Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
http://www.quiltville.com
About
the Author
Bonnie K. Hunter is passionate about quilting, focusing mainly on scrap quilts with the simple feeling of “making do.” She started her love affair with quilting in a home economics class her senior year of high school in 1980 and has never looked back.
Before quilting became her full time career, Bonnie was the owner and designer of “Needle In A Haystack!!” creating over 70 patterns for dolls and stuffed animals with a country primitive feel. Many of her designs were licensed through the Butterick Pattern Company, translated into 7 languages, and sold around the globe through fabric stores. Bonnie is also a licensed massage therapist, nationally certified in therapeutic massage and body work.
But quilting has always been Bonnie’s first love. She has been machine quilting for 19 years and professionally longarm machine quilting for the public for 13 years. She has been featured in magazines both for her quilt patterns and articles she has written on scrap management and using that stash to its full potential.
Bonnie is dedicated to continuing the traditions of quilting. She enjoys meeting with quilters, teaching workshops and lecturing to quilt guilds all over the USA, challenging quilters to break the rules, think outside the box, and find what brings them joy.
Catch up with Bonnie’s doings through her
extensive
website at Quiltville.com. You will find Quiltville’s calendar for
lectures and
workshops, tips and tricks, technique tutorials and a long list of free
quilt
patterns to help you dig into your scraps. From there, head over to
Quiltville.blogspot.com for Bonnie’s (almost) daily blog, Quiltville’s
Quips
& Snips. Her email list, Quiltvillechat@yahoogroups.com
has become a hot spot for mystery quilters with focus on
using scraps and stash.
When not traveling and teaching, she spends her time piecing scrap quilts, enjoying the peaceful reward of hand quilting as much as machine quilting, and loving life in her wooded surroundings in beautiful rural Wallburg, North Carolina. She and her husband, Dave, are the proud parents of two grown sons, Jason and Jeffrey. They round out their household with two dogs, Buddy and Sadie. Three studio cats, Oscar, Emmy and Chloe, keep Bonnie company while she designs, quilts and plays happily with her fabric.
Would you believe it's now 3 years since the last time I updated this bio? SO much has happened in those 3 years. If you keep up with my blog you may know most of my goings on. I've been keeping a blog, posting almost daily for over 3 years now. I think of it as my personal journal as well as a way to share with everyone a bit of what life is like here in Quiltville. So what's new since the last time I updated? I went to massage therapy school at Southeastern School of Neuromuscular and Massage Therapy in Columbia SC. It took me a year to finish,but I graduated as class valedictorian! I got my state license, and became nationally certified in therapeautic massage and bodywork. I started what I *thought* was going to be a part time massage practice, renting an office of my own and sharing expenses with 3 other therapists, but it GREW! And I loved it so much. I worked there at Northeast Massage Therapy in Columbia for 2 years, until this past February when the plant where my DH Dave was working ended it's contract and decided to relocate people to IOWA. We just didn't want to go to Iowa. I'm sure it's a great place, but our sons are in South Carolina, and we didn't want to be that far from them. We love the south east.
Dave was hired by Corning Cable Systems as plant controller here in Winston Salem,NC and he started his job December 2007. We didn't move until February 2008. Life has been so crazy since that I'm almost ashamed to say that I have not done any massage work, nor have I applied for my North Carolina License! I am keeping my South Carolina license and national certification current until I decide what to do with it. Something to fall back on, you know?
In the mean time, we have moved into a wonderful cottage with an acre and a half of land, our own woods and a creek, in beautiful rural Wallburg NC. Our younger son Jeff is now 18 and is attending classes at Forsyth Tech to get his GED (He didn't have enough credits to graduate when we moved here) and then plans on continuing his education there...in SOMETHING...it changes weekly. He loves North Carolina. I'm happy he came with us. I was worried that he wouldn't.
Jason, our oldest is now 24. He and his significant other, Kim are in Columbia, SC where Jason is working in the restaurant industry, and Kim is finishing up her nursing degree at USC. (Go Gamecocks!) They have a darling little home that they are enjoying fixing up while learning that real life is about endless bills (All those truck issues, right Jason??) and home fixer-uppers. They are happy and healthy and I love seeing how they interact with each other. It warms my heart to see them being so GOOD to one another.
My big news is, my first book is in the last stages of being published! "Scraps & Shirttails" is being published by Kansas City Star Quilts, and will be available on the shelves sometime around Sept 1st. I'm guessing that is like trying to project how long it will really take to get your kitchen remodeled, but that's the best I can go by. I hope it isn't my LAST book. It's been the most rewarding and excruciating thing I have been through. But it's worth it!
I am traveling all over the USA giving lectures and doing trunkshows and workshops. I love it SO much. This part of life is so good. I used to be so afraid to talk in front of groups of people. You know what? It gets easier! I still get really nervous before hand, but quilters are so great, the nervousness passes and we have the best time.
That should just about get you up to speed! Wow, what a whirlwind life is...but as my fave James Taylor says: "Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill. But since we're on our way down, we might as well enjoy the ride!" Sweet Baby James, you are so right, so right, and I'm enjoying it!
Update: June 2005
A round of re-introductions on a quilter's email list caused me to send in my contribution. So for those who are wondering about me....this short biography probably contains MORE than you want to know!
I was born January 23rd, 1962 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I never knew any relatives that quilted, tho I found out much later, in the past few years, that great-grandmothers and great-aunts were quilters. I am blessed to own two quilts that were made by my father's grandmother/great grandmother that were pieced and appliqued in the 1920's to 1930's. And a partially completed trip around the world top that was pieced by my mother's aunt (grandmother's sister) in the 1930's.
I learned this year that not only did life still CONTINUE at 40....but 40 went all too fast and I'll be facing 41 in 3 weeks...BRING IT ON!!! I'M READY!
I am married to DH Dave...for 21 years. Yes, I was a 19 yr old child bride!
We have 2 sons, Jason 19...who graduated highschool, thought he had enough parenting, enough schooling and decided to strike out on his own and make his way in the world. So far so good....he is learning he needs some sort of continuing education to make much more than minimum wage....and he hasn't come home begging for money yet, is meeting all his own expenses, has a full time job with full benefits....The big challenge will come when we move to SC in a couple weeks and he stays in Texas without us. He is sharing house rent with some friends, but is looking to move in with a different friend and share a 2 bdrm apartment...thinks less people will be less chaos...(he's right! I found that out when he moved out! *hehe*)
My other son Jeff, will be 13 in January and is in the 7th grade....Both kids are ADD/ADHD, and while I won't use that as an excuse or crutch, it has added additional parenting challenges. We switched Jeff's meds to adderol in August and it has made a WORLD of difference this year. He is a happy, typical teenager, all of a sudden preoccupied with grooming (2 showers a day? you gotta be KIDDING! MY KID?! Who woulda thunk it!) basketball, dirt bikes, and has been found with the occassional note from ....*gasp*.....girls!
DH is 42, and is the accounting supervisor, plant controller for Pioneer Frozen Foods, SC.....The parent company is CH Guenther mills of San Antonio...so he will be making trips back to TX quite often...He is an avid bike rider, both mountain and road bikes and loves to compete in triathalons. He completed Ironman Canada a few years ago....I'm not sure HOW he did it, or if he will ever do it again. I think once is enough with that one!
I'm a Long Arm quilter in my spare time..*hehe* And I love it.....I wanted something that I could do to be a stay at home mom while raising my boys. The teen years......I guess I always thought that they would need me around LESS by then, but I found it the opposite. Kids with too much freedom with mom not around is not a good combination! They needed direction and someone to be there to assist with homework and keep them on the right track (ADHD kids.....especially) and I needed a job where I didn't come home at 5 or 6, still have to do all the cleaning, cooking, housework AFTER a full time job.....and this fell into my lap. It's fulfilled SO much....from allowing me to stay home and work my job around my family, to providing me a creative outlet that *I* needed, to building my self esteem, to giving me something to throw my frustrations into, to putting me in contact with the greatest people in the world...quilters....it's really been multifaceted....
It's also a job that I am able to take with me whenever my DH gets transfered....and this will be the 3rd move in 3 1/2 yrs.... :c/ I told him we are STAYING PUT this time....I want Jeff to be able to graduate from highschool before we move again. It's a dream anyway....and I know that if we HAD to...if for some reason DH lost his job and we HAD to move to gain employment...I would do it...but if at all possible..I'm ready to put down some roots, and ready to do it in Columbia, SC!
Prior to quilting for the public I was a pattern designer....I had a line of approx 70 dolls/stuffed animals that I designed under the name "Needle in a Haystack". Several of these were licensed through the Butterick Pattern Company......After several years of doing this I was burned out, frazzled to the core, felt like I had no time with my kids/family and frankly couldn't come up with anything NEW that didn't look like it had already been done before. This was when the market really started getting saturated by the 'made in china' handcrafted dolls and animals that you can get so cheap at walmart, etc.......the market was on a downturn as far as craftshows, made in america handcrafts were going....and that is when I decided to bail on the pattern end of things and put my heart back into my first love, quilting.
I have been quilting since I was a senior in highschool. I would have to say that I am a traditionalist when it comes to my quilts, tho I enjoy quilting all kinds of quilts, and some have been pretty wild! When I piece, I tend to go for strong geometric patterns with traditional names with high contrast in my color choices. I love antique quilts....Scrap quilts being my favorite. Quilts from the 1800's always catch my eye first.....to me they are timeless....I don't do many wall hangings...most of my quilts seem to be bed sized....I guess my rationalization is that I have SO MUCH FABRIC....bigger quilts use up more...*LOL*
Of
course, at this
rate I'll never run out of
fabric, but
I keep trying!
Questions
or Comments? I would love to hear from you!! © Bonnie K Hunter & Quiltville.com 1997-2011 All Rights Reserved. No part may be used, copied, sold, distributed or otherwise
altered without express written permission from the author/webmaster.