Doin' Brigham City with Bonnie

What a time we had for two days in Brigham City, Utah! Bonnie has more energy than I think I ever have had in my whole life. And she is a constant source of hints and tips for better and more streamlined quilt making.
Here she is in front of her Garden Party quilt, which was our first class.

This quilt has 100 posy blocks that finish at 5". I planned to make my blocks finish at 2.5", and only do a mini with about 20 blocks. Last week I was up in the wee hours cutting and kitting my fabrics for the two quilts we would be starting here.

So how did this happen?

These teeny things are going to finish at 1.25"!
Did you catch that I had done my cutting in the wee hours of the morning? Well, as I sat in class this week I realized that my pieces were not all cut correctly. There was a part of the block that I had miscalculated in my sleep deprived stupor. My only option at this point was to go smaller. So I had to cut my size in half again! Could I do it? Apparently.


Here you see one of my little finished blocks by a block in Bonnie's quilt. If you go to Bonnie's post here, you can scroll down and see my blocks in a bowl with a penny in the center for comparison. In her post you will also get more info and shots of the venue, which was amazing.

This is The Academy Conference Center (a former ballet academy) from the middle, looking toward the front, as Bonnie gave a demo.

 This is the same room looking from the middle toward the back.

Here is Bonnie giving my friend and roomie, Kim, a personal demo on pressing. In the background you can see where we were served our lunch.
 
Kim spent her time focused on making Scrap Crystals. Bonnie was teaching this later in the week at another venue, but we could not make that class. 


The first day we had fun getting to know Wendy and Courtney (who came from Minnesota to take the class with her friend) as we worked. 
The second day we had the table to ourselves. The class was only about 2/3 full that day.

 
Following class, the LQS provided  some retail therapy. It was fun to see Bonnie shopping in one of my favorite little quilt shops.
 






That night we had dinner at a local iconic restaurant, Maddox. There were 15 of us from the class that day, and two that would be in class the next day.


Our second day was Midnight Flight (shown below). I had to leave a little early that day. As we got started that morning I made a management decision to make my color placement a little different. As I worked, I realized it wasn't a good choice, so I had to start over again sewing my strips and making my 4-patches. That left me a step behind the rest of the day and by the time I had to leave I had not finished a block. Maybe I can get some finished next week and share them with you.

Kim, Bonnie, and me in front of Midnight Flight.

It was about 6 1/2 years ago that I bought Bonnie's "Adventures With Leaders and Enders" on Amazon. That led me to her blog (my intro to quilt blogs), and eventually got me blogging. I had many fun email exchanges with Bonnie back before she had a bazillion followers, when she actually had time to respond. It was delightful to finally meet her! She is as real as they come, and an excellent teacher. If you have a chance to take a class from her, I highly recommend it!
 Until next time,
Janet O.