February 4 Vancouver Work Day

The Vancouver group convened on February 4 to construct log cabin quilts for Guatemala Bound.  The colors were white, beige, gray, black, turquoise and rust.  The assignment was to choose three of the colors and make one or more log cabin blocks.  Four people brought blocks, and two more made blocks during the work day.  Here are our three tops in progress.

It was another satisfying and fun-filled day.

Mary brought two completed tops with backings to donate.  One is a wavy rail fence and one a really cute flower applique set amongst geometric blocks.  Recently my sister and some of her friends in Palm Desert donated several tops as well.  I think I'm getting close to the goal of 70 bunkbed quilts and 10 crib quilts!  It's only been 13 months since Pat and I made the first quilt for the project.  It's amazing!  Everyone's been very generous, with their time and fabric!  Many thanks.

Two More 9-Patch & Stripes

The Vancouver group finished two more of the 9-Patch & Stripe quilts this week.  Way to go, girls!  There are three more to bind, and one more to quilt.  Next week we're moving on to a log cabin design.

Quilt Show In The Mail

A couple of days ago I received 3 boxes of quilts for Guatemala Bound from Nan's group in Anchorage!  I had my own quilt show.  The group has been very generous and productive.  It's obvious from the spirited designs that they've been having fun.  Here are the 3 finished quilts that they sent.  (I'll wait until the other three tops are quilted before posting photos of those.)

Elise made this crib quilt from start to finish.

The group of 8 Anchorage quilters made the wonky 9-patches.  Nan assembled the blocks and did the quilting and finishing.

The group of 8 worked on strip-piecing this joyous design.  Elise did the machine quilting and finishing.

Thanks so much, all of you.  I am overwhelmed.

Last Week's Get Together at Nan's

Here's the view when I arrived at Nan's - fabulous!


Elise made two quilts from strips she took home plus more from her stash!

I'm trimming sets so they can be sewn together.

Nan made another pot of delicious soup for us. From left - Nan, Jeannie, Bonnie, Tina & Elise.

Here are two of the tops we completed.

Strips sewn into units ready to go to Nan's.

Here are the strips we divided and took home in December.

Anchorage - Vancouver Meld

My friend Pat from Alaska was here for a few days.  We had a blast!  Much of our fun included sewing.  Pat brought four finished quilt tops and one partially finished for Guatemala Bound.

One was the string quilt that Annalise and Susan have been working on.  It's beautiful!  Pat and I made a backing for it, and Pat tried out longarm quilting for the first time.  She did a great job with a very innovative original quilting design.  Our friend Rosie from Oregon finished the binding.

Another partially made top was donated by Joan of Anchorage.  Here's Pat, standing in front of the striped piece holding our pizza box of cut Chinese Coins strips.

Initially, we thought we'd add Chinese coins to the top.  But after we got the Chinese Coins sewn together, we realized they didn't compliment the blue stripes.  (So, that's the makings for another quilt.  It's off to a good start.)  Pat looked through the Gee's Bend books, again, and was inspired by Florine Smith's "Four-Block Strips" circa 1975 (The Quilts of Gee's Bend, Tinwood Books & Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 2002, p. 175).  So we sliced the blue piece into strips and added some green prints.  Here's the resulting top.

So it was a good week.  Lots of laughter, sewing, a trip to the coast, and visiting with long-time friends from Alaska - couldn't have been better!

4-Patch Stair Step

I received one of those advertising packages for a traditional quilt magazine in the mail .  This one had a pattern in it for a 4-patch stair step which served as inspiration.  Just the thing for using up scraps and accomplishing something for the Guatemala Bound project. This was a quick and easy one.  Each top went together in about 6 hours.  And using up all those scraps was fun!  I felt like I made a dent in organizing my life.

Images from South Africa - Installment 3

Cape Weaver Nests at Spier, Stellenbosch

Thorn Tree

Kalk Bay

African Penguin, Boulders

African Penguins, Boulders

African Penguins, Boulders

African Penguins, Boulders

Waal Street, Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town near Green Market Square

Hard-Working Oxen Take a Break at Simunye

All photos are Copyright 2009 Bonnie M. Bucknam.  Please do not use without permission.