So I am combining two separate topics today - but they are both quilt-related. First, if you have not seen this video you MUST watch it! I don't understand how they do it at all, but I sure have enjoyed watching it. Thanks to Nann for posting it on her Facebook page; I reposted it on mine, and sent the link to my former guild in VA. It is 6 1/2 minutes long and such fun to watch. And the music is not bad either!
Next, I have finished my 3 Wonky Log Cabin blocks for the ALA Biblioquilters project. We are a group of library-related quilters who make quilts that are auctioned or raffled at the American Library Association conferences each summer. I have been donating blocks to this project since I heard about it 3 years or so ago. This year one of the quilts is a T-shirt quilt with library/book themed t-shirts. I donated 3 of ours that we got when we participated in Fun Runs in New Orleans and New York City and in a day of service in New Orleans the summer after Katrina. Another of our quilts this year is another Wonky Log Cabin. We made one last year that I showed in my previous blog entry. This year we are using the colors of pink, brown, teal and green. Here are my 3 blocks for that. 
I had to go shopping to make these blocks - very few of these fabrics were from my stash. They were fun to do, and I can picture my making more of them. I can see especially putting some randomly on the back of a quilt using some of the scraps from the blocks on the front. These are 4.5", 6.5" and 8.5" blocks. Some are also making 12.5" ones. We are kind of following the directions from Quilt Dad - check it out if you want to make some too.
I'm now back home from the fun of a Bonnie Hunter workshop. Bonnie was at my old guild in Lexington, VA - the Rockbridge Pieceworkers Quilt Guild. I drove from south of Atlanta to my mom's house in east TN Thursday, then on into Lexington Friday morning. Met with our realtor, since we still own a house there, then met Bonnie and some of the officers of our guild, and Erin, for dinner. Great conversation flowed and it was soon time to leave to get to the Virginia Horse Center where we were meeting for the evening. After a brief business meeting we had Show and Tell. Erin and I both brought a quilt we'd made using one of Bonnie's patterns. Erin brought her Scrappy Mountain Majesties that she made for her mom. 
This was the quilt that introduced her to Bonnie a few years back. (I felt honored to get to sleep under this quilt at Erin's house later that evening!) I brought my Orange Crush top - finished as of the day before I left for the trip. 
Bonnie presented a great trunk show, showing many of the quilts from her books. It was so cool to be able to see them up close and actually touch them. When Bonnie asked for volunteers to fold the quilts after she showed each one Erin and I jumped up - we're too short to hold up big quilts, but we can certainly fold!!
Erin was gracious enough to let me spend the night at her house, and I felt honored to be sleeping in her younger son's bed with her mom's quilt covering me. Thanks Donald for the loan of your bed!
Bonnie's workshop - Scrappy Mountain Majesties - was such fun. Everyone brought different fabrics and it looked like everyone made real progress. Bonnie posted on her blog about our workshop - http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/02/bit-of-lexington.html and here http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/02/scrappy-mountains-in-blue-ridge.html Here are Erin and I in front of Bonnie's large Scrappy Mountain Majesties 
I think the one thing that stuck with me the most was Bonnie's idea of what constitutes "neutral." She goes by the background of the fabric, so even if there is a lot of colors on the fabric, if the background is white or pale then she counts it as a neutral. Others may have this idea as well, but I will remember it as hers.
As a result of her idea, I have decided to add more of her version of neutrals to my fabrics for my Christmas version. Here is what I have done so far. 
and a closer up look at it 
I'm not sure that I will stick with this design, and I'm sure I will spread out the darks more as I get more done. This is one of the fabrics that I think I should have made be with the print as the light and a dark as the dark. 
It is a fabric I got from Erin so I'm not sure if I can get more or not. Here are some others that I have pulled from my stash that are Christmas-y but that I had previously thought would be too light to use. It's hard to tell how they are going to look until you sew. slice and sew again. I may have several to go on the back of this quilt!! Here's some of the "new" neutrals I'm thinking of adding, along with some of the darks that I haven't used already. 
These will certainly give it a different look. I'll have to use a good many of them interspersed with the lighter lights. More to come on this project I'm sure.
Before I continue on this project, or any other, I need to make 3 blocks for the ALA Biblioquilters group. One of the quilts we are making to donate to the American Library Associations silent auction at their annual conference this summer is a wonky log cabin done in pinks, browns, teals and greens. I had to buy some fat quarters for that - couldn't go shopping in my stash for any of it. We made one of the quilts using this tutorial last year, except each of the blocks was monochromatic, so some were blues, some were greens, some were yellows, etc. And the blocks are different sizes - 4.5", 6.5", 8.5" and 12.5". 
I have volunteered to make one each of the three smaller sizes. More later on the Wonky Log Cabin.
