Retreat Update

Camp Garner Creek Retreat Center

Wednesday was the last full day of retreat.  What I envisioned being a quick project took all day.  Does that ever happen to you?

Blocks Before

I was "Playing with Blocks."  I discovered that the extra strips I thought were designated for more blocks were not the proper size, thus making it necessary to work with the finished blocks on hand.  After determining that the proportion of length to width was off, I removed the bottom block from each row and added them to the right side.  It's still a small quilt, but will be OK for a class sample and ultimately a baby quilt.

Blocks Mid-way

So I merrily began sewing the rows of blocks together, forgetting that I needed to add the top and bottom filler triangles before sewing the rows together.  HALT the machine!  A village was assembled and we jointly agreed on the best choice of available fabrics for the filler triangles and inner border.  The rest of the day was spent unsewing a bit at each end to accommodate the filler triangles. In the process I stretched the you-know-what out of those end blocks.


Even though another critical project was waiting, I didn't want to pack the blocks away without stabilizing the bias edges.  On went the inner borders.  Here's where it stands till I can pull an appropriate border from my stash.

Blocks with first border

The remainder of the night was spent making the back for Sand and Surf (a/k/a Bob and Weave) using John Flynn's formula for getting a lot out of not enough fabric.  Check back Friday for a play-by-play account of the process.  But just to confirm that it works:

Sand and Surf on Finished Back

I had much needed assistance from Donna M who had spent her whole day wrangling the border on Orca Bay.

Donna's Orca Bay

Due to illness and other emergencies, we had a small group at retreat this time.  Nevertheless, a good time was had by all.