Retreat Report

A day and half into retreat -- and it's been a productive time for me so far.

I arrived about noon, ate lunch, and settled in Monday afternoon.  The first order of business was trimming and binding Brite Irish Gran.  Even though I had brought several fabrics, I opted to use the back trimmings for the binding.  It's definitely bright!

Brite Irish Gran

Next up was the binding for the cruise quilt.  Again, most of the fabric I brought was rejected, but I managed to find something that would work.

Before heading to bed last night I put the final border on Bargello with a Twist.  I had tested the technique with some fabric I had on hand so this quilt ended up rather small.  Nevertheless, I think it is a nice size for a crib.  First thing this morning I cut the back and packed it away.

Bargello with a Twist

An empty project box is a beautiful thing!

On a roll -- or so I thought -- until I hit a number of snags today.  I had decided to substitute the piano key  border on True Blue (a Miss Rosie pattern) with a solid border, but the fabric I brought just wasn't right.  I did manage to get the inner border on before packing it back in the box.











Deciding it was time to work on something relatively new, I brought out Elegant Garden.  I had made the strip sets, cut the chunks, and made 4 sample blocks over a year ago.  Fortunately I had made a chart of where everything was supposed to go, but I had not recorded what my cryptic coding meant:  M-F, M-S, S-F, and S-S.  I studied on this mystery as I was making the remainder of the blocks (thank goodness I had pinned the chunks for each block together).  Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the sashing fabric so it went back in the box.



So, have you cracked the code?  M = multi-floral; first S = single-floral; F = flowers; second S = squiggles.  Aren't you glad you asked?

I'm Playing with Blocks tonight.  Stay tuned for further updates.