Steppin' out with Bonnie Allen

I met Bonnie last summer in Elizabeth Barton's dyeing/art quilt class early in July. Bonnie had taken a course in dyeing with Elizabeth before and knew what to expect from the class. We had no idea, though, how creative Bonnie could be with low-water immersion dyeing techniques and what visions she could capture in planning her quilt.


Over the fall and winter she and I kept in touch; in Georgia, I was making a large quilt for a friend from hand dyed fabrics and in Indiana she was dyeing with ice, and using the photographs she had taken at Arrowmont to make wonderful notecards and constructing one of a kind purses with the hand dyed scraps we just can't discard. This spring she sent me some photographs of her garden stepping stones made with stained glass and concrete. She tumbles and grinds the glass so that the mosaics are not only beautiful but also safe to step on without cutting feet.


She's developed several techniques to enhance the appearance and longevity of the stones and she's building a market in Evansville for her one of a kind designs. She donated a group of her stones to a fundraising auction at her church and was astonished and pleased to find that they sold for nearly a thousand dollars.


Bonnie will be returning to Arrowmont this year and when she does, she'll be bringing a stone or two for the Art for Art's Sake Auction in September. If you can attend the event in Gatlinburg, you might just be fortunate enough to have the winning bid on one of her artworks for your garden!