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!