Lakeside Retreat Update

In the beautiful cool mountains of Arizona, my second retreat this year and oh my so productive! I do not go on a quilt retreat to relax but to cram in as much sewing time as possible and six projects is great progress and I did not even have to stay up all night to get them done.
Number one, an eye catching pattern for a large wall hanging or a modern baby quilt. It needs a good pressing before I quilt it. I modified the design a bit which required some rearranging of a few blocks

 The large work room we share.

Our wonderful hostess and chef in her kitchen

 Projects two and three, from donated 2.5" batik strips, perfect size for baby quilts.

Number four, made from leftover 6.5" half square triangles and fabrics from two other projects, another perfect size for a baby quilt. Another quilter allowed me to try out her "Block Loc" ruler to trim these HST's and wow, what a great tool. 

A bit pricey, but I had a 30% off coupon, that helps!

There is a channel/gutter across the back of the ruler that catches the seam on the HST and allows perfectly accurate cutting I loved it so much I had to buy! It comes in several sizes up to 8.5" I think. A great timesaver when you have a lot to trim.

 Number five is a birthday gift for my brother, who loves driving around the USA on his visits here from Australia. He also collects number plates, makes it a perfect gift. He and my SIL will arrive Monday for another visit and he has a birthday next month.

 hard to see the quilting since I used black thread but I simply outlined the number plates and quilted a diamond cross hatch in the background.

 A swirl in the stop border and Greek key design in the final border complete the quilting.

This kit came from Amazing Quilts in Lakeside, it is their 2018 Row By Row block. I haven't participated in Row by Row for two years because I have over a dozen from 2015, completed and needing to be combined somehow! But this one can be a stand alone wall hanging, just too cute!

 Finally the bonus project, Susan showed me how she makes luggage tags and I made a few from a FQ, this will also be a gift.

We awoke Sunday morning to 36 degrees and huge snowflakes falling!

 Unfortunately my friend's car also had a flat battery which delayed us about 4 hours!

But the drive home was snow free, just intermittent rain.