Spring Quilt Retreat Report

OK, the weather was anything but spring-like but the quilt retreat was great as usual. I am always so surprised by how much I get done at these retreats, so I did pack plenty of in-progress and possible new projects.

One of the last minute project I brought was the collection of orphan blocks which came together in this quilt top. Obviously these are not all of my orphan and test blocks. I tried to pull ones that looked fairly good together. I was  pleasantly surprised how easily they came together I only needed five or six extra scrap strips to fit them all evenly. I think it still needs some sort of border. 

By the last day of the retreat, which is only really a half-day, I usually have my bigger projects done and I am reluctant to start something completely new. So for my Sunday project this retreat I took out the scrap box and tried out the Trash to Treasure Pineapple block ruler and technique by Gyleen Fitzgerald. I started playing with different color layouts for this block. I like how they are coming out. A pineapple block quilt is on my to-do list, but it is a very versatile block and I am not sure what color layout I want to go with. I can totally see these test blocks (once I make a couple more) being the corner blocks for the border on the orphan block quilt.

Block Testing

Getting ready for the Spring quilting retreat. I dug out some fabric and a pattern that I bought in Paducah, KY last year called 'Tall Pines' by Irish Chain. The fabric I bought was expensive hand-dyed fabrics. The pattern uses their own custom templates for cutting the pieces. Given that I didn't want to make any mistakes trying this new process on the pricey fabric I jumped into the box-o-scraps and tried out the pattern and the templates. I noted a few minor adjustments, but it turned out pretty well. Here it is. This is a mini version, it is about 20 inches long. The version I will be making with the specialty fabric is the 4 foot version.

One of these days I am going to have to gather up my sample and test blocks and make a quilt. I didn't do it on purpose, but the background fabric used here, was also used in some of the Lemoyne Star blocks I made a while ago. So I know a few blocks will go together pretty well.