Made At Retreat

A real quick post today and mostly pictures. I think you will like the two quilt tops I made at last week's retreat. 

First on my to-do list was making the floral layer cake into a 9-Patch Garden. It went together as fast as one would expect; 3-inch squares make for a quick finish.

I made the best use of the layer cake by cutting 9 of the largest squares I could get; I matched up the fabrics into pairs and cut them together. I sewed two 9-patches from this combination, and then placed them randomly in my quilt.

This resulted in a lap-quilt; one layer cake does force a smaller quilt, but I do like how it came together. I don't plan to add a border. 

The second day of retreat found me once again playing with large squares. I'd prepared stacks of 4.5" squares for what I hoped would be a cheerful buffalo-check quilt.

I had no clue how many squares I'd cut; I just knew that I'd sew until one of the fabrics was gone. It all worked out rather nicely because I now have a quilt top big enough to cover my queen-size  bed. It is not "pretty"; instead, it is quite bright and cheerful - it screams "spring". It looks better suited for a picnic table cloth, and I may end up using it for that rather than on the bed.

My third and fourth days of retreat were spent making blocks for my fall maple leaf quilt. In advance of the retreat, I'd raided the fat quarter drawers and pulled all the brown, orange, beige and gold fabric I could find. That was quite a big fabric pull. 

Once again, I was making a quilt with no precise pattern, so I did not know how many blocks I would need. I made a few stem blocks first, then I made a little supply of HSTs. When I had a good-size supply of parts, I began assembling blocks. My intent was to create blocks containing a whole lot of random fall colors.

And today, I am still making blocks. The coolest thing occurred. I had made a couple of blocks at home before going to retreat. The background fabric I'd used was Thatched by Robin Pickens. I only had a 1-yard cut, and I wanted the whole quilt to be consistent with this background. I had very little hope that I'd find more, but by gosh, I found an entire bolt of it at Mae-Lynne Makers in Nelsonville, where our retreat was located. I got enough to use for my entire quilt. 

I still don't know how big I will make this quilt, but I figure I might as well make it big enough for our bed.

If I return to all those post-it-note reminders, I can see that I've checked off several. Fall leaves quilt from the top pic and flowery layer cake from the lower pic are done or soon to be done. (I'd previously finished the pine tree quilt and the blue dot.)

Happy Quilting, Friends!