Blue Ridge Beautiful

It sometimes seems that a quilt will never be finished.  I started this quilt in 2010 when I attended a class from Bonnie Hunter at the local quilt guild.  All of the fabrics were collected and stuffed away.  This year I decided that several plastic cartons needed to be emptied and this was one of them.  The quilt is from Adventures with Leaders & Enders and called Blue Ridge Beauty. There is only one block in the quilt. When I started to make the blocks again--four of the first six blocks were incorrectly sewn.  So I had to check the picture in the book each time to make sure the colors were in the right position. This was my March Covid quilt--just stay home and sew. Finally finished the top in April.  So glad to have it quilted and ready for gifting.

Blue Ridge Beauty is 10 years old!

This Blue Ridge Beauty quilt has been under construction since May 2010 when Bonnie Hunter was the instructor for the Kaw Valley Quilter's Guild in Lawrence, Kansas. I gathered all the fabics and started the quilt in the workshop but never worked on it again until March.  Then came the coronavirus and the need for many face masks and I was interrupted.  So a couple of weeks ago I began the quilt in earnest and with the goal of completing the quilt top. It really isn't quite finished as I still need to stitch the borders.  But the hard part is finished.  The quilt is made with 168 blocks.  The surprising thing is that it is the exact same block made 168 times with lights and darks. It was so simple and so complex because the blocks had exact placement of the lights and darks.  Making the first six blocks seemed like a snap until I looked closely to see that four of them were not correct. This really was a test of perseverance.  More to come after the quilter does her magic.

Bonnie Hunter (aka Quiltville)

Today I had the most wonderful opportunity to meet Bonnie Hunter from North Carolina. She is the author of two quilt books and the maker of numerous quilts. Bonnie is the queen of scrap-quilting. She does not let one little smidgen of her fabric go to the wastebasket.

Bonnie presented a trunk show this morning at the Kaw Valley Quilter's guild meeting in Lawrence. This afternoon she had a workshop about making the Blue Ridge Beauty which is one of the quilts in Leaders and Enders. Her other book is Scraps and Shirttails which gives directions for using recycled clothing.

Bonnie Hunter is energetic, personable, witty, and extremely funny. She has great descriptors for all of our quilting actions. We had a great time and learned so much from her!