The Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt

at Stony Brook University

November 29th, 2007

I'm taking graduate classes at Stony Brook this semester, so I was pleased to see that sections of the Aids quilt were going to be on campus on one of my class nights. After class was over I went over to the Student Center to check out the quilt show.

I didn't know what an amazing experience it was. It was like no other quilt show I have ever been to.

First the quilt panels are laid on the floor. You walk among them. As you make your way around the exhibit, it is almost like the quilt is a living thing and the people are part of it.





Then there is the realization that these quilts, for the most part, were not made by quilters. The panels were created by people who loved someone and then lost them to AIDS. There were various skill levels and techniques used. The panels were very personal.

This one shows a loved one in various pictures printed on fabric:




This one takes a suit of clothing. It is laid out on an old quilt. I can only imaging that it was his baby quilt.







An of course, whenever I go look at quilts, I look for Sunbonnet Sue or Sam. Here a precious moments character is captured on the panel.



And as you are looking at the panels, there is always someone at the microphone, reading names. That is the point of the project, the names. The list of those who died of this disease is very long and the constant reciting of names in the background is a reminder of what the project is all about.

The full panels each measured 12' x 12'. Here is a picture of one of the panels that was standing.



Many different sections make up a full panel. Only 25 panels made it to Stony Brook that night. I was in awe of the stories that each victim had to tell. The entire AIDS quilt is now more than 45,000 panels, which represents a small portion of the more than 500,000 people in the United States who have died from AIDS.

I can't imagine that many names.

For me the panel that summed it up was this one... an unfinished life.



It was an amazing quilt show.

You can get more information here: www.aidsquilt.org

Light The Night - Leukemia Walk

Last night Suffolk Community College hosted the "Light the Night" walk for Leukemia. My mom has a blood cancer, so our family participated. Here is a picture of us right before the walk. In the picture are my 14-year old daughter Kelly, Husband Jim, Me, 9-year old daughter Suzie and off to the side, my 12-year old son Danny(being clever with his balloon).

There were hundreds of walkers who carried illuminated balloons. It was quite the parade as we walked around the road the loops the campus.

When it was all finished, we returned to the central courtyard of the campus in front of the Peconic Building. It was a beautiful site.

It was definitely a worthwhile experience for my family to gather together with others who have had blood cancers touch their life. There was a lady there sobbing and I felt so thankful that my mother continues to win the fight with her cancer.

If you would like to donate to the cause: http://www.active.com/donate/ltnMelvil/2075_bunchuck

Kim B.

Lecture and Workshop with Mark Lipinski

My guild - Eastern Long Island Quilters - hosted Mark Lipinski on Friday and Saturday. He had lectured at our guild before and the ladies lobbied to get him back. I have to say, that although I found his talk amusing two years ago, I didn't like his use of the F-word.

Well he has improved with age! Since his visit to our guild two years ago, he started "Quilters Home" magazine. It is one of my favorite quilting magazines. It is fresh and fun. You can get subscriptions now.

His talk was much more fun. This time he was definitely a star of the quilting world. I really enjoy his fresh take on things. He did talk about how he is just not accepted by some members of the quilting community, but I'm glad that there is room for all kinds of quilters. He also toned down his language, which I appreciated.

Not to mention his stunning trunk show. This is one man who can quilt!

I also took his workshop on Saturday. We made three dimensional blocks to surround a Geisha panel. Here is a picture of Mark with the class samples:




I decided to appliqué the oriental Sue pattern that is free on my website Sunbonnetsue.com. I surrounded that with the blocks that we learned to make in the workshop. Although my top isn't done, there are only a few seams left to sew. I consider that a successful workshop. Here is my top:



Here is a picture of me sewing at the class,




It was a great day to sew with friends and learn new techniques! Now I have to get the top finished!

-- Kim

The quilters in my family

Last time visited my parents, I searched through some of the old photo albums. My parents have a scanner on their computer now, so I can scan the pictures that I want and put the photo right back into my mother's album. She doesn't like to lend them out.

I found this one taken in 1960. It is my Mom, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother. My older sister is the little girl. I was an infant then and I wish my mother had put me in the picture as well. They wanted the "one from each generation shot", so I sat out.




Great-Grandma Whitney (far right) was the quilter in the family. It was the Sunbonnet Sue quilt that she made for my mother in 1941 that got me interested in Sunbonnet Sue quilts. Here is a picture of that quilt:



She used clothing and feed sacks. It is a summer weight quilt with no batting. Because my mother treasured it, it was kept in a trunk and never used. Now I have it in my trunk show when I lecture. I hope Grandma Whitney would have approved.

