What I Worked on at Retreat

When I showed the design walls from retreat, I didn't include what I worked on, so let's look at that now. 

First priority, the baby quilt for my niece. I got all the hexies laid out and the rows sewn together for a finished top. (Since I've been home I finished the quilt, which will get its own finish post.)

Second priority, large pillow covers for my son, per his request. I had sent him a selection of fabrics and he chose the ones he liked. Unfortunately I had only a scant quarter yard of the one he liked best, the grey stripe in the lower right. So I had to get creative with it and use his other choices as well, the top two. 

A quilt I made in neutrals in 2015 lives on his grey sofa, and in addition to all the neutral fabrics, there is a print with a touch of marigold in it and marigold piping in the binding. 

So I chose a similar color (didn't have any more of the original fabric) for an accent color. I needed a little something to enlarge the center square of his preferred print up to 10" for the center of a star. 

I kitted everything up prior to retreat, and took the leftover fabric with me as well. I pieced both pillow tops, shown here with the  already quilted backs. 

The more I looked at the one with the light center, the less I liked it. So I carefully took the center out and replaced it with the dark print. Much better. 

These are very large pillows; the tops are oversized for quilting, and when finished they'll be 24". I got one of the tops quilted at retreat, but not the other. Walking foot quilting echoes the star, and it took awhile to quilt one pillow top. When the second is done, I'll add zippers, square them up and trim them, and finish sewing them together. They need to be finished and mailed out prior to Christmas. 

Linking up with Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts