Category Archives: Bonnie Hunter

Quilt Finish: Hawk’s Nest

44 Replies

Yahoo…I have a quilt finish.  It’s a quilt that was on my bucket list to make.  I couldn’t be happier that it’s done and as far as I’m concerned, it’s the perfect fall quilt.

The quilt is Hawk’s Nest by Bonnie Hunter.  You can find it in her book Scraps and Shirttails book two.  (Here is a link)


My personal opinion is that this is my favorite of all of her books…well I love String Fling too (I made EVERY quilt in that book)!!

For years I’ve been collecting bonus triangles from other quilts I’ve made and all of them were put into this quilt!!   If you need a little explanation of what a bonus triangle is, I did a blog post about that HERE.  Follow the link and you can read about bonus triangles.

Many of the bonus triangles came from making the flying geese from this quilt.  It’s another Bonnie Hunter quilt called Sante Fe String Star.

Santa-Fe-String-Star-19

Read about it HERE.  Every flying geese block gave me two bonus triangles.  They add up!!

Here is the picture from the book of Hawk’s Nest.

Stash Report | Jo's Country Junction

When I was picking fabric for the project I tried to lean towards tans, greens, browns, and reds for the hourglass portion of the quilt…

Many of my bonus triangles were blues and pinks…I still used them.  After all, part of my reason for making this quilt was to use up as many bonus triangles as I could.


I used my hook and bump edge to edge quilting for the motif.  You can watch a video on how to do that HERE.

I did it smaller than I usually do.  I’m kind of on a roll with using this motif and making it smaller.


I used an Indian corn fabric for the backing.  A blog reader sent it in a box of goodies.  I ended up picking out a backing fabric here that I had, put it in the box I’ll send out for charity, and kept this backing fabric instead.  It seemed perfect for this quilt.  Thanks so much for the backing!

The original quilt was in a 6 x 7 layout.  I made extra blocks and ended up with a 7 x 7 layout.  I was tempted to make it bigger but didn’t want to mess with making the border bigger.


Isn’t the border something??  It’s what attracted me to this quilt from the very beginning.

I bound the quilt with the same cheddar fabric that I used for the rest of the quilt.  I was going to do a brown but I’ve kind of changed my binding preference.  Previously I always liked the binding to be dark and frame the quilt…my thoughts on that aren’t always the same anymore.  I’ve used colors for the binding I previously wouldn’t have used.


I think it worked to do the cheddar colored binding.


Of course, no quilt is complete without a Rosie picture….

I tossed the quilt on the couch and Rosie jumped right up there and posed.


She blends perfectly with the quilt!!

When I was lamenting about all of the UFO quilts I had, a reader offered to help me finish them.  It was so sweet of her…but I would have hated missing out on making this one. I just love it!  Yes, I’m keeping it.  Wouldn’t you??  I don’t think anyone would love it more than I do.

Thanks for the great design Bonnie!!  It was a winner.

Ask Jo: Cutting Up Scraps

29 Replies

A while ago I did a little blurb about how I was cutting up scraps.  It was just something simple in the middle of a post about my sewing room.  I was surprised when I got so many comments and questions about it.  Today I’m expanding and writing more.  Hopefully in the writing I will answer all the comments that came my way.

Before I get started I do want to say that I use Bonnie Hunter’s Scrap User’s System for keep my scraps.  You can learn more about that here.

Here is the tote that needs to get trimmed into usable pieces.


In no real order I garb pieces and I stack them like this.  The largest on the bottom, graduated smaller pieces on the tops.  I layer about 6-8 to a cut.
For the example above the longer bottom pieces aren’t folded, the top two are.

I’ve been wanting to add to my 2″ bucket.  For me, I use 2″ and 2 1/2″ strips most often.  Today when given a choice, I plan to cut more 2″ strips than any other size.

I do an edge cut to start so all the edges are even.
Next I made the 2″ cut….


I reposition my ruler and make another 2″ cut.

Now, the top purple fabric is used up.  I measure the top piece.  It’s not 4″ so I can’t make two 2″ cuts.  
I end up opting to take two 1 1/2″ cuts.  It was the best use of the fabric as I only had less than 3 1/2″ I was working with…because remember, I only cut according to the top piece of fabric.

Now the top piece of fabric is gone.  The best way to use up this last bit is to make a 2″ cut…and I do.
I’ll do another batch so you get the hang of it…

I have graduated layers ready to cut.


I square up the edge and start thinking about what the best cuts are.  I start by measuring the top piece.
It’s looks to be about 4 1/2″.  I take two 2″ cuts.  
I pull the leftover scrap off.
Lucky me…I can squeeze a 1 1/2″ stip off next.  
…and another 1 1/2″ cut.  That made the best use of the fabric.Now hmmm.  What do I want to do with this next cut.  The top fabric is 3 1/2″ wide.  I could make a 3 1/2″ cut or I could or I could make a 2″ cut and then an 1 1/2″ cut.  It doesn’t matter.

The top piece is gone and I’m left with this…I ended up stripping this into 2″ pieces but I could have done anything with it.  I opted for 2″ as remember, that was the size I was focusing on.
The next piece in the box was this… Continue reading →

Ask Jo: Kelli’s Cheddar Bow Tie

16 Replies

Every so often questions and comments come from readers that I think others would like to hear my response to.  That’s when I feature them on the blog.  This is one of those days.

Last week I showed you Kelli’s Cheddar Bow Tie quilt.

Following that I got several people wondering about the layout and more about the quilt.  I thought I’d write a little more about it.

First off, this quilt started as a Bonnie Hunter Challenge quilt.  Each year Bonnie does a challenge quilt starting in the summer and ending the next summer.  She encourages people to construct a quilt as a leader and ender project.  You can read more about leaders and enders here.

In 2011 her challenge was the bow tie block.  You can read more about the challenge and get the instructions on how to make the bow time block HERE.

Kelli and I both jumped on board to make the cute little bow tie blocks.  Kelli opted to use many different cheddar colored fabrics to make her quilt.  Me, I used all the same cheddar color.

To make this quilt, she made 1024 cheddar bow tie blocks.  Oh my.

After Kelli got the individual bow ties made she sewed them into blocks like the one you see below.  You would need 256 of the blocks below.


From there, she sewed them into a larger block.  This is the setting she used…. Continue reading →