Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Final Retreat Results

The very first thing that I worked on at the retreat was my Double Delight, the fourth mystery by Bonnie Hunter. I had all the blocks made, and the setting triangles cut, so I just had to sew all the rows together. I had pieced a few of the setting triangles, and now that I see them in the final piece, a couple will have to be switched out since the piecing really shows on the polka dots and is distracting. Luckily I have a few large enough pink fabrics to do that, once I get my machine set up again at home.

People at the retreat had an interesting reaction to this quilt top. They LIKE it, and then say they are surprised they like it because the color combination is so unusual. They never would have thought that the cheddar yellow would go so well with the pinks. [But Bonnie says that this is an old combination, now gone out of use.]

The other top I managed to get together was a very quick one that I got off the internet. "Stashbuster Quilt" has very few pieces and is made from Fat Quarters. I had been given six FQs from the same line of fabrics, and I found six more to make this quilt. Each block has only five pieces and ends up being 16" square. Seet blocks 3 X 4. Very fast indeed.

So all in all I put together four tops on the retreat, finished my sample blocks for the Your Way Mystery, and I made a few leader-ender blocks for a future project. Now I need to find borders and backings for those tops, and quilt the little ones.

Dianne has offered to loan me a smaller machine for our monthlong trip to Florida, so I tried two out during the retreat, a Featherweight, and a Singer 301. Both worked very well. I have decided to borrow the Featherweight, mostly because it is a smaller package to fit into a crowded car.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Sunshine today!

Leftover chili I can serve for dinner

Charlie's first class on his Mac laptop

3 comments:

Nancy Anne said...

How odd! I wouldn't have said the polka dots would do that before I saw your quilt. They sure do distract, though. It is a beautiful quilt and you've done a terrific job. I can't wait to see it with the swapped triangles and the quilting!

Marit said...

Your mystery quilt turned out beautiful. I think the colors are cheerful in a traditional design, both fresh and timeless. You are very talented picking out fabric for these mystery quilts, you make them sing! I like the polkadot triangles, they look good in there, add to the playfullness. No need to remove them, unless you really want to. So thank you for sharing your pretty quilttop.

Helen in the UK said...

What a FANTASTIC version of the mystery quilt. Huge congrats on getting it finished to flimsey stage. Looks like you've been super-busy as the retreat too with lots of progress :)