Stalled a bit...

I'm just checking in to my blog as I haven't posted in quite a while. I have had to redirect my efforts from quilting to webmastering for the time being. I am on the executive board of a statewide educator organization and we just had a BUSY and productive strategic planning meeting last week here in Solvang. We all enjoy each other's company so much, so the social side of it was really fun for me. We had a great dinner at Mattei's Tavern eating good food and catching up with each other's news. Then the next morning it was nose to the grindstone as we made plans for training our membership in the coming year. I found the group WUNderful accomodations at The Inn at Petersen Village including great food (again I refer to food), beautiful rooms, a really nice meeting room, and an amazing host in Adam Petersen. Thanks again Adam, I hope we can return every year!

On to the important stuff. With the declining budget in California, education has been hard-hit. Our teachers are losing their jobs. Our membership is in decline. So, we as an organization have to really tighten our belt. Result is I have taken on many more responsibilities that were previously done by a paid event planner. The school year is about to begin and I have to get our newsletter out, membership forms designed, conference flyers created and then get these printed and out to the schools. And I retired to smell the roses!! Ha. Actually, I am happy to help out and keep my finger in the pie, sort of. I have withdrawal pains just thinking of leaving my colleagues behind and doing just retirement stuff.

So, my quilting. I'll get back to it soon. I am obsessing, compulsively perhaps, on finishing my new Registrar chores. My sewing machine better not develop any rust while I get revved up to turn it on and finish my Carolina Lily and Stars and Cards block. Even my sister Leslie, who was behind, has flown past me and she will now have to guide me through the intricacies of that complex Stars block!! Truth be told, I have kind of enjoyed the vacation from having to decide which fabrics belong to which piece and review again, "how big?".

Talk soon. Bonnie

The quilt show

Highlights of the Long Beach Quilt Show:


~Seeing Karen (TQS KakeM) and Sandy (TQS SandyPorter) - both fun and delightful and friendly and full of energy, even after two days of classes and vendor hopping and quilt viewing. Here we are at the end of the day outside the convention center. From L-R: Karen, Sandy, my sister Leslie and me.

~Budget Report: I never wavered, not one iota. No credit cards used. Cash only. I bought some Olfa frosted rulers, some Amy Butler patterns, and two cute cute music boxes in a pillow.

~Seeing my LQS Creation Station attract such a huge following! Take a look at these zany creative people and their booth.


If there was a prize for best booth, they would have to be awarded the blue ribbon. Another busy booth was Superior Threads. I wish they had scored an end booth like Creation Station because there just wasn't any room to look at their products, the people crush was huge and the line to the cash register too long. I wanted to buy thread but there's no way I wanted to stand in a line that was so long. We went back twice, but to no avail. Still crowded and long lines. I hope Bob Purcell is reading this.

The quilts on display were beautiful. Of course, the ones I most wanted to take photos of were off limits for photography. I don't know why. Can anyone tell me? Here are afew that I liked. I am kind of partial to contemporary and art quilts.








You may recall that I was concerned about traversing the convention floor with a broken toe. Well, it didn't start out too well. We had to park far away and walk upstairs to the doors of the hall. That wasn't fun. Once I got on the floor and sniffed out the wondrous products and quilts, I stiffened my upper lip and pushed on.

After about an hour and a half, we decided we were hungry and my toe was famished - for the opportunity to be non-weight bearing. Upstairs we trekked to the food court. That is where TQS KakeM first spotted me. We all went downstairs to the Superior booth for a TQS meetup. No one but us and John Anderson, but we had a nice chat and moved on to check out more vendors.

About an hour later, our friend Maureen got really tired. She has been quite ill and we had ordered a scooter for her to use. She went back to her hotel and guess who inherited the scooter? Moi. I felt a bit odd using it, but my toe was finally at peace with me. Instant relief. I also shared the scooter with my sister Leslie. After all, what are sisters for? Here we are in our happy pose.



We had a good time, but I will say that I thought last year's vendors were more interesting. I bought a whole lot last year, and this year it all seemed to be about the same stuff. Maybe I am getting jaded. I had made reservations to go to PIQF, but I'm thinking I need to give it a rest and go to Road to California instead. We shall see.

Getting ready to leave for LB

Just a quick note. We are getting ready to leave for Long Beach - my sister Leslie, friend Maureen, and me. We're toting water, as heavy as it can be, because I remember being sooooo thirsty last year! Hoping the rush hour traffic through L.A. has subsided somewhat. My broken toe does not like wearing a shoe. I'm not looking forward to dealing with that. But, I am looking forward to testing my ability to say, "No". (to myself) I'm not as flush this year as last, so I will have to just make a wishlist for the future and steel my resolve to behave. More on that later. We'll see how I did.

What a Klutz!

First, I must thank everyone for their very positive comments on my messed up Roman Holiday block. I have taken your advice and moved on. I will not be ripping it out and repairing it. I will leave it as it is and rename it Holiday or Bust! or something like that. Thanks again to all. It was very gratifying to hear from you!

