Retreat Goals

We had quilt retreat this week, and I was motivated to make quilting magic on two big-time goals: Winnemucca Quilt and Aurora. I have been putting these two quilts on my yearly goals repeatedly, and at long last, they are being accomplished! Last month, I posted a 'check-up' on my progress toward completing these goals. Now, I can actually say that one more is done and another is started.

Two lofty goals: 1. Use the fabric bought on our Western US vacation in June 2022 in Winnemucca, NV, and 2. Begin working on Aurora, a quilt with beautiful little stars all in blue.

 First, I worked on Winnemucca. I'd made a test block which satisfied me. The pieces are big; the blocks are big; making the quilt would be fast. It took just over a day to produce my finished quilt top, and I am so pleased with it. Love the look; the fabrics all shine in the simplicity of the blocks without being lost in a more complicated design.

The floral fabric used in the sashing strips and borders is a pleasing mix of the block colors on a gray background. Let's have a closer look.

 

And now that I'm home, I can show even better pictures with the completed quilt top.

Not only am I thrilled to have finally made a quilt with this fabric, I am equally thrilled that I have a good bit of fabric remaining. Now I get the fun of dreaming up a pattern for creating something else from the leftovers. I have plenty - maybe a full yard! - of the stripe, the salmon, and the blue. And sadly, the print is very limited. I used a lot of it on the sashing strips and the borders. Nothing to cry about! I love that this print worked so well in this quilt. I will find another equally attractive (simple!) quilt for using up my remnants.

The other goal for retreat was beginning Aurora. I've had my eye on this quilt for a good while, and had the blues from my stash auditioned and selected. The pattern is by Edyta Sitar in one of her books.

 Those stars! Oh, gosh, they absolutely sing and dance across this quilt! The first time I saw a picture of it, I knew I wanted to make it. I cut most of the quilt out ahead of time and pretty much had everything ready for tackling the daunting task of making 127 stars. And those are 127 4.5" stars! yikes...

Above is my retreat accomplishment on the task: 28 stars. I wanted to at least get the total number of stars down into double digits! I only have 99 more to make!

Yes, it's going to take awhile, but I will make them in batches of 10 or 20 at a time. Breaking down the task seems to make it go faster, and if I've got a good audio book plugged into my ears, I will have them done lickity-split.

In between finishing Winnemucca and beginning Aurora, I made 20 little card wallets. I haven't made any in several months, so I wanted to replenish my supply. This batch contains a few for Christmas.

 One last thing I worked on in the final hours of retreat before packing up was to make a Mini-TATW block from the remnants of my big TATW quilt.

 I've got a great quilt in mind that requires (at minimum) 12 of these mini-trip blocks. Because I had plenty of leftover 2" squares and strips, it made good sense to use them in this fashion. If I still have a lot after making 12 blocks, I might decide to make a few more for a larger quilt.

So that is what I accomplished at our August Quilt Retreat. Fun with friends makes the retreats even more special. We had 8 quilting friends attending this year, and we are already booked for two next year - April and September. 

Hope you are having a productive week! Today, I will put stuff away and tackle a few chores around the house. 

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Jayne