Got a Lot Done!

This picture was taken on Wednesday, the second full day of sewing in our mini-retreat. Mary is continuing to work on the paper pieced bees that she will need for her quilt.



Her stacks of bees in progress: The paper piecing makes the body and wings; the heads are appliqued and antennae embroidered on a separate triangle that will be pieced on later.



Closeup of what we were calling "headless bees"; below is a picture from the pattern that shows what they will look like when they're finished.

And this is how the nine-patches and bees will fit together in the quilt.

Mary likes to make intricate quilts; this is a quilt of her own design using one of the wedge rulers.

A close-up of the applique done on top of the wedge piecing.

I was working on simpler things: I finished the three blocks I had left to piece on this BOM project and started adding the triangles to set the blocks on point. I also sewed the sashings. This is where I was on this project at the end of Tuesday's sewing.

On Wednesday, I got all of the blocks set and put together with the sashings. Below are the border fabrics that I've picked out. There will be 1-1/2" borders of the fruit and basketweave fabrics and a wider border of the print.

Then I started working on a baby quilt for my friend Tami's granddaughter, Taylor. It's the "Puzzle Box" pattern from Brookshier Design Studio and it went together pretty quick.

The pattern utilizes partial seaming to get the borders around the squares. I'm going to use the stripe as a narrow border before the final border.

I've been collecting these chocolate/strawberry print fabrics for years and this was a fun way to use them!

I still had some sewing time left on Wednesday, so worked on some other old BOM blocks that were done in Christmas prints. I have nine of those done, with three to go. One of the new things I learned from this project was how to use the Nifty Notions half rectangle and bias triangle rulers. These are used together to accurately and easily cut a "Triangle in a Square" block from strips.

At the end of the day, I put away my projects and my machine and am happy to say that, other than three BOM blocks, I finished everything I brought with me and thoroughly enjoyed the chance to re-connect with my old friend!