I started this triangle block at in-person retreat, and finished it at an “at-home virtual retreat” a couple of days later.

After the dramatically Covid-infested Spring Retreat, I opted to just go to in-person retreat for one day this fall. That way, I would get to see friends who were at retreat, then see friends online who did not get to go in person, all while limiting my germ exposure.

I cut out the pieces at retreat, but most of the stitching was done at home, during a truly crazy thunderstorm. The lightning was so close to us that the near-immediate thunder sounded like a truck running into a brick wall right outside our house. Scary!

But somehow, we didn’t lose power, and I was able to continue stitching the pieces together.

The fabric was definitely directional, and I had opted for slimming vertical stripes rather then stubby horizontal stripes when cutting out the pieces for this block.

But in light of that crazy storm, I decided it was fitting that I had gone with a vertical orientation for the fabric. The wavy stripes on the fabric look like big streaks of rain, with leaves blowing in the wind, and of course, the jaggedy diamonds of lightning.

Thankfully, the storminess of this block was confined to fabric choices, and it was actually fairly easy to assemble, although I’m not looking forward to taming all the seam allowances around those diamonds.

The UFO Challenge progress this fall has been a little stormier than I’d like though. You may recall that I didn’t finish cutting out the rainbow quilt binding strips until October 37th (still not a typo), so I was already behind schedule.

But I got the binding attached to the front of the rainbow quilt (one corner shown in the photo below) by the end of November, plus I completed two Dear Jane blocks and sashed two others together for the UFO Challenge:

Now I’m finally writing up this blog article on a thankfully not-so-stormy late December night, and wondering if I’ll be able to complete my December UFO Challenge goals in time.