By the way, my family is participating in the leukemia walk this weekend to support my mother. If you'd like to help out, just look at the prior posting in the blog.

Light the Night...

After spending so many hours putting together the quilt to support Women with for Breast Cancer I wasn't looking to get involved in another charity project right away. But, The Leukemia and Lymphoma society made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

They are sponsoring a walk at Suffolk Community College. I've worked on the campus for 20 years and find it to be an amazing community of caring people. When I heard about the walk, I had to participate. My mother, Ann Cronin, has been suffering with a blood cancer for over 10 years. She has lost a lot of weight, but her red blood count is the best it has been in a while and we are so thankful for all the treatments that she has been getting at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY.

So on October 13th my husband, children and I will be walking in the "Light the Night" Walk. Our team is called "Walking for Grandma" and any donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society would be greatly appreciated. We have a donation website for our team here:
http://teams.lightthenight.org/WalkingforGrandma

http://www.active.com/donate/ltnMelvil/2075_bunchuck


My mom was given 4 years to live when she was first diagnosed. I was pregnant with my second child and I wondered if she'd get to meet all my children. When my daughter was baptized, we traveled back to Western New York because my Mother was too ill to travel and we wanted her to be at the baptism of her first granddaughter. That baby is now 14! Strides in cancer treatment have given us such a gift with my mother's continued health.

I now have four children and my Mom has celebrated every baptism, communion, graduation with us.

So If you can help the society with research for blood cancers maybe there can be more stories of people living with cancer and enjoying their life and family.

How I spent My Summer Vacation ....

The quilt is finally done! I mailed the Good/Bad Sunbonnet Sue bride quilt off to Texas. I didn't realize what a huge project it was until I tried to put the two-sided quilt together. Lining up the blocks was a challenge. The beading and embellishments made it difficult. And did I mention that none of the blocks were the same size!

But with the help of Beth and Roberta, the quilt made it down to Texas. Here is a picture of it hanging at the show:



"GOOD" Sunbonnet Sue side



"BAD" Sunbonnet Sue Side

I can't begin to thank the ladies who all made blocks for the quilt. It truly was an international effort with blocks from all over the world on the quilt.

The blocks that didn't make it into the quilt were made into smaller quilts that will be auctioned for the charity.

Great job ladies and I have to say that I'm happy it is finished!

I have to give a big thank you to:

• the 61 women who volunteered to make blocks
• Piecefulquilting.com who donated fabric
• Sunbonnetsue.com (my website) who donated the batting

Quilting Bee held

I packed up all the bride blocks and went to Suffolk Community College for two days of marathon sewing. My volunteers were dropping out left and right, so I was pleased to have two wonderful ladies helping me. Roberta and Beth came both days and worked their fingers to the bone!

Roberta is in the green shirt and Beth was our "quality control". Her hand sewing skills are excellent and she gussied up some of our plainer brides with more lace and beading.

Here are my two volunteers (Roberta on the left and Beth on the right) on day two, with one of the blocks ready to go into the quilt:

As you can see, the "Good" side of the quilt is shaping up nicely. I'm going to assemble it this weekend and get a picture online as soon as I can.

We had a few blocks come in, so check out the gallery to see them:
http://badsuequilts.com/brideGallery.htm

I put Nancy's block in with the extra wedding dress fabric when it came it, so I just got it online. Sorry Nancy.

This is going to be a beautiful quilt!

Kim Bunchuck

Sunbonnet Sue - Breast Cancer project draws near

We are getting ready to sew our Sunbonnet Brides together. I have fifty block waiting for our Sewing days to get them put together.

If you can help, here are the details:

We are meeting at Suffolk Community College in Riverheadon Tuesday July 24th and Wednesday, July 25th.

We'll be in the Corchaug building from 9 am - 5 pm.

You'll need to bring a sewing machine loaded with basic white thread.

We'll be sewing the tops together. If you can machine quilt, please bring your machine to help with that as well. We will provide the quilting thread.

If you have any pink or white fabric that you'd like to donate, you can bring that as well. We'll need lots of ideas to get the blocks set together.

The cafeteria will be open on campus that day, or you can bring a bag lunch.

It should be a lot of fun.

Please e-mail me at kim@sunbonnetsue.com to let me know you are coming!

Kim

Alex Anderson Insults Sunbonnet Sue!

I subscribe to "The Quilt Show", the new quilting show on the internet. I have been enjoying the videos of quilters sharing tips, patterns and ideas. In the beginning of episode 104, Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims begin by talking about their personal discovery of quilting. They talk about finding patterns, quilts shops and guilds.


