Retreat Fun

Would ya look at this mess! It's not really a mess, it's organized chaois. But if you compare it to the second photo, it's a mess. My new friend Trina--what a doll--took some good hearted ribbing from the rest of us. Look at how precise her blocks are lined up. She didn't use a ruler, I did. I mean, this is a blog moment. :-) This was the way her table looked all weekend. All nice and neat.

I completed 3 12" paper pieced blocks and made 1 sweatshirt jacket before I just had to dive into my strings. I planned to work on my version of Quiltville's Diamond Strings .

Before leaving home, I cut my phone book pages to use for foundations. I had a bag of 4"-6" string pieces and I started sewing. I chained 6 to 10 units at a time then made crumb blocks as my Leaders and Enders . I ended up with 130 4 1/2" pieced half square triangles. (The crumb block link takes you to my webshots tutorial on making crumb blocks.)

After I got home on Sunday, I had to keep working. I started to sew my HSTs into blocks. Instead of sashing between my blocks like Bonnie did, I sashed each block with a different 2" sashing. So when all my blocks are completed, I will have 30 different sashings. I a little bit excited to get this sewn into a top but it will be a while before that happens. I have my sashing pieces all cut and in a project bag for this weekend's retreat.

I'm not totally unpacked from last weekend. I just need to rearrange some things and add a couple more projects. Ohhhhhh I am getting excited to have another 4 days of sewing and spending time with my quilting friends.

So now I have to get off this computer and get some marana sauce cooking for my contribution to the next retreat dinner. Thursday will be here before I am ready.