Done And Done!

Orca Bay is done and done!  I finished the binding yesterday, but it was too rainy and cloudy to get a good picture.  And it took a while for the sun to come out today.  But it did and I got a picture.  One of the whole quilt and one sort of a close up.  Feeling at loose ends now that this is done.  It won't be long before I'm engrossed in another big project.

Look how sad the grass is, even with the rain we just had.  Very dry summer.

Close up of the quilting.  A simple design.

Hope you had a great weekend!  On to other projects!!

Enjoyment

I hope you have been enjoying your summer.  Mine is about to end and my "to do" list doesn't.  I always have hopes of getting more done than is possible in the time frame given.  I did finish another little table hot pad.  Grapes were the theme of this one.

Yesterday I went to "A Quilting Place" and quilted my Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  All I have left is the binding. At least this one is off the list.

Jackie, the owner of "A Quilting Place", is so helpful and I love working with her.  I did go with a simple design, but good coverage as there are so many little pieces.  Did get some little puckers on the front at the places where lots of little seams gathered together.  I'm hoping once I wash the quilt, it won't be as noticeable.  All in all, love the quilt and all that I have learned in making it.

Success!

I finished sewing my Orca Bay Mystery Quilt yesterday!!!!!  Now onto the quilting and binding of it.  Just a few pictures to share.  I'm loving this quilt!  

Blowing in the wind.

My husband tried to hold it still, but his arms aren't long enough.

Busy, Busy, Busy, Again

It has been busy, busy, busy, again!  This past weekend the Bluffs Art Council sponsored a quilt show.  My friend Jeanine, Jean, Rachel, myself and some other ladies worked to get the show put together.  What an amazing show it was.  I do have a few pictures from Saturday after we were pretty well set up.  I say "pretty well" as more quilts came in on Sunday that we didn't realize were going to be there.  But we did well!

 We didn't have any quilt frames to use for hanging the quilts.  Sharon, one of the other ladies, said she had been to a show that they showed the quilts on chairs.  For as small as this show was, it did turn out very nice.

 We also borrowed quilt stands for some of the quilts.

And we did a bed turning.  The top quilt is an older yo-yo quilt.  It was sooo heavy.  Lots of beautiful quilts!   When you are a behind the scenes person, you worry about so many things.  But all in all, it was a very beautiful show.

Monday I sewed and sewed and sewed.  I am now ready for borders on the Orca Bay quilt.  My friend Jean took this picture for me, she even had it on her blog.   Won't be working on it much this weekend, we have a Family Reunion and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are coming a few days early.  Happy sewing!

It's Back!

My machine is back!  All ready for me to spend the summer sewing.  I'm so happy and excited.  I do have a few things to show you.  I didn't totally waste my time while the machine was in the shop.  (Even though I did spend a fair amount of time on Pinterest.)  First up, my hexies.

I finished cutting out the yellow centers I needed for where I am at with this project.  I currently have 52 hexies cut and ready to be put together.  Not exactly sure how many I'll need as these are big hexagons, but I am trying to make it for a king size bed.  So... if I make one flower a week, I'll have them done in a year.  Do I want to make that kind of commitment?  Should I make that kind of commitment?  I know I can handle it during the summer, but once I'm back to work, it will be hard to keep up.  I'll think about that one some more.

I made a few more string blocks.  Love making these as they are so no mind for me.  Great for when I want to take it easy but not think about whether I have my points or seams matched.

These are the little four patch blocks I've been sewing up as leaders and enders as I work on the Orca Bay quilt.  Speaking of which, I think I have about 4 more rows to go and then its border time!  Hope you're enjoying your sewing/quilting time!

Took Off

I took my machine in to be fixed, cleaned and oiled today.  Should be about 4 to 5 days and I'll have it back.  In the mean time, I set up my Featherweight machine and took off sewing.  I finished the jelly roll racer.

This one was made with 2.5 inch strips that are not a jelly roll.  I love that you can take your own fabrics and create a jelly roll to use.  I also love the way the way the pattern presents itself.  Like working with variegated yarn, you just don't know how the pattern will evolve.

