Retreat Report

I think I've been sewing for so many consecutive days now that I've run out of energy for talking about all the sewing I've done! I'm exhausted! After Day 1 of my mini retreat with my friend Sue, I had some more #Xplusalong blocks finished, but mostly these piles of of the pieced bits and bobs waiting to be finished into blocks!

I just plugged away and after two and a half days of retreating I had 61 (of 99) blocks finished. Yay!  

The stack doesn't look nearly as impressive and large as I had hoped it would, after all that work! And to think I'm only 2/3 the way through! Or, perhaps more positively stated, that I'm already 2/3 the way through?! I think of all the blocks so far, this one below is my favorite:

While I was plugging away on my blocks, Sue was working persistently on her gorgeous throw quilt. And, in perfect timing, she finished the core part of the top just before she had to go. Isn't it gorgeous! I didn't get a good closeup photo, but it has the best combinations of fabric! You go Sue!

After I finished my last round of #Xplusalong blocks, I didn't quite have it in me to begin cutting fabric again for the last chunk of blocks, so I turned my attention to finishing my top for the Twisted Quilt I've been working on. Twisted indeed! The pattern is described as being for beginners, but either I'm not a beginner yet or this pattern is more challenging than it's described to be! I followed the directions to the last "T" and yet my blocks didn't end up near the same size as predicted, so I had to improvise! The pattern originally called for 6x7 rows of blocks, but I ended up doing 5x8 and then widening it with a border. Those twisted "x"s look all neatly lined up below, but they took a lot of "convincing" to fit together! Thanks to Sue for her ideas on the arrangement of the blocks and helping me ensure that the blocks all ended up being the same size! So, here she is! Hanging from the back patio in the wind, so don't mind the crease across the bottom!

Now "all" I have to do is quilt and bind!

Many thanks to Sue for a fun retreat!