Quilting Retreat Challenge...who's up for it?

 At the last retreat, we played games using fat quarters and 5" sq. We issued a challenge about the using the 5" sq. in a project before the next retreat. Well, it's coming up in a few weeks, and guess who hadn't done anything with hers....yea...so I got them out the other day and pondered. I only had 13, so it wasn't going to make anything too large.

 I decided to make an even square as I should be able to think up something to do with a square. So I cut 3 more 5" sq. (don't worry, it's allowed!). Should I lay them out evenly or unevenly?

 I decided on this and sewed them together.

 I thought about lots of ways (ok, a few different ways) that I could cut the square to make something else and decided to crosscut it on the diagonal. There were only a few ways I could lay it out after cutting and this is one of them. At this point I'm thinking that it will be a table topper.

 Then I realized that I could make two smaller squares instead of one large sq. so I played with that for a bit. You can see in the first pairings, the yellow and the purple corners wouldn't have been pieced. So I switched them around.

 That's better.

 Here are both of the squares laid out.

  I thought about sewing them together to make a rectangle, but then what did I really have? It was sort of a genius plan to have two squares anyway because I could have a front and a back, both pieced. So I got a piece of cotton batting and and sandwiched them together, with the front and back right sides together on top of the batting. I left an opening to turn it and flipped it right sides out.

 After pressing and closing the opening, I decided to do some simple quilting to hold all the layers together.

 I also top-stitched around the edge. Now it's 12" mat to set hot dishes on or whatever you want it to be. Is it the most beautiful thing I've ever sewn? No.

But it's a great reminder of the retreat and quilting fun! This time, we are playing with 2 1/2" x 6 1/2" rectangles. Should be interesting!

Lots of sewing!

I had a lot of fun on retreat working on some new blocks made out of batiks. I am in love with the background fabric and think it looks good with everything I've chosen so far.

You might remember the 3rd colorwheel quilt that was waiting to be finished...I spent more time trying to decide what to use for borders than it took to sew them on. I'm still not sure if it's finished...hopefully I will decide soon.

I played with colorwheel orange squares one night when I was too tired to sew and sewed it together the next morning. I have an idea in mind for some more colorized squares.

Dianne made a microwave bowl potholder...

...I love these things and plan to make more!

 Diana finished her Tangled in the Kite Strings blocks out of her mother's stash....this will be a stunning quilt.

Rose finished one ZigZag quilt and started another one. They look so different!

She also finished this quilt that she started on the last retreat....

 And made a quick and easy scarf!

Dianne worked on her polka-dotted Which Way is Up quilt. She is going to add a green dotted border.

Diana also worked on her Sparkling Prisms blocks.

Rose made a cute snow globe wallhanging....

Dianne liked it so much, she made one too!

Pat started and finished this quilt on retreat. We all loved the soft colors. She worked the rest of the time on her ZigZag quilt, but sadly I didn't get any pictures of her blocks. She was finished making them, just had to start assembling the quilt.

Diana finished a sampler quilt she started a few years ago. She went back to school while continuing to work fulltime and raise 3 kids, so she didn't have much time to sew. She recently graduated and is happy to be able to devote some time to quilting again.

It was a great weekend of sewing, laughing and sharing stories. I can't wait for the next one!

I spent some time working on the mystery pattern last night and got more done than I thought I would. I'm home today (SNOW DAY!!!) so hope to get it finished. Maybe I'll have time for a little sewing too.

Ahhhh.....retreat....

 Our retreat is in full swing and we're having a great time. I worked on finishing the mystery quilt, so I worked in another room most of yesterday to keep the mystery a secret. I was glad to have the blocks put together late in the afternoon so I could join the others. I could hear all of the conversation, but wanted to join in. It was a great motivator!

They were busy all day! Diana is working on a sampler quilt...she really wants to finish it this morning.

Dianne made a microwave bowl....and finished her challenge project.

We swapped 2 1/2" half strips last time, so challenged ourselves to make something...I forgot to take pictures of all of them, so I will do that later, but here are Cindy and Dianne's projects!

Cindy finished her challenge project....

nice!

Rose is working on her ZigZag quilt. She got the blocks put together already this morning, but I don't have a picture of it yet.

I made two microwave bowl potholders....I love them! You can get the pattern here.

I also started cutting the fabrics from my OTHER  challenge...so will be working on it soon. Breakfast is ready...gotta go!