Ricky says, “I did not know about drunkard’s path or your favorite Sunbonnet Sue. I know Alex loves Sunbonnet Sue”

Alex says, “The day I make one, just check me into the home. . . sorry if I offended anybody”

"Some of them are fun, some Sunbonnet Sue quilts are really great,” Ricky counters.

They continue on talking about other things.

I don't know of any other quilt pattern that takes the abuse that the "Sunbonnet Sue" pattern takes. When I started Sunbonnetsue.com ten years ago, frankly I wasn't sure if the website would be well received or not. Of course the quilting community has welcomed our patterns and Sunbonnet Sue information with open arms.

I just don't understand why people dislike the pattern so much. You think someone who is an industry leader in promoting all things concerning quilts would be a little more diplomatic.

That's my thought for the day.

Kim Bunchuck
Sunbonnetsue.com

Quilting Bee Scheduled!

I'm so excited. I just got off the phone with Suffolk Community College and we have our Quilt Assembly Days scheduled for the Sunbonnet Sue fights breast cancer quilt.

Suffolk community College really stepped up to help our little project out. We are able to gather in one of their classrooms on the Riverhead campus and sew these blocks together. If you are a Long Island Quilter and you can donate some time to sew these quilts together, we'd love your help.

Here are the details:

Quilt Assembly Days -

When: Tuesday, July 24th and if needed Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
Time: 9am - 4 pm
Location: Corchaug Building - Suffolk Community College, Riverhead campus
Bring: Sewing Machine

We'll be sewing the blocks into quilts. If you are a machine quilter, you can help quilt some of the smaller wall-hangings.

Please let me know if you can come help us out - e-mail me

Kim Bunchuck
Sunbonnet Sue fights Breast Cancer Project.

Eastern Long Island Quilt Show

Well I did it! I vended at the weekend's quilt show and lived to tell the tale. When I signed up for a vendor spot months ago, I didn't realize how crazy things would be. I had classes to finish, little league games to attend and work. All this is not to mention the Bridal project.

Here is what my booth looked like:



It was great to see all the people and talk about quilts for two days straight. Now I have to get the books back on the shelves in my web-store at home.

The brides came to the show too, for their first public showing. Here is a close up of them on the wall:



We are sewing the blocks together in July. If you are on Long Island and can help, there will be more posted.

Whew, I'm tired...

Bridal Shower

It has been a crazy month and this is the first time I've been able to post. I am on the adjunct faculty of the local community college. We finished up the semester and I'm thrilled to have my Tuesdays free again! I just can't seem to find the time to get everything done I want to.



I did manage to get the last of the Sunbonnet Sue bride kits mailed out. Seventy-one went out. That is more than I expected, so we'll be able to get 2 or 3 quilts done. It just depends on how many of them come back as completed quilt blocks.



Some have already started coming. It is like a bridal show of block. Here is one of them:

If you'd like to see the others, here is the link: http://badsuequilts.com/brideGallery.htm

It is amazing the generosity of quilters.

There is a strange sort of footnote to this charity project. My mammogram this month turned up problems in both my breasts. I had to go back for more images (OUCH) and the doctors have decided to wait six months and have another mammogram done to see if there are changes.

Just that one little episode was pretty scary for me. I can't imagine living with it every day.

Brides Against Breast Cancer Deadline!

It's May 1st. The deadline for sign ups for the Sunbonnet Sue fights breast cancer project was yesterday. Yikes, the project took on a life of its own. Originally I was worried that I'd wouldn't get 38 women to volunteer to do a block. I shouldn't have underestimated the generosity of quilters.

We have 67 different names on the list of volunteers to make a block. We will be able to make three quilts! I'm very excited about the turnout. The bulk of the volunteers are from the USA but there are also volunteers from Mexico, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, England and Germany.

The kits are being mailed out this week. I just printed 70 copies of the instructions and created the mailing labels. The kits are an inconsistent weight (some have more beading, some have lighter weight fabrics) so I'll have to weigh each of the packages separately. I plan on sending a few envelopes each day this week.

As soon as the blocks come back in, I'll be photographing them and putting them online. It will be exciting to see all the brides!

Sunbonnet Sue Fights Breast cancer

Getting the kits ready for mailing...


I spent the day today getting the kits ready for the Sunbonnet Sue Bride quilt. It is really an exciting project. You can read about it here:


http://sunbonnetsue.com/badsuegetsmarried.htm



First I cut up all the background blocks:




They are all pink, which will contrast with the white of the Bride's dresses. It also is the color of the Breast Cancer ribbon.

