Two Tops Completed on Retreat!

I just got back from a fun Pacific Piecemakers' Quilt Guild retreat in Healdsburg. I finished the King-sized top for a quilt that's going on the master bed in our rental home, "Jazz," in Los Cabos, Mexico. These colors are a little strange, but I think they will work in the quilt's intended location. (It's based on Kaffe Fassett's Chintz Flowerbeds Quilt design, inspired by one my friend Bev made.) When I took it to Sue Fox (Fox Dreams Quilting & Designs in Berkeley) on my way home to have her quilt it on her longarm, we pinned it up on her huge design wall. I realized that I had never actually SEEN the top before, and that if I'd made it using a large design wall, I'd have fussy cut certain blocks and changed or rotated others. Good lesson to learn. The quilting is going to be an all over design with black thread, which I think will be good for the dark Hacienda bed it will live on in Mexico. Once it's quilted and in place, I'll post an "After" photo.



After that top was done, I resurrected a project I started in February 2005. I bought the antique, red, orange and white, hand-pieced blocks with the circles and points, and then also bought all the other vintage fabrics -- all at the Pajaro Dunes quilt show, I think. I drafted the alternate blocks and made some of them four years ago, and then put the whole project in my pile of UFO's. I made the rest of the alternate blocks at this retreat. Then I added the pieced border and, this morning, made double-triangle prairie points with batting, which I'll attach to carry out the design beyond the quilt's rectangular edges. I love how this is vintage and also has zing. The half-square triangles are one inch -- something I usually avoid making! I will hand quilt this, so it will be my carry-to-quilt-group project for months or longer!

I learned several important things on this project. One, re-examine the UFO pile more often and finish the pleasing projects. Two, I CAN make little triangles accurately! Three, it's easier to make a template than to use math to figure out some things, like the size of the prairie points. Four, using scrap fabric to try something before cutting into the good stuff allowed me to work out the glitches AND to figure out a better way to make those pieced, batted, two-sided, prairie points. Five, it's great to have other people's brains to pick and their voices to encourage -- special thanks to Barbara on this one!