What I Sewed at Retreat

Here is my update on my retreat last week. I had several projects prepped, just in case, but I only worked on two of them.

The main project was foundation paper-piecing Carolina Lily blocks, 20 of them! I had paper pieced the green stem sections ahead of time, all the lily sections were pieced at retreat.

Here are the other 19 blocks.

Foundation paper-piecing is time consuming but it doesn't take a lot of thread. I used one bobbin for all of these blocks and it wasn't empty when I was ready to leave for home.

I'm using fabrics I already have on hand, I have a variety of green and red fabrics to use. All fabrics are going into this quilt from fossil fern to my mother's old 80's & 90's fabrics.

Now I have a total of 50 blocks, just 50 more to piece!

The other project was to applique Stonefield blocks. Three blocks were completed but you have to wait until Sunday to see them.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, I Quilted This!, Put Your Foot Down, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts

Carolina Lilies

I pieced the February blocks for my Carolina Lily quilt at the end of the month. This is my favorite February block.

Several years ago I pieced several Christmas quilts. Most of the fabrics were regular reds and greens but I did buy this special holly fabric.

Even though the stem sections are all the same fabric, each block has a different red fabric.

This green is a very different shade than most of the other greens but it adds a nice contrast. The two dark reds are different fabrics.

This light green is all used now. The tiny holly leaves are so cute.

I decided to just keep on piecing and pieced the March blocks. I made a change in the foundation paperpiecing process. I had been piecing a complete block at a time. This time I decided to piece all of the bottom stem sections then piece the lilies.

Just the left side of these blocks are trimmed. 

This is my favorite of the March blocks. I fussy cut the red fabric so the stars would show. There was just enough fabric of this red for one block.

Some of the blocks don't have the same green in them, like the above block. I'm trying to use up greens in my stash, that bottom triangle is the largest piece, sometimes a substitute is needed. These three blocks all have a substitute bottom triangle fabric. A couple of them even have a substitute stem fabric. I tried to substitute a similar shade of fabric.

This green is a different shade of green from the picture with the 5 lilies (photo below this one).

There was plenty of this fabric but I only made 5 blocks with this one.

Here are the 30 blocks on the display wall.

I haven't purchased special fabrics to use in this quilt, I already have plenty of green and red fabrics. I want to piece 100 or or maybe 110 6" blocks this year, it depends on how large I want the finished quilt to be. I'll make the final decision when 100 blocks are reached.

I also have to decide how I want to set these blocks. I like the setting on the original pattern but I also like how Sue set the blocks in her quilt. Here is a link to Sue's YouTube video #11 where she shows her red & white quilts and her red & green quilts.

I can picture this quilt hanging from the rafters in my home, she'll be on long time display, not just the Christmas season.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap

Carolina Lily

A new long term foundation paper-piecing project called Carolina Lily has been started. Here is my first block!

It took close to 2 hours to piece this first block but I'm hoping to pick speed as I go along. My goal is to piece at leasts 5 blocks every month, maybe more. These blocks finish at 6" so it may take several years to complete this quilt.

I'm using the foundation paper-piecing pattern by Cindy Edgerton. Her design is for a small wall quilt.

I watch From Small Things on Youtube. In 2024 she displayed her red & white quilts and her green & red quilts (Episode 11). She had purchased this pattern then foundation paper-pieced 100 of these little blocks and made them into a lovely quilt. I thought it was so pretty, I wanted a quilt of my own!

The pattern is a physical pattern and the papers are tissue paper, just like the clothing patterns like we used to sew. I copied the tissue paper on my printer then printed my foundation papers on newspaper weight paper.

I did manage to complete 10 blocks in January, now I need to get started on the blocks for February.

You don't need yardage to make these blocks, the largest piece in the blocks is the bottom green triangle. I'm using fabrics I already have on hand. The light green used in 4 of the blocks is at least 20 years old.

I'll let you know at the end of 2026 how many blocks have been pieced. WARNING: this is NOT the pattern to learn how to foundation paper piece.

Linking to To Do Tuesday, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, Put Your Foot Down, I Quilted This!, TGIFF!, Finished or Not Friday, Off the Wall Friday, Beauty Pageant, Patchwork & Quilts, Oh Scrap