P.S.  Another row added to the Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  :-)

The Best Laid Plans

I had all weekend to think about the goals I wanted to set for myself this summer.  I decided I was going to work on and finish one small project a week while working on a larger one.  For example, my Orca Bay Mystery quilt as the large project.  I figured a small project could be a block for a larger quilt, like a hexagon.  Or it could be a small quilt, table runner or topper, a tote, etc.

So today I was working on a row of the Orca Bay.  I found a jelly roll racer kit in the closet from Quilt Day.  I decided to joined the racer strips as leaders and enders. (A la Bonnie Hunter) I finished joining them, even though my row wasn't done, I decided to do the first pass of the racer.  I was barely 2 feet into sewing the strips together when my thread got caught.

Can you see it hanging there?  No matter what I did, I couldn't get it out.  So I guess I'm taking my machine in to be fixed.  While it's in the shop, I'll get it cleaned and oiled.  This wasn't my plan, but "The best laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry."   There you have it, a new plan of how I'm starting my summer sewing.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Yesterday our Quilt Guild had a Mini Retreat Day.   It was a day of sewing from 9- 5.  So much fun to see what everyone is working on and their fabric choices.  Thoughts of   "Ooooh I want to make one like that." playing through you head.  

I worked on my Orca Bay mystery quilt and it's twice as big as it was.  Still lots of pinning.  LOL

I'm still loving how this quilt is turning out!

Another Row

I have another row done!  Row one and row two are sewn together.

When I look at the rows in person, I have a hard time seeing the pattern.  But when I see the picture, it shows up clearly.   

And it took a lot of pins for me to sew them together.  LOL Yes, I am a pinner and here is a picture after the rows were pinned. There are a ton of seams and I wanted to be sure that none of the seams slipped and bunched up.  I am going to machine quilt this.  I can't image trying to quilt something like this by hand, but I'm sure it's been done.

Whoa!

 Whoa!  I didn't realize it has been that long since I posted.  So sorry.   I have been busy, but I felt like I was droning on and on about the baby steps of progress I was making on the Orca Bay Mystery quilt, so I took a little break.  OK, more than a little break.

 I finally finished the rectangle blocks made with all the red string blocks and little winged HST.   Felt like a major accomplishment.

This morning I put the first row together.  This quilt has pushed me beyond anything I have every done before.  So many little pieces.  I'm really rather proud of myself.  It looks very busy, but when all the blocks are together, it will be wonderful.  I'm just hoping I get all the blue string blocks going in the right direction.

I've been cutting hexies for the days that I want to sit and stitch as the day is too hot to do much else.  These are from a line of fabric from Judie Rothermel called "Aunt Grace through the year".  They came out in 2003, almost 10 years old.   It really doesn't seem like 2003 was that long ago.  Most of them have a beige background and I'm only making one of each of those.  The rest of the fabric I'm going to cut into strips to be used in scrap quilts.  I want the flowers to have more color, but I did want to use the fabric.

And last but not least, is my little granddaughter in a tutu I made for her.  We were up to visit after Easter and the tutu and sunglasses were a couple of Easter gifts.

Last weekend was the last day that Prairie Star Quilts was open.  I'm so sad, I feel like I have lost a friend.  The ladies were always so nice, friendly and helpful.  I'll miss you PSQ!  But the weekend was also fun, as my sister Deb came and spent the night.  We sewed Friday night and again Saturday afternoon.  She worked on string blocks for a friend at work.  So I made some string blocks too.  They go together so fast.  It helped to lift the sadness. :-)

Spring Break Is Over

Spring Break is over and tomorrow will be back to the regular schedule.  But I did get some things done and I'm very happy with all that I accomplished.

First, I did finish covering the curtains for the Home Office.  I started with a pair of curtains I bought at Target as the liner.  There is strong sun at these windows and I didn't want to fade the "good" fabric.  Once I got going, it went pretty fast.

I cut out some more hexies.  As you can see, really heavy on the blue and yellows.  So I need to buy some more of the 30's reproduction fabrics in pinks, lavenders and greens.  Also some orange and red would be good.

Much to my relief, I finished sewing all the little winged HST.  One hundred of them have been sewn to a plain white triangle.  

The other 250 are being used to complete a rectangle block using the red string blocks .  I have most of them pinned and just these few are sewn.

All in all, a very productive Spring Break.

