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Be sure to check out my Blog:
You'll find my latest news there...and lots of photos too.
| Ice Storm 2009 - Backyard |
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March 27, 2009: After the big ice storm in January, we are still picking up sticks in our yard. My sister Karen and her
son Mike came down to help - what a blessing. Wayne and I would have been picking up sticks all summer to clean up the mess
we had. We ended up with 25 huges piles of sticks in the backyard alone. We are burning those piles. More piles in the front
yard will be picked up by the county contractors. We had way too much to haul it all to the front. If we had moved it all
there, you would not be able to see our house for all of the debris.
October 27:
There never seem to be enough hours in the day. I spent this past weekend working on the classes for the Paducah show.
We will be celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Annual AQS Quilt Show & Contest in Paducah in 2009...so we are preparing
some special events for the quilters who come from all over the world to this show.
And, in between working on the shows, I am working on another book - this will be my 10th book on quilting. I hope to
get some quilt tops made this fall and through the holidays when I have some vacation planned.
We just visited our families in Iowa on our way home from the Des Moines AQS Quilt Expo in October, so plan to spend
the holidays here at home. After such a busy year - the first year that AQS has done three shows - it will be nice to spend
some time off here at home...and in my jammies if I want.
June 29: The Latest News....
AQS announced on Friday that the 25th Annual AQS Quilt Show & Contest will again be held in Paducah, Kentucky. The
issue of the facilities has taken a step in the right direction with the complete remodeling of the Executive Inn by the new
owners and management firm, Space Coast Hospitality Management. They have contracted with A & K Construction of Paducah
as the construction firm to handle the remodel. In addition, the City of Paducah has agreed to remodel the Julian M. Carroll
Convention Center to the same level as the hotel. All of the hotel rooms and the remodeling of the convention center will
be completed in time for the 2009 AQS Quilt Show. There will be more outside construction and the new check-in area for
the hotel that will begin as soon as the show is over in 2009 with a 2010 completion date.
The hotel has started distributing the furnishings in the rooms to local charity groups. The section of the hotel closest
to the convention center has been shut down so they can systematically tear apart and renovate the rooms in an orderly manner.
Won't it be fun to see this hotel (soon to be a Crowne Plaza) completely remodeled?! And I know we are all saying - it's
about time.
2009 will be an exciting year as AQS celebrates its 25th anniversary. All of the past Best of Show winners have been
invited to be guests at the show. Many of them will be teaching so you can all learn those techniques that have helped make
them some of the best quilters in the world!
The process for requesting rooms at the Executive Inn will be placed on the AQS Web site, www.AmericanQuilter.com as soon as it is available to us. The new owners are in the process of revamping the reservation system and are
not yet ready to handle reservations for the show.
March 22:
We are just one month away from opening day of the 24th AQS Quilt Show
here in Paducah...so you know that my days are just crazy. Right now we are working hard on all of the materials that need
to go to the printer.
Check out my Blog: http://bonniebrowningblog.blogspot.com to see how high the Ohio River is. I've been posting my photos on my Blog
so be sure to bookmark it and check back often. If you haven't seen my photos from Bali, click on January in the
right column to see how much fun Wayne and I had there.
I'm starting on my next book...have just been doing background gathering so far. It
should be a 2009 release. More on the book later.
Bonnie B
| Christmas Day Sunset - Davenport, Iowa |
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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
from Bonnie & Wayne Browning
I don't make New Year's resolutions...but if I did it would be to get more quilting done in 2008. I'm working on a new
book, so will be doing some new projects for that, but also hope to sew some quilts that I just want to make. Do you ever
get like that? I really want to make a quilt that uses some of those large floral prints, and I'm inspired from our trip to
Bali to make a quilt combining batiks and other fabrics - maybe I should be making a commemorative quilt of our trip and include
some of the great photos that we took while we were there.
Whatever you sew, I hope that you enjoy doing it. Make it fun, not work. Try some of those new techniques and don't be
discouraged if they don't turn out. That's just part of trying new things. Some of them work beautifully and others - well,
you can say you tried it.
If it is cold and snowy where you are, sit down and sew something to keep you and your family warm -- Make a Quilt!
Happy New Year!
Bonnie
Go to Bonnie's Blog to see many more photos of Bali and some descriptions of each one.
Be sure to vote in Bonnie's poll on the Blog too. 01.12.08
Click here to see photographs from our trip to Bali, November 2007.
| Sox checks out the fallen tree from the street. |
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| While Tuffy plays in the fallen tree. |
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Tokyo, Japan
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| Bonnie and Her Imperial Highness Princess Akishinonomiya tour the quilt show |
One of the highlights of my trip to the 2002 Tokyo International Great Quilt
Festival was participating in the Opening Ceremony and afterward getting to show Her Imperial Highness Princess Akishinonomiya through
the show. Can you imagine a quilt show with 245,000 attendees? That's
the number of people that came to the Tokyo Dome for this show.
Also in the photo: Mrs. Baker, wife of U.S. Ambassador Howard Baker, visits with some of
the featured Japanese quilt artists. Mrs. Baker invited 25 of the Americans who were attending the show to the Ambassador's
residence for wine & cheese one evening. Ambassador Baker gave us a brief history of the residence. They were most
gracious hosts -- it was like a touch of home for all of us.
And more trips to Japan...
Bonnie was invited back to Tokyo in November 2002 to judge the 2003 Tokyo International
Great Quilt Festival. Hubby Wayne went along -- what a wonderful trip it was. Then Bonnie went back to Tokyo in January 2003
for the Quilt Festival, where she participated in the Opening and Awards Ceremonies.
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