Before the Retreat

I secured the edge seams of my Lotta's Crosses quilt top in readiness  for
Maggie to longarm it.

The Usual Suspects and friends got together for a day of sewing, show and telling and lunch on Tuesday.  We also had a quick discussion of our retreat arrangements. Our first meal together will be on the way there.

Not a good photo but here is Maggie with a
grandchild quilt to be used at her house!

Tracy's top based on a once seen vintage quilt

Tracy again; this one was started in a Carolyn Forster
workshop and was all done by hand.

Mary I's top with vintage bunnies and exquisite embroidery
in progress for a lucky baby.

Valerie's tour de force long arm quilted by Maggie

Split Pinwheel block

2. Playing with the sections

At our sewing day yesterday someone asked me about the split pinwheel block and I have seen this demonstrated by various people including Heather Hasthorpe but these pictures were taken when Yvette demonstrated it to us on the February retreat. I'm afraid I didn't write down numbers but looking at this I think your unfinished pinwheel block needs to be divisible by three which will need a bit of forethought as you won't be working to the finished size plus 1/2 inch but making four pinwheels and allowing for the seams created when you sew them together. Thank you, Yvette, for sharing this.
The photos upload themselves into an order beyond my control so I've numbered the steps.
I think the person who set this off globally was the wonderful lady at The Missouri Star Quilt Company  Check out her demonstrations on YouTube.

3. The final arrangement



1. The pinwheel block cut into thirds vertically and horizontally

Back

Isla, rightly pleased with herself, with cushion.

I don't think I have ever left such a long gap between posts - bad blogger! I've been on holiday in Madeira and caught up in various family events notably my son buying his first home so we have been helping set that up and then having got into cleaning mode in his flat I started on a long delayed (a year or two)  Spring clean  here. A pleasant part of family meet ups  was having my granddaughter over for a stay over Easter. We got out the Young Quilter cuttings from a magazine and in no time she plumped on making a scrappy split nine patch cushion. I was very pleased she showed quite a bit of perseverance to finish it before going home to show it to my daughter. We met up again the following week to take Isla out to the Horniman Museum while my daughter, an ace decorator helped Stephen to paint his flat. It was a lovely day but misty in the distance and we walked round the gardens where I was surprised to find the Shard, St Pauls and the city buildings making a ghostly appearance on the skyline. I'll be back soon!

City skyline

Disappearing four patch

Yvette and finished quilt.

Yvette had made a disappearing four patch quilt and demonstrated the technique to the retreaters. This is the second one I have seen in as many months and will be very handy for the U3A. Jackie had bought an incompletely finished kit and the technique came at just the right time for her to complete her quilt top. Most of the embroideries had been done and Kathy completed the rest for her - beautifully.

1.Four 5" squares (cut from a layer cake) sewn into a four patch.

Cut 1.25 inches on both sides of the seams, vertical and
horizontal.

Jackie's blocks

Now set together

Reverse the side cut pieces and a new pattern emerges so
now sew them together again.

• Today I have laid out quilt as you go blocks and setting squares and written a finishing to do list which seems rather daunting: draft and cut and quilt corner squares, join all the blocks together stopping to hand sew the joins on the back, then cut and sandwich the borders and add. After that the binding, labelling and adding a sleeve won't be too bad. Meanwhile another quilt is sandwiched and awaiting quilting but I find machine quilting hard work and yet another quilt top is awaiting sandwiching, again with the thought of quilting it. Oh woe! I do use a longarmer from time to time but can't quite get over the idea this is somehow cheating apart from the expense. Oh to have the the US tradition of sending quilts out for quilting or engaging the help of a group of friends with the clearest of consciences. I do like to have hand quilting on the go too but can't keep up with my output. I like to piece.

• 

  Corner HST's not done done yet

  
  

  

  I laid the prepped applique pieces out loosely on the setting triangles. Now each
  set has gone into its own little bag labelled
   Top left corner, bottom middle etc
  so when I've attached them to the triangles I'll know where they are to go.

  
  

Winding Up

I'm home now and have uploaded some more retreat pictures rather belatedly.Monday was very busy catching up with the U3A then lunch and an afternoon's sewing with the Usual Suspects. All week has been sorting out the bags and the rather tiresome task of prepping dragon fly appliques  for the setting square of my Bonnie's quilt. Just when I thought I had finished I had three more to do. Photos anon. Once done I shall have some reasonably mindless hand sewing to do in front of the TV and on holiday later this month. What's not to like about sitting on a balcony in Madeira surrounded by greenery, bright skies, sea and ships and hand sewing and listening to a story on my Ipod.

Yvette's on point quilt

Julie's completed top which was
started in a Edyta Sitar workshop in
Paducah.

Yvette's bright quilt using a tricky block

Pat's bright quilt following a Paula Doyle block of the month design

Carrie's using a lovely colour scheme

Yvette's using the split 9-Patch technique

Now Saturday

Star with fussy cut centre

Framed stack and whackery four patches

Whenever I come to a stop in my bout of projects I set out a few novelty squares to make up 12" blocks. It's fun and very moreish.
The first thing I did was working on the Drunkards Path blocks from Carolyn Forsters' workshop. I shall add a border when I get home and once quilted it will be for Linus. In the evening I made some 6" centres for Star blocks. I'm not yet sure how this Shell quilt is going to go.

Still Friday

Later on Friday I framed some my stack and whackery squares and made some more novelty blocks, my stash boosted by Jackie's multifarious purchases. We did a bit of a swap. I have yet to upload the photos so here is some work by others.

Julie's House and flowers quilt in the making.

Detail

Detail from centre of Mandy's quilt

Heather's crosses under construction

Mandy's Christmas project

Complicated blocks from Yvette

Liz's before adding borders

Kathy's using wovens

Colette's, recipient unknown

Day's work

9" four patches

My work

All the pieces

8" four patches

Today I've been working on some stack and whackery squares from a Philip Jacobs fabric depicting shells.Sadly I absentmindedly used the fabrics I intended to combine it with on something else so I am making do.

Views from the Retreat

Heather's zigzag batik quilt longarmed by Mandy Parks

Colette's Christmas quilt

Detail of block from Pat's quilt

Detail of Heather's quilt with gold binding spark

Flower detail from Julie's quilt

Pat's quilt, a Debbie Caffrey mystery pattern

Julie's version of Irish Chain with appliqued flowers

A bit of a slog

Top done; started in a workshop with Maggie Kingston.

Having sewn seven of my half hexagon rows I thought I was on target to finish the top by lunchtime (1 O'clock). At noon I still thought I woud but it was five by the time I finished. I seemed to have to do a lot correcting and unpicking but the finished result minus top and bottom borders (fabric for these at home) is distinctly pleasing

Wednesday evening

Detail

. Just don't look at the back! After the hassle it was relaxing to sew a few 12" blocks from novelties cut into 2",3",4" and 6" squares.After sewing ones of the same size together I'm now coming up with combinations.
Finally I worked some stack and whackery four patches using shell patterned fabric by Philip Jacobs.

Philip Jacobs fabric

Four patches

12" blocks

2",3" and 6"squares to make a 12" block

And one with 3" and 6" squares.