What I did on the Quilting Retreat

This was the third retreat of the year and five nights and days of sewing interrupted only by daily walks and shopping trips as there was a well stocked quilt shop locally. As I knew we were going to have two tables each I took major projects I wanted to move closer to completion. Some stages of quiltmaking are hurdles to get over I find and the long retreat days were the necessary push. I was one of the two packing up at midnight.

Row 4 ready to add

Top complete: most blocks constructed with templates.

I framed each Bonnie Blues block (2015 project) and trimmed to 14", then sashed them, sewed the rows and bordered with my focus fabric plus a thin strip of orange mitring the corners.  I am really pleased with the result and know my husband will like it as blue is his favourite colour. The top is wider than it is long because that is how it will go on our bed which has a footboard.I didn't want the house and mountain and bargello to be sideways on.
I also added two unpieced borders to the current Bonnie project, Jackie Taylor's Civil War pattern. partly to bring it up to a size divisible by three as the final border will be 1 1/2" by 3" flying geese.
I had to do quite a bit of partial piecing in the corners as I wanted o sew the cheddar and red strips together before adding them to the borders and the black cornerstones necessitated some juggling.

Working which sort of geese - I opted for dark geese on light sky to my surprise.

Awaiting final border: a very successful quilt, I feel.

In between these efforts I completed my own Split 9-Patch+ kit and sewed the top in preparation for a workshop next year.

My first arrangement of units

This was a group effort

Sewn together

Detail of lovely 1930's repro. fabrics

So time well spent plus good friends , exercise and fun.