I made a wall hanging for my office door for March. It is a shamrock. I found the pattern for the block online at Quilting Assistant. I made the shamrock an 8" block, the white border is 1" and the outer border is 2". It finished about 14" square which is a good size to hang at work.

Since the retreat I have made 2 more snappy totes. The blue one I made at the retreat. I made the cats last weekend and the butterflies yesterday. They are a good size to use as a small handbag or cosmetic bag. I like the shape of these better than the first one I made which were rectangular/square.

I've been commissioned to make a quilt. It is a memory quilt made from clothes. I received a good assortment of shirts to use. I have cut up the shirts and am now ready to cut them into squares and rectangles. The blocks will be 10 1/2" unfinished so I will be using 5 1/2" and 3" squares and 3" x 5 1/2" rectangles. I think it will turn out very nice.

Retreat

I really enjoyed the retreat. The place we went is a Leadership Center in Jabez, KY, which seems like it is in the middle of nowhere. The roads were bare and there were a few snow flurries on the way home. The drive was about 4 hours each way.

The accomodations were very good. The rooms had the essentials but no tv. There was a tv in the lobby. The room we sewed in was well lit and each person had 6-8 ft of table space. The food was well prepared and I did not go hungry. It was so nice to not worry about meals.

I accomplished a lot! I finished 6 tops and started cutting out more. I made 3 Quick Strippie tops, 2 of which I will donate to charity. I finished a disappearing nine patch and a strip twist. The blocks were at least partially done so I only had to sew them together. I finished the border on my twister quilt. I used scraps from the quilt to make small twister blocks to put in the border. This makes it different and interesting. We also had a class on making a purse using a carpenters tape as the closure and using 2 fq's.

My only regrets are that I forgot my camera and I waited so long before going. I will definitely go on another retreat when my schedule permits.

Retreating

I leave for a quilting retreat in the morning. It will be an adventure driving. I will be going from Louisville, Ky to southeastern KY. There has been snow throughout the state and the last time I checked all the roads are slushy. More snow is expected for the weekend so the trip home may be another adventure.

I'm taking several projects with me. I have cut fabric to make 2 charity quilts. I have blocks made to put together 2 more quilts. I have another top that needs a border. There will also be FQ bunco and a FQ project to make.