Quilt Whimsy

Last weekend I went on a retreat, my first one.  I highly recommend this event to anyone who hasn't attended one.  I had a great time with good friends, quilting, eating and sleeping.  Lots of quilting was accomplished, including completing this quilt top.

 It was one of those UFO's hanging around.  I only needed to finish putting on the borders.  The great thing about finishing this at the retreat is that I was able to get group participation on how to finish the borders.  This quilt only looks as it does because of input from other quilters.  

Here is another quilt made due to group participation.  One of our cohorts had her IPad with her.  As she was perusing the web, sharing quilts and techniques with us she came across this quilt technique "Twister" that she had done.  I fell in love with the idea and decided to make it right then and there.  Our inn hostess had fabric available for us to purchase.  I selected a charm pack and one yard of border fabric and instantly went to work.  The quilt was pieced, quilted and bound in one day (a small wallhanging mind you), including group input on the border.  Here is a quick overview of the technique:

Piece together same-sized squares.  I choose charm squares.  Add a border; I added a 3" border of brown.

Place a square ruler off-center and cut out at every seam junction.  You will get what looks like this as leftovers:

i cut out the remaining squares to use in my border.  Now repiece to get this:

Add borders as desired.  It's fast, easy and fun.  Look up "Twister" on the internet for full information.  And now an interesting nature story about this spider.

My retreat cohort and myself were watching this spider on a window of our inn.  I noticed that the spider began swinging itself on its web.  All of a sudden, my friend and I had web on our faces.  Can you believe that?  The spider had gotten irritated with our watching it and sprayed us with web.  It's been a week and I'm still surprised at how aware the spider was of us.  My retreat was full of great experiences.  Be open to trying something new and you might be surprised as what you'll experience.