Woo Hoo

I think I finished sewing my 350 winged half square triangles.  Only one small problem:

 I had 20 black wings leftover.  Not sure if I missed counted the number of wings or the number of half square triangles.  Time will soon tell.

 We had an out of town funeral visitation to go to last night, so I took all of my winged HST and a tin of pins and pinned winged HST to their companions.  I ran out of travel time before I ran out of HSTs to pin.  SO I pinned for an hour and still didn't get them all done.  I've been thinking about the amount of time I have spent on the making of this quilt. It is truly a labor of love.  Love of quilting.

A Day Late

I know, I'm a day late for Add It Up Wednesday.  But I'm still going to bore you with my results.  :-)



Step 1  228 quarter square triangles - DONE
Step 2   72 blue string blocks - DONE
Step 3  350 half square triangles - DONE
Step 4    64 red string blocks -DONE
Step 5  700 black triangles -DONE
Step 6  112  2.5 inch black squares -DONE
            112  2.5 inch light squares - DONE
              52 2.5 inch red squares - DONE
              26 light Ohio Star blocks - DONE
              26 dark Ohio Star blocks - DONE
Step 7  sew the 700 black triangles to the 350 half square triangles (2 on each side) -DONE
Step 8  127 red string triangles combined with the 254 half square winged triangles - 6
            100 half square winged triangles set with 100 light triangles -50
Step 9  The big finish:  put all of the blocks together in rows and sew rows together. -zero
Step 10  Make borders using 100 blocks made in Step 8. - zero

I've been trying to do some of the blocks as leaders and enders to help with completing the quilt.  It has given me some hope.

I'm off work this week for Spring Break and I had high hopes for completing this quilt.  But, I needed to work on it and it only.  And I was fickle and did not.  I traced hexies.  I trimmed and sewed string blocks together for quilt day.  (Couldn't finish that project as I was short 2 blocks.  I thought I had all the blocks sewn when I brought them home.  Oh well, what's another UFO.)  I cleaned in my sewing room.  I defrosted my upright freezer so that it's ready for this years harvest.  (Strawberries are already blooming, won't be long before I'm picking them!)  Started curtains for the home office.

As you can see I have all kinds of excuses reasons why I haven't completed this quilt.

Spring!

I love lilacs and ours are in full bloom!

You can hardly see the shed behind the bushes.

I finished ironing my fabrics for hexies and my cutting table looks much better.  However, I still have the hexies to trace, so it's not put away yet.  But it's getting there.  I also worked on my winged HST.  I have 120 left to go!  Then I can finish the blocks they are a part of and put the quilt together.  I can hardly wait.

I also started some curtains for my husband's home office.  (We share it, but it's decorated the way he wanted.)  I'm not sure why I said I would make the curtains, but I have decided I'm done doing that.  It's feels like it's taking away valuable quilting time.  LOL  It's a lot of work and I didn't have much luck with the last set of curtains I tried to make.  And I'm not really making them, I'm covering a pair of curtains as I needed a lining and I had way to much trouble with doing that last time.  Either way,  they will end up OK and we'll use them, or worse case, we're buying curtains.  And I'm going to let him do it!

Weekend Fun

It's been a busy weekend.  The weather has been so beautiful and warm that everything that we normally do in the Spring has been pushed up to now.  Chores that I do in April and May are needing done now.  But that's OK, I'm loving the weather.  Saturday we went to a Master Gardener Conference and we always come away inspired and full of ideas of things we want to try and do.  Went to a lecture by one of the owners of Loess Hills Lavender Farm.  We're thinking of adding lavender to the butterfly garden as they seem to love the plants. I currently have it in my herb garden.

Today I've been working on winged triangles for the Orca Bay Mystery quilt and tracing and cutting out hexies.  Not sure why I was in the mood to press fabric and get the hexies ready, but it was very relaxing.

I love 1930's reproduction fabrics.

I bought this case at Joann Fabrics years ago.  

The top of the case is vinyl and it's great to see all of your fabrics.  I'm putting what's leftover of the fat quarters in here and the bigger pieces are being wrapped on the comic boards and going on the shelf.  I think the desire to cut hexies may have been related to organizing my quilting room.  It's still a big mess of fabric everywhere.    