I had fun participating in Annie's Euro Chat on Monday. I met Ruth and Norma and Anna from the North Country. I think I mean from Sweden and Denmark, although I am not quite sure that is correct. I am always impressed by those who have mastered more than one language and do it well. Most impressive! The rest of the day on Monday I played around with fabric choices for the Carolina Lily and Stars and Cards. I'm glad I made a 'chart' to view all my blocks so I could get some idea of which fabrics I should use in these two final blocks. The blocks with the yellow outline are the Lily and Stars and Cards. They are just prototypes and not done yet. I still have to finish the sunburst quarter rounds and sashing. We only have one week left in the class.


Then, this morning I made ready to go upstairs and make some headway on the Lily. That was what I hoped to do. Instead, I walked into the corner of a recliner and broke the little toe on my left bare foot! At first, I ignored it and went upstairs, cut my fabric for the Lily and began stitching it. It was really throbbing and I finally gave up and took a look at it. Swollen and bruised. I googled 'broken toe' on the net and had my diagnosis and treatment confirmed. Ice it, tape it, take an aspirin and elevate it. I did all that except ice it. Just didn't have anything I could use and how was I to keep it on my toe?

So, I spent the rest of the day in my recliner, foot up. And now, I'm wondering, will I be able to walk the floor of the Long Beach Quilt Festival? Under normal circumstances, the feet get pretty tired, along with the back. We shall see. Keeping my fingers crossed it will all work out.

Why oh why??

I have made some dumb mistakes lately in my quilting, but nothing to match what I did today. I am literally sick over it. I worked diligently to create the Roman Holiday block as perfectly as I could. I lost focus several times while paper piecing and put the fabric strip on backwards, or, used the wrong color to make up a unit. I caught those and ripped 'em out and fixed 'em. Kind of disgusted that I zoned out while doing those.

BUT, the biggest dumbest mistake I made was only discovered after I took a picture of it. Take a look and see if you see what I did wrong. You may not know what this block is supposed to look like, but I'm gonna bet you can see what I did wrong. Question is, should I rip it out or just leave it? What do you think? Leave a comment, okay?

Here is what a correct Roman Holiday block looks like. You will certainly be able to see the difference. Perhaps I will have a new block named after me? Shall we call it BB's No Holiday block?


On another note, I am quite pleased with my Best of All block. Here it is.


Two more blocks to go - a Carolina Lily and a Stars and Cards block. There are also the sunburst quarter circles to finish too.

Good Nite, Good Morning

We had a good time at the casino seeing Liza Minnelli still belt out a song as well as ever. That lady has the pipes to keep the crowd on their feet for a good long time. The only thing stopping her is oxygen, bad hips and advancing age. She has such amazing stage presence, you know you are seeing a legend up there. I didn't take a camera, and there were the usual threatening signs about video cameras, etc. I did have my iPhone though. So I waited to see what all the security people would do, thinking they would take the cameras and kick people out or something. None of that happened, people were using flash and everything. So I tried to grab a shot with my woefully inadequate concert cam. Here's what I got. Not so hot.

The next morning we went out to breakfast in Santa Ynez and then decided to go to Neverland as my DD#2 was asked by friends to take some photos. So, here is a photo of me with DGD Carrie standing in front of the well-known gates. I took a bunch of photos and uploaded them as a slide show.

I now have to seriously address the Quilters Palette blocks for the week. Here are the cut out units in place, waiting for me to bring them to the machine and being piecing. Later.

Busy busy... Liza Minnelli tonite

I haven't updated in a while as I was busy doing a big update to my quilt guild's website. We introduced a new Challenge and Block of the Month for the year and presented over 200 quilts to the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation. We sure do have a strong talented giving group in this guild. Check it out: www.coastalquilters.org.

I have been studying and pondering the pattern cutting and drafting directions on the next two Quilters Palette blocks - the Best of All block and the Roman Holiday block. The Best block pattern kind of interweaves the fabric you choose and let me tell you, I thought I was in an Art and Geometry class both at the same time. I will say right now that I was confused at every turn as I cut my fabrics. The confusion was about which block would be which color and what size and where did it go. There are a lot of pieces. I finally have it cut out, but left a swath of rejected 'cuts' behind. I just don't easily visualize fabric selections in a given complex block. I don't have any photos yet as I wearily left it behind last nite to go make dinner and calm my feeble mind and deal with the heat outside and inside. Here is Annie's block that she demonstrated in her video chat this week. Mine will look different. I really like her color choices, but then, she is the expert!

Next, I drafted the Roman Holiday block which will be paper pieced. That went fine, my pattern pieces are all cut and ready to go. Can't face my fabric choices yet as I have to deal with the Best block and get it completed. My DS Leslie took my Janome 6600 in for its first ever cleaning (after two years of use) and I get it back today, so I will be sewing that mischievous block with a newly tuned machine. Yea!

My other news: Leslie and I are going to the Chumash Casino to see Liza Minnelli tonite!! I'm really looking forward to this, as her name was on my top-ten-see-them-perform bucket list. Of course, it requires me to enter the casino and I'm not so delighted about that, because when I leave I will smell like a bucket of cigarette ashes! They try to clear the air in there, but it doesn't work all that well. Will I drop a coin in the slots? Heck no, I'm going to Long Beach next week for the Quilt Festival and need every penny I have to stay right there in my wallet.