last night was great

Bonnie Hunter was the guest speaker and she was fab!! I knew I would enjoy it because she is a scrap quilter and does some string pieceing she is a kindred spirit. I brough two of my vinatage string quilts to share with her and she flipped, and photographed them. Purchased one of her books so I could have her sign it. She inspired many last evening, traditionalists and art quilters. I have gotten a few really good thoughts on things to do at the shoppe as a result of Bonnies talk, and the reactions to her work that I saw happening all around me. The reveal of the challenge showed a great variety of work, with a bolder feeling than last time. It seemed to me that there was less of a need to keep it looking like the photo, and a sense of more freedom of both technique and image. The next one is a lovely photo of a pair of Zinnias ( I think that's what they are ) and the challenge is to interpret in black white and grays. I think I am going to do it entirely in thread work. I am so happy that the idea has already come to me. This time I may get the piece done the way I envision and actually have time to get the hand work onto it. Exciting, ideas are flowing hard and fast today. Lastly, but not least, I got my center for the round robin back and they did a great job with it. They didn't add much in the way of new fabrics to it, but did a great job working with the bright color palette and dealing with the asymmetry of the design. I wanted to put them up to a less technical, more aesthetic challenge and they rose to it in a wonderful way. I now need to decide if I want to add to it and then quilt it. The official reveal is in June. I will get photos of my challenge piece and the round robin as soon as I get new batteries in the camera.