Part Two Of Busy Weekends

So...this past weekend my friend Patti and I had a mini retreat at her cabin like we did last year.  I don't have as many pictures as last year, but I do have a few.  First:

 Patti worked on a new quilt.  One block done.  It's a pattern she bought from Red Pepper Quilts.  The pattern is called Labyrinth and I love Patti's grey and yellow fabrics.

And this is what I got done.  One hundred wing blocks for the Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  I also trimmed my red string blocks and removed all of the paper. (Removing all the paper was a job.)

Most of our sewing was done on Sunday as on Saturday we did a Shop Hop of these five stores:
Adel Quilting & Dry Goods Co.
Creekside Quilting
The Quilt Block
Quilter's Cupboard
Quilt Connection

Patti had never been on a Shop Hop, so I had to go with her.  What a great weekend!  Thanks Patti!!

Add It Up and Box Number Three

Here it is, Wednesday!  Time for add it up.  Loving the progress I'm making.


Step 1  228 quarter square triangles - DONE
Step 2   72 blue string blocks - DONE
Step 3  350 half square triangles - DONE
Step 4    64 red string blocks -DONE
Step 5  700 black triangles -600 are cut out
Step 6  112  2.5 inch black squares -DONE
            112  2.5 inch light squares - DONE
              52 2.5 inch red squares - DONE
              26 light Ohio Star blocks - DONE
              26 dark Ohio Star blocks - DONE
Step 7  sew the 700 black triangles to the 350 half square triangles (2 on each side) - zero
Step 8  127 red string triangles combined with the 254 half square winged triangles - zero
            100 half square winged triangles set with 100 light triangles - zero
Step 9  The big finish  put all of the blocks together in rows and sew rows together. -zero
Step 10  Make borders using 100 blocks made in Step 8. - zero

 Now for box number 3.

These are leftover from the Craft Fair days.  I have 7 half towels and the tops are made for all of them.  The paper pattern in the upper left belonged to my mother.  I made a plastic template to use when I made them. I'm going to finish these off and keep them.  They need to be sewn together, a button hole made and a button sewn on.  May take a while, as I'm going to squeeze it in while working on Orca Bay.

Box Number Two

Box number 2 has come off the shelf to reveal it's contents.  Here it is:

The date on the back of the pattern is 1989.  The 2 yards of beige cotton and the seed packet fabric is going into the stash and the pattern will be given away.  We moved into our house in 1997, so this was almost 10 years old at the time of the move.  Time for it to move off the shelf.  How bad is that????

I also spent time cutting out triangles for the Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  It's still moving forward, I haven't stalled out yet. :-)

Add It Up Wednesday

I'm so excited for this weeks numbers.  (I guess it helps to skip a week. LOL)



Step 1  228 quarter square triangles - DONE
Step 2   72 blue string blocks - DONE
Step 3  350 half square triangles - DONE
Step 4    64 red string blocks -55 done
Step 5  700 black triangles -20 are cut out
Step 6  112  2.5 inch black squares -DONE
            112  2.5 inch light squares - DONE
              52 2.5 inch red squares - DONE
              26 light Ohio Star blocks - DONE
              26 dark Ohio Star blocks - DONE
Step 7  sew the 700 black triangles to the 350 half square triangles (2 on each side) - zero
Step 8  127 red string triangles combined with the 254 half square winged triangles - zero
            100 half square winged triangles set with 100 light triangles - zero
Step 9  The big finish  put all of the blocks together in rows and sew rows together. -zero
            Make borders using 100 blocks made in Step 8. - zero

Like I said, I'm so excited as I finished all the half square triangles.  Adding the black triangles to them is going to be another major task.  Just keep plugging a away!

Focused

Yesterday I tried to be focused.  I focused on some household chores and on making red string blocks for the Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  I feel like I did fairly well.

I still have more blocks to make and I was running out of red strings so I raided my 3.5 inch strips of red.  I cut some of them 1.5 inch and 1 inch so I would use the whole strip.  Then I realized I could also cut them 1.25 and 1 inch.  Eureka!  (I like the variety of widths.  And it's the little things in life.)

Today has not been so focused.  Any time I leave the house it takes me a while to get back into the groove of the project.  And I left two times, so you can only guess how unfocused I am!  Not as much progress today.

It's no wonder I have so many UFO's.