MHS Class of 1959 - 50th Class Reunion

Last weekend was the 50th class reunion for the Muscatine High School class of 1959 in Muscatine, Iowa. Wayne and I attended the festivities on Friday and Saturday evenings, and in between, visited members of our families who still live in the area.

Friday evening, September 25, 2009, was supposed to be a tailgate party at the MHS football game...but heavy rain soaked the tent so Plan B was to hold it at the Button Factory, which graciously gave us the second floor of their restaurant.

I took photographs both evenings, and I'll share them here on my Blog. I was able to get most names from the name tags, but I'm sorry that I don't know who everyone is. Wayne graduated four years before me...so this group had graduated before I was even in high school...they were MUCH order....GRIN

You can click on the photos to see them larger, and you can right click to print or save the photographs.

If you know the names of the people in these photos, send them to me and I'll update my Blog to identify those whose names are missing. You can send them to me at: bonniewayne@bellsouth.net










Danny & Suzanne Trask



Jerry Schreurs

There are two more posts from the Friday evening festivities...read on.

More MHS - Class of 1959 - 50th Class Reunion

More Photos from the MHS Class of 1959 Class Reunion - Friday evening



Carol Lichtenwald, Connie Jamison



Mike & Elaine Rehbehn, Dave Sywassink



Bob & Juli Wagner



Sharon & Ray Miller



Phil & Mary Chalups



Brenda & Mike Day



Judy Ware, Joni Axel

Look for more photos in the next post.

More MHS Class of 1959 Reunion

More Photos from Friday Evening at the MHS 1959 Class Reunion


Gary Kissell, Dennis Roth



Looks like a serious discussion here. Dave Barton (in red), Gary Kissell



Notice the purple and gold table cloths...



Groups visiting



Gary Diercks, Bill Schmidt, Karen Diercks



Bruce Hildebrandt & Wayne Browning



Alice Shepard



Those who attended moved around the room to get reacquainted. Karen Diercks provided the football mums for the women. Thanks Karen!

Taping The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims

Here are some photos of my trip to Colorado for the taping of The Quilt Show with Alex and Ricky. My program will be aired sometime in early 2010.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Cookbook was just delivered!

Several years ago Mom suggested that we do a family cookbook. Everyone (guys and gals) in our family cooks, and we're pretty good at it too. So last year I decided that would be the Christmas present to everyone from Wayne and me. We didn't get it done in time for Christmas, but we did have the first draft of all of the recipes done when we went home for the holidays. It took me a while longer to proof it, and make the corrections. I had typed the recipes in online so I only needed to finish the personal pages for the front of the book.

My sister, Marcia, suggested that I use one of the photos I have taken for the cover. We ended up using one with pink dogwoods - I take dogwood photos every spring for us to use as graphics in materials for our April AQS Quilt Show.


Lynda Smith, one of our great graphic artists at AQS, helped me format the photos and do the artwork on them. I shipped off those pages, and saw the proof in early August. The UPS man just delivered me three big boxes of cookbooks - and the other half of them should be arriving at Mom's today too. And so, now Cooking with the Kirklands is all printed!


Here are a couple sample pages of recipes in the cookbook. There are 300 recipes in the cookbook with a spiral binding to lay flat, plus there are an index and other helpful pages in the back, including napkin folding, substitution charts, food quantities, quick fixes, and even an order form for ordering more copies.

We will have some cookbooks left over to sell. If you would like a copy, they are $15 plus $3 shipping. If you would like a copy, send an e-mail to: bbquilter@gmail.com and I'll send you my address for sending a check/money order.

Bonnie B - editor of Cooking with the Kirklands

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig

Last week Terry Guill, our Director of Show Operations, and I went to Des Moines for a planning meeting for our AQS Quilt Expo that will be held October 28 - 31 at the Iowa Events Center. After finishing up two days of meetings, we spent Friday evening at the Iowa State Fair. Terry had never been to the state fair...so this Iowa girl got to show him the sites that are not to be missed, and of course, we had to eat fair food too.

