Sunday, August 16, 2009

Bonnie Hunter's Starstruck Workshop

This post is being written by our Guest Blogger, Momcat (Linda).

The guild seemed to thoroughly love Bonnie's talk and trunk show regarding the Scrap User's System. Here's the table overloaded with Bonnie's quilts. What a fun display!




After the meeting Cathy and I finally went to check into our hotel. We stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott. I'm completely baffled by their slogans on the key cards. I asked Cathy, "Did we somehow find our way into the Swingin' Singles wing, or what?"


With the glare from the camera flash I'm not sure if you can clearly read what is written on the card. It says: The lock on your room is not meant to keep you there.

The key cards themselves are imprinted with: Wandering is encouraged.

Huh?



After we checked in we went for a late night dinner at Perkins. Pancakes at 10 p.m. Yum! We each drifted right off to sleep that night, ready for the Starstruck Workshop in the morning.

When I walked into the classroom and set up I realized I was sitting across from a lady with this on her chair. I immediately developed retreat seat cushion envy.


She said a friend had made it for her, and was nice enough to display it for me. Isn't this cool?! I really must find a pattern (I can't make a pattern just from seeing something).





There are pockets everywhere, including under your bottom. And then look how it all just folds up. I wish I remembered the name of this nice lady in the picture who modeled her chair cover for me. If you're reading this blog, thanks so much for being a quilty friend. I love it!


Some of the ladies have made quilts using the free patterns that Bonnie provides on her web site. Here is a beautiful example and you can see Starstruck displayed on the wall in the background.


The Starstruck pattern is so easy to follow. Jennifer smartly noticed that it was very much like the pattern I used to make the shop sample Christmas Ribbons. It was wonderful to see how the same pattern was interpreted by all the people in the room. Some ladies went totally scrappy, others used just one or two colors. I chose to stick with Pinks, Browns and Neutrals.

Bonnie is an expert at finding new uses for small pieces. Once we sewed our strips together and cut them into 4 1/2" rectangles, we were advised to cut the leftover pieces of the strips into bits that we could use for four patches.

We were also told to make bonus triangles.

Here are some of my Starstruck blocks, bonus triangle units and 4-patch units. Aren't they cute?


Bonnie was a wonderful teacher. We all left excited with the possibilities and many of us were eager to come back the next day, to the Crumbs Workshop, to find out what Bonnie had in store for us then.

Naturally, we had to hit a local quilt shop after the workshop. There is a fantastic store called Quilts Plus. Jill and I both love Civil War fabrics and patterns. The quilt shop where we both work part-time doesn't carry those. We walked into heaven! We each decided to purchase this pattern and kit so that we could make "Small Things" together.



Here are my other shop purchases.



Going clockwise, that's the fabric bundle kit for "Small Things," the "Small Things" pattern, "All Around Town" pattern and a Quiltsmart Smart Bag pattern. It comes with interfacing templates to make two bags. All you need to do is lay the fat quarters down on the pre-printed interfacing and start sewing. According to the pattern, you can make each bag in about 1/2 hour. The samples on display at the shop were great.

Finally, Jennifer kindly invited us all to her house for a cook-out. Her husband, Mike, was great about cooking and entertaining all of us women. Jennifer's children, Jenna and Jack, were so sweet.


From left to right: Jill, Cathy, Becca, Jack and Jennifer. (I was taking the picture).

What a fabulous day! After dinner Cathy and I headed back to the hotel to rest up for the Crumbs Workshop. I introduced Cathy to "Psych," but she fell asleep before Sean and Gus exposed the murderer. I did, however, spot the pineapple.


Blessings!

Linda