OBW Love

I do love the magic of One Block Wonder (OBW) quilts!  I even found an app for my phone that will show a kaleidoscope effect and you can pass it over your fabric to preview how some of the kaleidoscopes might end up.  Of course I also have the hinged mirrors that are also very helpful.

November has been so busy!!  After the Cheryl Arkison trunk show and workshops, I had also booked a quilting retreat the next weekend.  It was a tight schedule - had to leave the retreat just a bit early to get back home, repack and hop on the train to Toronto for a credit union conference.

Created at the workshop - offset squares
More squares and a new design - mountains!

The top finished - laying on the hotel bed :)

At the retreat, I finished three tops ... my daughter's wedding quilt, the 'Values' top from the Cheryl Arkison workshop, and my MIL's found applique quilt (more on this here ...).  On the applique quilt, I've been working on this in the car on our 4 - 5 hour trips to the cottage.  Each 17" square has four leaves appliqued on.  This is the first I have done hand applique.  And usually I cannot read or do anything like this in the car or I get motion sickness.  But this worked!  I thought I had a dozen squares finished, but only 11 were done - so I machine appliqued the 12th!  

My 'prize' for finishing these tops was to start into a new OBW.  I have quite a few fabrics that I've collected for OBW's and this is one of my favourites - it's an Andover fabric, called "Nature's Spirit" by Nancy Davis-Murty.

Original Fabric
On the design wall - four more cubes
needed to fill in the blank spots
The 'hand' of this fabric is just fabulous - feels silky and luxurious.  There are a few areas that 'read' as solid on the background, but the hexies have worked out beautifully.  I made the strips 4.5" instead of the usual 3.75".  I like the bigger hexies!

And of course I came home from the conference with a horrid cold.  So I'm sniffling and sneezing.