Design Wall Monday

This past weekend I was at a quilt retreat in Lacey, WA.  It's a long drive for me, about 8 hours with stops each way, but I wanted to meet many quilters I have "known" online for around 15 years.  I knew three of them personally, having retreated with them in other areas of Washington.  I had a fantastic time, but all the photos are on my phone and I will get them off later. We were close to a lake that I walked to several times.  My main project is one I can't show for a couple of weeks!  I will have to keep you in suspense.  These pics are the other projects I worked on.

I purchased a layer cake and a charm pack at a retreat last year and found this pattern.  I had this dark green and I thought it would work well for a background.  It's okay, but there is not enough contrast in some areas.  I still like how intense it is though and different from my usual style. I need to add the green border on top and bottom and the piano key border

Christmas Candy

I showed this quilt kit last week, but this is my actual top without borders yet.  I dislike cutting and adding borders at a retreat.  I have a system at home, and usually miscut elsewhere.

Northern Cardinals - with Holly Taylor fabrics

In January I started participating in the Quiltmaker IttyBittyBlocks and got the top row done.  This is a partial photo, there are 16 3" bowties, 12 4" baskets and now I have 16 3" houses.  I have April, May and June cut out but not sewn and July and August have been posted.  I haven't decided on sashing between the rows yet.  The blocks are not yet sewn into rows so I can play with color placement.

partial view of 3 months of #IttyBittyBlocks

Two friends and I went out to 3 quilt shops and had a lot of fun.  I collected their row by row patterns and saw way too much inspiration!  I also met a quilter from another online group, it was great fun!

Linking up with Patchwork Times