It’s almost time for our next virtual retreat, and I’m still catching up on writing articles for blocks made at the previous virtual retreat, which took place back in November. Since I’m trying to catch up on my blog backlog, I’ll make this one quick!
Luckily, the block itself was a quick one, so the article about it can be quick too. The block has just two pieces, and the only real decision was whether to reverse appliqué or “forward” appliqué the one piece onto the background. I figured the points in the corners of the appliqué piece would be trickier to do with reverse appliqué, so it wasn’t even a tough decision.
I’d wanted the floral motifs to fit in the center and the four corners of this shape, but the fabric repeat had other ideas. I wiggled it around but couldn’t get all five motifs squarely on the piece at the same time. When I held this motif arrangement up in front of my laptop camera though, my fellow retreaters pronounced my final placement choice as “just fine,” so I went with it. One retreater even said it was better if it didn’t match exactly, but she might have just been trying to make me feel better.
It’s definitely odd doing a retreat remotely. Several members commented that they missed being able to walk around and see what everyone was working on. We still gave and received advice on things like block placement, but it was trickier when you couldn’t just point at the block you meant. It turns out pointing at the block in question on your own screen is not helpful to people in other locations.
Instead of the usual Saturday walkabout, where we go check out what everyone else is working on, we carried our laptops around to take each other on virtual tours of our home sewing spaces. It made me alternately envious and motion sick.
Even though it wasn’t an ideal retreat, it was nevertheless wonderful to “see” everyone and the projects they were working on … and being virtual allows us to have these retreats more often than we otherwise would. I’m so looking forward to our second virtual retreat this weekend.