For the month of April, I have taken up Frédérique's Quilting Patchwork and Applique challenge to blog daily (except Sundays) on a quilt topic related to a letter of the alphabet.
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I am a HUGE fan of Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville!! I first learned about her because of her annual mystery quilt designs. The mysteries debut each year on the day after Thanksgiving and the parts are revealed each week until just after New Year's. It took me years to get up the courage and organization to actually try to make one.
I have now done four of them (named here with the year Bonnie offered them): En Provence (2016), On Ringo Lake (2017), Double Delight (2008) and Old Tobacco Road (2008). I still have backings to make for three of them and have to quilt them up.
Update: The backings for "On Ringo Lake" and "En Provence" were made up in March 2022 and January 2023 respectively. "Old Tobacco Road" was completely finished in January 2024.
I also have one mystery still in progress: Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll (2010)
I have four of the eight parts of the mystery done. Lately I've been piecing the Part 3 neutral string blocks as leader/enders between other piecing. While the leader/ender concept was not created by Bonnie, she certainly has popularized it. If you'd like to see all of Bonnie's mysteries made up, check out Maggie Fellow's Making A Lather blog. She has completed all of the mysteries up to 2018's "Good Fortune".
Another Update: "Roll, Roll, Cotton Boll" was finally finished at the end of December, 2023.
Bonnie is also a big vintage quilt fan. Back in 2011, she offered a quilt along while she replicated a quilt she had discovered in Florida. If you Google "Florabunda" or "Floribunda", you will see all of the quilts made by quilters who followed along. This is mine:
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| It is our official family picnic quilt! |
Bonnie also has a large catalog of Free Patterns. I recently finished one of her most popular ones, "Scrappy Trips".
Pre-COVID, Bonnie traveled extensively to teach, both in the United States and Internationally. While I've never been able to attend one of her workshops, I did attend two of her lectures at a local quilt show some years back. In 2019, she opened a quilt retreat center in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. Needless to say that is a Bucket List trip I hope to make one day!
I leave you with one of Bonnie's daily life lessons which are always accompanied by a quilt. Isn't that the way all of life should be?
Are you a Bonnie Hunter/Quiltville fan? Have you ever participated in one of her mystery quilt seasons? To learn even more about Bonnie, check out her Quiltville website. Be warned, you'll probably be there for hours!
Linking up with Frédérique and the other Challengers at Quilting Patchwork and Applique. Bonne journée!
4 comments:
yes I follow Bonnie and but have only made one of her mystery's and actually enjoyed doing it even though I don't usually do mysteries.
I follow Bonnie too, and enjoy her mystery quilts even if I don't make them ;)
Hi Vivian - we are thinking of the same thing:
https://knitpurlsewnyc.com/2021/04/18/q-is-for-quiltville/
Love your collection of Quiltville quilts! Bonnie's mysteries are quite addictive. I've done 8 although they are not all finished. I've also made a few other quilts from her patterns.
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