MCC Sale Hutchinson Kansas

Our Valentine Crazy Quilt for the MCC sale was sold last Saturday. Here is a picture of the quilt on display before it was auctioned off. It was hard to get a picture as people were crowding around it taking pictures and just looking at it! One person came from Tyler, Texas just to buy it! The MCC sale is always a fun day even if you aren't there to see a quilt get auctioned off. It is held at the Kansas State Fair grounds and there is plenty of food to buy. There are zweibach, pies, verenika, german sausage. You name it, it is there to buy and eat. We got there around 8:15 and the auction started at 8:45. Our quilt had a late number, so it didn't auction until around 2:30.

Here is a picture of the crowds right before our quilt auctioned. When they started, I think about 5 people immediately began bidding and within seconds, it was at $1,000! The quilt sold for $1750 and we were thrilled. Many of the quilts went for a much lower price than usual, probably due to the economy. We were also thrilled to meet the person who purchased the quilt. She is a crazy quilter and lives about 45 minutes away!

Here is a picture of our quilt as they auctioned it off. They put the quilt on a bed and rotate it around so everyone can see it. Stayed tuned as next week I will be starting next year's quilt which will have a pansy theme.

Oh, I will be teaching in Omaha, Nebraska next week. If you are interested and live close by, let me know, I think they have a couple of openings.

Talk to you later,

So Very Thankful and a bit of Eye Candy

So sorry I haven't posted for awhile. This week I had a bit of a scare. I don't usually share alot of personal stuff, but here I go. I was talking on the phone to a friend and I saw a bright flash of light in my eye. I didn't really think too much about it. It happened again a couple of days later when I was shoe shopping and I still didn't think too much about it. About a week later, I kept seeing floaters in my eye and I was due for an eye exam anyway, so away I went.

So I tell my eye doctor that I am seeing floaters. He quietly says, "Did you see a flash of light?", "Yes". He then explains to me what might have happened. For those of you who don't know me really well, I am truly a science geek inside even though I am a crazy quilt teacher! I have a degree in both biology and chemistry and I am 100% understanding what he is saying to me including the part about maybe going blind in that eye. There were two possible places in my eye that I might have torn. One place, no big deal but floaters for the rest of your life. The other place, the retinal wall requires surgery to keep your sight. Whoa! I also have a weak stomach and when he said that, I had a total panic attack! I went home and prayed about it...then I went back the next day to get my eyes dilated to see what exactly had happened to my eye. I am happy to report that the news was even better than expected and I had torn nothing! I am very, very thankful for that! God was good to me beyond my expectations! Thank you to my dear friends and husband who prayed for me!

Now, for some more fun things! The final posting of pictures of the MCC Crazy Quilt. We decided to name it a Victorian Valentine Crazy Quilt. The pictures I am posting are of the large center square that measured 20 x 30. I was so, so disappointed. I took pictures of the quilt as we inside tied it, and I was going to do a small tutorial on how to do that. I went to download the pictures from that day and they simply are not on the memory card. Not real sure what happened. If you look back on my blog, about two years ago, I have a tutorial when we inside tied the first MCC Crazy Quilt we donated.

Talk to you later,

MCC Squares 12 through 14

Here are the final three squares that surround the large 20 x 30 center of our MCC Valentine Crazy Quilt. We sewed some of the sashing around the center last Wednesday and will finish up next week. On March 17, we are scheduled with my quilting group to inside tie the quilt. I'll take pictures as we do it! I a few days, I'll post what the large center section looks like. It is really beautiful and I will be anxious to see who buys this quilt at the MCC auction in Hutchinson in April. Since MCC is usually one of the first organizations to appear at natural disasters, I am always happy to donate to them. I have been toying with naming the quilt Hearts of Haiti, but I haven't talked to the other members of our group to see what they think.

Thank you to all of the ladies who have helped with this quilt, they did a large majority of this quilt and spent many hours of dedicated work. They are all very talented and I feel very honored to know all of them. Many thanks to Miss Carole Samples for her inspiration and ideas for this crazy quilt also.

TTYL,

MCC Squares 11 of them!

I have received 11 of the 14 squares that belong to our MCC Valentine quilt for this year. Some of these I might of already shown you, but I am so proud of our group of talented ladies who have worked on these squares. Enjoy all the eye candy and I'll post the large center piece and the three additional squares when I have them done.

Talk to you later,

New Online Class!

Several years ago, I offered some classes on adapting traditional crazy quilt stitches to become beaded crazy quilt stitches. The class decided to keep going until we had 4 squares done with all the crazy quilt stitches and motifs I could think of at the time. I have certainly thought of more since then! I have decided that I would like to offer this class online. Beginning February 1 enrollment will begin and the class will start February 16. For more information on the class, you may go to my website, www.valeriebothell.com. Pictured above is the square I made using all of the stitches that will be taught in the class. Hope some of you will enroll in this class!

TTYL,

Center of the MCC Valentine Quilt

I am finally posting the large center block for our MCC Valentine quilt. I have been working on it for weeks because I kind of felt like it wasn't going to get done on time. Just like everything else, I need a break from it and I am going to send it to another member of our group today. I really love this quilt and I am going to offer it as a class this spring. Since there are 14 squares surrounding it, it may take a couple of years to do the class. I think it will be so worth it!

TTYL,

The Happiness Project

I was watching the Today Show this morning and they had a guest on who really caught my attention. She had written a book called, The Happiness Project. The general idea I had from the interview was to live for the moment and do what makes you happy. For me, that would be crazy quilting. For me crazy quilting is more than a hobby, it is a way of life. I stitch everyday. When things are bothering me, I stitch. When I am happy, I stitch. Crazy quilting extends way beyond just stitching. It is a way of bonding with others that you may have never known if you didn't crazy quilt. For me it has opened up a world I didn't even know existed.

Why don't you leave me a comment about how crazy quilting has made you happy?

The embroidery pictured above is from another spring project I am working on. If you would like the pattern for it, you may go to my website and it will be listed under freebies. My website is www.valeriebothell.com.

TTYL,