Fall Fling, Spring Fling

I apologize for the recent silence -- I have been off having fun at my twice-yearly quilting retreat at the Bishop's Ranch. Clearing the decks so I could take those days away meant a flurry of work, but I promptly but all things practical out of my head as I drove out to the ranch. As usual, it was 4 days of fun and laughter and friends and great food and, of course, quilting.

This time, I packed up my trusty Juki and took only two big quilts that were sandwiched and ready to be quilted. The first one I finished was the "one block wonder" quilt above, which I've named Spring Fling (because of those springy colors, of course). Several retreats ago, a couple of ladies were making one block wonder quilts, and as the book was new to most of us, we were enthralled with the concept. That led to a shopping trip where a bunch of us wandered around the shop using mirrors to see the kaleidoscopic effects of various fabrics, and then a bunch of us started making these quilts. This October retreat was the designated time for completion, so our show-and-tell included a whole "one block wonder" segment where we shared our finished quilts.

I enjoyed making mine, basically -- sewing the blocks was especially fun, as every block is a new, surprising kaleidoscope. Designing the overall look on a wall was fun too. But sewing them together became tedious, and I wasn't thrilled with the process of finishing the quilt. I ended up floating the quilt top on top of the borders... a rather slapdash process that isn't the tidiest up close but did the job to my satisfaction.

This shot is from show and tell and doesn't show the quilting, but I had a fun time following the kaleidoscope patterns in the blocks and quilting big, lose flowery shapes in the border.

So now, I have a mess of stuff to put away, tons of laundry to do, and a pile of legal work to address before I can get away to the Pacific International Quilt Festival next weekend! Another quilting excursion -- October is a fun month!