2008 MCC Crazy Quilt was a success!

Well, yesterday they auctioned off our crazy quilt at the MCC sale! All seven of us attended the event and there were many pictures taken of us with the quilt. I watched people stopping to look at the quilt and it was interesting. One group of ladies must have stood there 30 minutes or more looking at it. They then pulled back the plastic that was protecting it and began touching it and it looked like they were trying to find out how we tied it! Okay...my maternal instincts kicked in as you all know, I felt like the quilt was our group's little baby. I approached the ladies and told them I helped make the quilt but they still proceeded to touch and analyze. Oh well. Our quilt went for $1,350 and that made us feel really good. What made us feel even better is who the new owner of the quilt is. It is our own Miss Pat who is one of the 7 that helped make the quilt. You should have seen the grin on her face when she knew she won the quilt! We know that it is going to go to a good home where it will be loved and appreciated. We also decided that she can't come to the Victorian Stitchery Retreat unless she brings it along! Ha! Since there are 7 us, we also decided that we need to do this 6 more years so each of us can end up with a crazy quilt. We of course would have to be polite and not bid against each other! All in all it was a wonderful day. The naked block that you see here is the start of our new one for next year. I'll keep you posted again like I did last year on the progress of this quilt.

See you later,

Val

Thank you so much!

I would like to thank all of you for your positive comments on my last post. I would especially like to thank someone who called me. I have not talked to you in a long time and I really appreciate the kind and supportive words that you left on my answering machine. I am sorry I was not home when you called.

Now, on to some better topics! Like my trip to New York City! Me and my girlfriend went to New York and had the best time! It was a business trip for me. We walked the garment district and I bought many new things for my business. I will have an open house April 26th showcasing all of the things I brought back. After that I will start posting the items on my website. It is probably something I will do once a year just to renew my supply and bring my customers new things every year. You cannot believe the walls of lace that you see at the stores in New York..it is like a whole new world.

We went to the Statue of Liberty...if that is not AWESOME. I would recommend you go, even though you wait for the ferry two hours..it is still worth it. Here is a picture of the Statue that I took from the ferry.

See you later,

Val

The Pink Bunny is Going To New York City!

I am getting pretty excited, for tomorrow I am going to New York City on a shopping trip for my crazy quilt website/business. I have alot things lined up to visit and hopefully I will come back with lots and lots of cool things to post on my website for all of you crazy quilters out there! It is less than a month until they auction off the MCC quilt that myself and 6 others made and wow...they put a picture of our quilt on the cover of the auction brochure! Over three hundred quilts are usually auctioned at this event and I feel quite honored and humbled. When I dropped the quilt off, I felt like I was giving away one of my children. So much work was put into it and it is just beautiful. I will keep you posted as to how much the quilt goes for. The classes for my Victorian Stitchery retreat are about 3/4 full and I am really excited about that event in the fall. While in New York I really want to see the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. I am not sure about Ground Zero, I have heard there is really nothing to see there quite yet but..well we will see. Our hotel is right on Times Square and that will probably be quite an experience. I will post pictures when I get back.

See you later,

Val

Crazy Quilt Cross

With the MCC coming up soon, it reminds me of the wallhanging that I donated last year. I have made two of these and still do not own one! For those of you new to my blog, I thought I would post another picture of it! The first one I made with a friend of mine and it sold for $750.00.
Wow! Will try to post more of the new projects that I am doing this spring at my shop in the next few days. The Lily of the Valley block that I posted has had an overwhelming response and I have ended up make three separate classes out of it so the classes wouldn't be so crowded. The Victorian Stitchery retreat is coming along and all of the classes are about 3/4 full.

See you later,

Val

Victorian Stitchery Retreat

This week I have sent out around 120 invitations to a Victorian Stitchery Retreat that I am hosting. I am very excited about this retreat. For the past two years I have hosted Carole Samples and both times everyone had a wonderful time. This year I am going to host a larger retreat. The teachers for the retreat will be Carole Samples, Judith Montano and Betty Pillsbury. The retreat will be here in Wichita, Kansas November 6, 7, and 8th. The classes are already 1/2 full but if you are interested, you may email me for more info. I can hardly wait for the retreat to come!

See you later,

Val

Return of Happiness

I don't usually post to many things that I am teaching currently, but I really like this project. It is a square that I am teaching this spring. It is a lily of the valley square. Lily of the valley meant a return of happiness to the victorian women. I was inspired to do this block, because of the lily of the valley trim and button that I had purchased from Susan Clarke.

See you later,

Val

MCC Quilt is Done and More to the Story!

Well, the journey with our MCC crazy quilt for 2008 is almost done. It has been quite a week for me and finally I have time to tell you about it. I decided we needed a calendar for this quilt since we are giving it away to charity and we probably won't ever see it again. The members of the group who have seen the quilt completed have been quite moved. It is just beautiful! Last week our group was contacted by some women on the MCC team in charge of the quilt sale. This year is the 40th anniversary of the MCC sale and they had already chosen a traditional quilt to commemorate it. When they saw the pictures of the crazy quilt that we are making on my blog, they decided that our crazy quilt would be chosen as a non-traditional quilt to commemorate the 40th anniversary. To say I was moved even to tears was an understatement. For me this quilt was just something I have wanted to do for several years. The 7 of us became closer through this experience since the quilt was done as a round robin. For me the quilt was done to help MCC and give God the glory. The quilt will be auctioned in April at the sale in Hutchinson, KS.

Back to my calendar story. I didn't know that getting nice pictures of a crazy quilt to publish was a task. I had a couple of friends try to take pictures and even with using Photoshop they were marginal at best. So...last Thursday, there was a bad storm in Wichita, and it occurred to me that the local professional photography place..would not be very busy! Sure enough, I had 4 photographers helping me for over an hour. The pictures are beautiful! The proceeds from the calendar are going to help us make another crazy quilt for 2009. You may purchase these calendars from my website at www.valeriebothell.com