Hope you enjoy the photos I took of our visit to the Iowa State Fair 2009.

Make a Smilebox postcard

AQS Grows Again!

If you haven't heard yet, AQS is growing again. Below is the press release that went out on Thursday about the new AQS Quilt Show & Contest in Lancaster, PA, March 24 - 27, 2010.


AQS Announces New Show for 2010
Lancaster Pennsylvania Becomes 4th AQS Show
by Bonnie Browning, Show Director


Paducah, Kentucky – August 20, 2009: Today AQS President Meredith Schroeder announced plans for the American Quilter’s Society (AQS) to hold a fourth quilt show in 2010.

AQS will produce a new show in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 24 – 27, 2010, at the new Lancaster County Convention Center. The AQS Quilt Show & Contest – Lancaster will feature a quilt contest with $44,000 in cash awards. A special category in the contest is Grand Geometrics – Created the Amish Way. “We are pleased to bring an AQS Quilt Show to Lancaster and the southeastern Pennsylvania area, and to provide another opportunity for quilters to enter our contests and be recognized for their artistry,” stated Schroeder. AQS has signed a three-year agreement to hold this event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

“We’re thrilled at the prospect of welcoming the American Quilter’s Society (AQS) and one of this country’s top quilting shows to the new Lancaster County Convention Center (LCCC),” remarked Josh Nowak, director of sales & marketing with the LCCC.

“We can’t think of a better setting for the AQS Quilt Show & Contest than Lancaster County – home to a rich quilting heritage within our Amish community, and where this art form continues to thrive today,” said Christopher Barrett, president and CEO of the PA Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau. “The 2010 AQS Quilt Show presents an undeniably alluring opportunity for local and national quilters alike to share their creative process and outcomes, in a setting recognized worldwide for its beautifully manicured quilt of farms and fields.”

AQS also holds events in Paducah, Kentucky (pending for 2010); Knoxville, Tennessee (July 14 – 17, 2010); and Des Moines, Iowa (October 6 – 9, 2010).

Contest rules are available on the AQS Web site, www.AmericanQuilter.com. Registration guides for each show will be available online as soon as they are completed. To order a printed registration guide, send $2.00 for each guide to: AQS, Attn: (name of show) Registration Guide, PO Box 3290, Paducah, KY 42002-3290.

In addition to the AQS Web site and the AQS Blogs (AQS Quilt News, AQS Publishing, and American Quilter magazine), quilters can now become a fan of AQS on Facebook, and follow AQS on Twitter. The AQS quilting community grows again!

For lodging and general information on American Quilter’s Society shows, go to www.AmericanQuilter.com, or call 270-898-7903. Tour groups can contact Marcelle Cashon or Laura Davis for information on booking charter tours by calling 270-898-7903.

222nd Aviation Battalion Reunion - Gettysburg, PA

Wayne and I went from one reunion to the other. First we went to Iowa for my class reunion, and then on to Pennsylvania for his Army reunion with the guys he was stationed in Viet Nam with in the late 1960's.





We visited Gettysburg, and had a great guide on our bus tour. He almost had us believing the soldiers would be marching through the trees. Then there was a walking tour where everyone heard all about Sadie...I'm still waiting for the rest of that story. Herb, you didn't finish the story. GRIN



This is the Army Vets with their spouses who attended the reunion.



These fellows were in the 222nd Aviation Battalion stationed in Vung Tau, Viet Nam; Col. Louise Terrell (center of front row) was the commander of the 222nd in Ft. Eustis, VA.

46th Class Reunion - Saturday Evening Dinner

Here are more photos using Smilebox. I didn't know who all of the spouses or significant others were...so in some places I just named our classmate. Sorry that I didn't meet everyone to include all of the names. Hope you enjoy it!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Saturday Night Dinner at my Class Reunion

The class of 1963 who attended the 46th Class Reunion at the Holiday Inn, Muscatine, Iowa.


Bernita stops to say hello to Wayne Browning.


