Wednesday, October 21, 2026

Wow , Retreat was Amaze, Amaze, Amaze

 Yes, I'm naming my post with yet another movie quote.

 Can you guess where it's from?

It is from one of the latest "save the world" movies, 

"The Hail Mary project".

Those three words sum up my retreat wonderfully.

The 4-day format was great.

The time away from home was a bit long but,

the world didn't end while I was gone

and nothing fell apart so all  was good.

Lots of projects were moved forward.

The result is that I'm farther behind in my quilting!

Behind probably isn't the appropriate 

word since everything I do is self-directed.

That's the great thing about not having a job,

all my deadlines are self-imposed!

So here are some of the finishes from retreat.

First, I buzzed through the two 

string projects I'd kitted up.

This was the layout for number one,

and the finished product is pretty close.


Number two had the lattice in a different direction

It finished off nicely.


Then I moved on to an I spy quilt.

The feature squares were sorted into groups of 6 unique stacks. 

Each square was 5" and I had 79 per bunch.

Stitching together the squares makes a nice quilt 

and finishes at 35" x 40".

I wanted to make them larger 

with either borders or lattices.

An alternate square is a good idea also, 

but I really wanted to maximize the use of feature squares .

A dive into Pintrest yielded a hexagon style

 so I precut two of those.

I spy fabrics really seem to self-multiply.

The problem is when buying a WOF of a nice design,

you end up with five different pieces that you can use.

Now you have enough for five quilts!

There is also that strange quilter thing that happens.

If you say it you need blue jeans for a project,

suddenly bags or boxes of blue jeans appear on your porch. 

One stitching buddy requested 

a piece of orange from her friends for her birthday.

Now she has enough for four orange Queen size quilts.

Quilters just seem to be generous!

As soon as I started working on the I spy,

 I got four more pieces of I-spy fabric!

 Everyone seems to be carrying them 

 like a basic quilting Supply.

Anywho, here is the work on the hexie I Spy. 


First, I start adding two opposing triangles to the hexies.

Then laid out  the rows and filled in 

all the remaining triangles.


Next, the sides of the quilt. needed finishing.

Every other row needed to have the 

finishing hexis trimmed to match

the desired width of the quilt.

Depending on the construction, 

they will not be cut into exact halves so don't pre-cut them.  


Trim only after you've pre-fit them into the edge of the quilt.

I pinned the edge blocks roughly to the correct size 

and trimmed after the rows were sewn together.

The extra triangles from the cutoffs 

can be reclaimed for other projects.

Ta Da!!



















19 comments:

  1. It is fascinating to watch your process and they inevitably turn out fabulous. And yes the orange scraps squares have become their own artisan well of happiness ๐Ÿงก

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    1. An artisan well , I like that. We had one growing up .

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  2. These are all pretty, but man, do I love your Hexie I-Spy! I have templates for hexies and isosceles triangles with same length sides somewhere but have never used them. Thanks for showing your method of stitching them up as you are inspiring me to dig through the studio and find those templates. I have a bunch of Christmas novelty print scraps that would be fun for the hexies with either solid red or green triangle star points...

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    1. It was much easier than I thought. It was fun too. I have another on the go already!

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  3. Amazing, love checking your work in progress
    Thank you for sharing at SSPS #433! Your support means so much, and I’m so happy to have you as part of our SSPS family!

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  4. So glad you had a great retreat, Deb. And, I LOVE that variation of the I-Spy quilt. It really is amazing!! Thanks for sharing with us at Monday Musings.

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  5. You did fantastic to get all that sewing done. The I-Spy quilt is so fun.

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    1. I did get a lot done, The hexie one was much easier than I thought!

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  6. It looks like the retreat was really really really great ;) Your finished projects are beautiful with the black sashings, and the I-Spy is stunning! What a great idea to cut the prints into hexies with black corners, they all look fantastic. Thank you for sharing your creative process and linking up!

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  7. You definitely made the most of your retreat sewing. Congrats on all the progress!

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    1. Thank you ! I am trying to get everything organized to finish up those retreat projects!

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  8. Hi Deb, I'm so happy for you that you had a great retreat. It really helps to move things along and refresh the body and mind! Thanks for linking up to I Quilted This! That hexie I Spy is so cute!

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    1. The Hexie really did turn out well. All the retreaters were great!

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  9. Your hexies really show off the individual prints. What a great I Spy! Thanks for linking to Wednesday Wait Loss!

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