Personal retreat – session 2

On Saturday morning, I was in my studio early….

…and ready to start working on the next block for my 2026 Guild Challenge. This time I selected this block….

…planning to make it primarily in shades of green.

I selected the initial fabrics….

…but was a bit concerned about how they would work with the background fabric on the left. I decided to add an accent piece cut from my “hero” fabric for the quilt, feeling that it would separate the greens from the background….

I don’t have tons of this fabric and am not sure exactly how I will use it in the end product, so was concerned about cutting into it.

AND, of course, I cut the first pieces WRONG!!!

They weren’t supposed to all be the same size, but two of them were an inch longer.

When I laid it out, I still wasn’t completely sold on the colors, but plunged on with the piecing…..

Because of the patches’ small size, I had to be very careful with my seam allowances and pressing. It helped to make liberal use of my wooden Clapper.…

I was thrilled with how perfect the center pinwheel turned out…..

As I added the skinny borders to the outside, it became necessary for me to add a step to my usual pressing routine

I would first iron the piece, then use my fingers to add more “pressing” out…

…and then finished it off with the iron again.

After I added the two borders, it was time to add the triangles to the corners. I cut the squares the correct size and tried twice to sew them in place properly, but it was NOT going to work!!

I finally resorted to cutting the squares larger than needed, and marking the sewing line….

I trimmed the entire block to the correct size…

…finally, cutting out the excess from the triangles…

Block FINISHED….

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

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single post….

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.

Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a single post….