Bernita...aka Bernie Coder, our DJ opened the evening by visiting with some of our classmates and spouses. This was his best side. How about those boots?

I have a lot more photos and will share them when I have more time to play with the photos and get them on my Blog.

I hope everyone enjoyed being together again like Wayne and I did. Keep those e-mails coming; it was certainly fun to read what everyone has been doing. Hope to see you all at our 50th reunion, schedule for September 14, 2013.

Saturday Lunch at the Button Factory with Friends

A lunch with classmates at the Button Factory was followed by a trip around town to take photos on the riverfront by the Clamdigger statute, in front of our Muscatine High School (now Central Middle School), and at the Weed Park lagoon.

I don't have time right now to add all of the names...but will come back and do that when I get back home.


The island at Week Park lagoon.



Left, standing: Bonnie Kirkland, Martha Beveridge
Seated: Pat Alternbernd, Penny Fuhlman, Chris Godeke, Barbara Thomas, Sussan Schuessler
Right, standing: Janet Day



Our Muscatine High School, now Central Middle School



In front of the Clamdigger statute on the riverfront:
Bonnie Kirkland, Pat Altenbernd, Martha Beveridge, Chris Godeke, Penny Fuhlman, Janet Day, Barbara Thomas



In front of The Button Factory Restaurant where we enjoyed lunch together:
Janet Day, Sussan Schuessler, Barbara Thomas, Pat Alternbernd, Bonnie Kirkland, Penny Fuhlman, Martha Beveridge, Chris Godeke

The Reunion Begins...

The 46th reunion of the Muscatine High School of 1963 began last night with a drop-in gathering in the bar at the Holiday Inn. It was easy to recognize some of our classmates...others we had to ask "who are you?"

Here are a few snapshots. I was able to get a photo of most of those who were there.

Watch for more photos after tonight's main event.



L to R: Martha Beveridge, Kathy TeStrake, Mike Rogers



L ro R: Doug Buchele, Carol Bunn, Diana Collins, Kathy Holtz, Gini VanZandt, Dottie Beranek, Mike Rogers



L to R: Julia Barnard, Maggie Teraberry, Carol Bunn, Barb Haveman Felton, Doug Felton



L to R: Nancy Peters, Tom Schauland, Gini VanZandt, Doug Buchele



L t R: Kathy TeStrake, Ron Miller, Karen Buekenhorst


Watch for more to come.

Hi Deanna!

Today I had an e-mail from one of my closest high school buddies, Deanna Tumey. She was maid of honor at our wedding. We had lost touch over the years.

We are having our 46th class reunion next month so some of our classmates are busy trying to track down those they haven't heard from. So now we are reconnected. Deanna has retired to Cape Cod - now I have a really good excuse for a fall vacation out that direction.... And she didn't know that we are living in Paducah, Kentucky, and that I was a quilter. But she does now.

We talked more than an hour and I can't wait for our next phone call.

Deanna, I bet you never thought you would be subject of one of my Blogs.

Bonnie B

The Squirrel Chase

We have a lot of baby squirrels in our yard now...so Tuffy is busy patrolling our property. He knows what belongs and what doesn't, and he tries to keep the "invaders" away.

Yesterday, he was letting the young squirrels know that this was his territory.


Okay, so where did he go?


I know he went this way...


And the chase was on, and Tuffy took off up the tree after the squirrel. Of course the squirrel got away - went to a higher branch and sat and chattered to Tuffy for several minutes. Don't you wonder if Tuffy understood that message?

Red, White and Blue Quilts

I had no idea that I had so many red, white, and blue quilts until I decided to show some of them to you. Several of these quilts came from quilts that were auctioned after 9/11 and AQS asked quilters to make blocks and quilts to be auctioned off to raise funds for those affected in New York. I purchased several on eBay at that auction.

I hope you enjoy seeing my quilts and I've sprinkled in some of the patriotic designs that I included in my pattern book called Designs on Freedom, published by the American Quilter's Society.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook