class someday.

Another great speaker that has been at our guild.  Thanks to our Vice President Susan for booking such wonderful inspiration for us.

Happy Quilting,
Shelia