Retreat time – Let’s go!!

After I had finished my Retreat Relaxation time, I headed upstairs to my studio and started working on my first block from our guild’s block of the month challenge.

I decided that I wanted to make one more from the January section, so pulled out the instructions for this block…

I spent a bit of time selecting the fabrics and finally came up with an idea that I thought would work.

The first step was to make a series of half-square triangles. After I had sewn them, I was ready to cut them apart and press them. At this point, I remembered the instructions that I had once heard about making accurate half-square triangles.

The suggestion was to press the triangles BEFORE you cut them apart. This is a little hard when you are making them two at a time, but it helps tremendously.

I started by ironing one side….

…then turned them around and carefully ironed the other side….

Look at the cute “birds” that I came up with….

Now, I cut the triangles apart and ironed them flat….

Next step was to use the “Bloc-Loc” ruler and the Cutterpillar Rotary mat to trim the squares to 1.5-inches….

If you have never seen this technique, I did a video a while back….

It took a few tries to get the block laid out properly…..

…but the piecing went quickly and soon the block was finished….

So ended my first retreat session. I went to bed fulfilled and thankful that I didn’t have a 6-hour drive to Raleigh the next morning!!

Stay tuned….more to come!!

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I can’t wait to tell you more about our 2026 Guild “Block of the Month” challenge.

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