Next I sorted through all the fabric from the Bride's dresses:





We got all the bows, embelishments and other pieces left over from bigger quilt projects. Since we are making Sunbonnet Sue blocks, we can use these smaller pieces. You can read about the brides' dresses to quilt project here:

http://www.makingmemories.org/quilt.html

There are some beautiful pieces of lace and fabric in this box! It was hard to cut them up.

I put one background block, some of the bridal fabric and some lace in each package.




Now they are ready to go off to the ladies (over 50 and counting) who have volunteered to make a Sunbonnet Sue bride block. I can't wait for them to start coming in.

Kim

Piping Hot Bindings Workshop

My guild, the Eastern Long Island Quilters, hosted Susan Cleveland for a lecture and workshop. Today was the workshop on "piping Hot Binding". Susan showed us the ins and out of making a binding perfect. We applied a thin piping before putting the binding on the quilt.

Susan used a digital projector and digital camera to demonstrate her techniques. We were a large group and it made everything so easy. No more crowding around a sewing machine trying to see over the tall lady! I really enjoyed it.

We put the binding on a small project. I brought a Sunbonnet Sue block to put the binding on. You can see me in this group shot of the class. As usual, I had the only Sunbonnet Sue in the group.

What was great about the workshop was the light-hearted, fun atmosphere that Susan created. She was fun, informative and really knew her stuff. I'm made four great corners on the quilt I binded, something that has never happened for me before!

Here are a couple of the samples she brought. She is very precise and has a great color sense.

It was a good day. Now I have to go dig out some of my UFOs and get the binding on them as well!

Long Island Quilt Shop Hop

This weekend is the first Long Island Quilt shop hop. I signed up for the bus that left "Pieceful Quilting" in Riverhead at 9 am on Saturday. All I had to do was sit back and relax as I went from quilt shop to quilt shop. What's not to like.?

Here was our itinerary:

PIECEFUL QUILTING, RIVERHEAD, NY (631) 727-5909
CLOSE TO HOME, SELDEN, NY (631) 732-3342
112 SEWING SUPPLIES, PATCHOGUE, NY (631) 475-8282
SEW WHATS NEW, ISLIP, NY (631) 277-4215
THE QUILTING BUG, MASSAPEQUA, NY (516) 541-8600
SENTIMENTAL STITCHES, COLD SPRING HARBOR, NY (631) 692-4145

I bought my "Passport" from Angie at Pieceful qulting





I had to get it stamped at every store. They are drawing for prizes on Tuesday, so I'll let you know if I win anything!


Colleen was my "seat mate". She has a wonderful color sense and shared her food with me!







Of course I bought something in every store. First on my list was interfacing and "Fray Check" so I could start work on the bridal fabric quilt. Working with Satin is going to be interesting.

Many fat quarters jumped into my shopping bag as well. With all the wonderful fabric to choose from, who could blame me?















Each store had a pattern to give out and if you combined them you could make the "Shop Hop Quilt". The quilting bug had their sample sewn in beautiful batiks (my favorite), so I took a picture of that one:









What is nice about the quilt is the variety of blocks. There is paper-piecing, applique and real simple stuff. It was fun to see the same quilt done up so differently. Here is what the one at Pieceful quilting looks like:





Completely different (also out of focus - sorry).

So I had a good day.


Kim

Sunbonnet Sue fights Breast Cancer

So I volunteered for a charity project. I'm hoping to recruit Sunbonnet Sue fans to make and donate a block for a charity quilt. The quilt will go to support the group "Brides Against Breast Cancer". http://www.makingmemories.org/ is the URL for the group.
Here is the quilt design that I worked up.

Each of the pink squares is a Sunbonnet Sue block. The sashing and borders will be sewn with the donated Brides' dresses. I'm excited about it. Right now I've recruited 8 people, so I hope more sign up. You can read about the project here: http://sunbonnetsue.com/badsuegetsmarried.htm

I'll be recruiting for the next month or so. It should be a fun project.

Trip Into NYC

National Quilting Day

My guild had their celebration of National Quilting day Yesterday. I didn't teach this year and my husband wanted me to skip the day to go into NYC with our church group to hand out groceries and food. So National Quilting Day went on without me and I went into the city with my 13, 12 and 8 year old children.

Three vans arrived at Tompkins Square Park. It was a bit of work unloading the trucks, but handing out the food was rewarding. My kids really got to see the variety of people that came. I think it was a bit of an eye opener for them. My oldest son wouldn't come, but managed to call me in the middle of the food distribution.

My 8 year old did a good job too. It was a good day. I'm back to quilting today.