Orca Bay Eve

Happy New Year's Eve!  And, apparently it's also the Eve of Orca Bay.  Step7 of Orca Bay came out yesterday.  And the final step is coming out TOMORROW! just in time for New Year's.  So, I thought I should get a bit of work done today, to ensure that I'm not totally behind when the assembly instructions arrive in the morning.

This is what I did today.  First a few wing triangles from step 5 (finally).  I only did about 10 of these, but I have lots more pieces cut and they have been going together pretty quickly.  However, I am still working on the 1/2 square triangles that form the basis of these (54 more to go).  I had to buy some more blacks to finish these pieces, but I'm back in motion now.

From there, I attached the wings to 2 of my purple string triangles.  Just two - but it's a start and I can officially say I started on step 7 now :)


I can't wait to see the final step tomorrow - although I suspect it will be a couple of months before I actually finish all the remaining pieces for this quilt. But I'm not complaining ('cause Bonnie says we can't :)

Orca Bay progress - Dec 26

Happy Boxing Day!  Today is a day for staying home, in my opinion.  I try to avoid malls on boxing day, so I'm planning a quiet day at home.  That does not, however, mean I'm going to get much sewing done.  I snuck off for a few minutes this morning to do a couple of blocks from step 6 of Orca Bay.

So this is what's on my design wall (floor) today.  I'm not likely to get much more done, but at least I have one of each for this step, before step #7 comes out.  I still need to finish step 3, and start step 5 - and I suspect step 5 is going to feed into the clue this Friday, so I may have to find a few more minutes to disappear.

Check out more Orca Bay progress on Bonnie's blog today.  And hop over to Patchwork Times for more design walls.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone!  It's still early here.  We have a lovely light snow falling, so it is officially a white Christmas, despite expectations to the contrary.  Yes, those are actual snowflakes in the picture - the flash did a really neat job of lighting them.

One of my sons has been wearing a Santa hat around the house for the past week. They may be growing up, but they still get excited about Christmas. Of course it's now 8:00 and neither teenager is up yet.  What a change from years past, when they'd have me out of bed at 6am for stockings.  I wonder if I can do some quilting before they get up :)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Day!

Design Wall Monday - Dec 19

There isn't much on my design wall this week. In fact, the wall is empty.  On my ironing board, I have a few more blocks for step 3 of Orca Bay.  This makes 140 done, 210 left to go.  Step 5 builds on step 3, so I guess this should have been the one I finished earlier. I'll keep plugging away, and hopefully a bit later this week I'll get some of step 5 done, before Friday's clue.  Bonnie says we get to start assembling units on Friday, and I can't wait!

Check out Judy's blog to see what others have on their design walls.  And the Monday linkup for Orca Bay has lots more progress there.

Thinking ahead

Grant's quilt

Colin's quilt

Watercolour

Indigo

Pillow Cases

I've been thinking ahead to 2012 recently.  Judy is going to run another UFO challenge, so I'm rounding up my projects to see what I have to add to the list this year. The 2011 challenge was great, and I finished 10 projects out of the 12 on my list - and I didn't join the challenge until June.   So in 2012 I should be able to make excellent progress.  I love to play along - but next year I think my biggest challenge might be that I did such a good job this year, that I don't have very many UFOs hanging around.  That's a good thing, I know.  But I'm a little sad that I might be left out of the fun.

Here is what I have so far on my list to finish next year:

1. Grant's quilt
2. Colin's quilt
3. Watercolour star
4. Indigo star
5. pink and green baby quilt
6. pillow cases for ConKerr cancer (one of the 2 projects from 2011 that didn't get finished)
7. a stack and whack quilt that is cut out

That's only 7, so I need 5 more projects.  I have a number of small quilts waiting for binding, so they go on the list.  I have a "quilt as you go" project that I'm not enjoying, but I'd like to finish and get out of my house. And a few orphan blocks that could possibly be turned into medallion quilts.  But I think it's going to be a stretch to find 12 items for the UFO challenge.  I suppose that's good news, but I don't want to be left out of the fun.


In addition to the UFOs, and the Colour Palette Challenge, I'm thinking about challenging myself to make one baby quilt every month, for donation.  I tried that a couple of years ago, and petered out after about 4 months.  But maybe if I make it part of my UFO challenge (in that I don't want these to turn into UFOs :) ), then I'll be able to keep it up all year.  I really would like to see the end of some of my novelty fabrics this year.

Design Wall Monday - Dec 12

My design wall is pretty empty today,  I cleaned yesterday in preparation for Christmas visitors, and removing all the loose blocks from the wall was one of the steps.  Eariler yesterday it looked like this

Orca Bay is moving along.  I didn't get as much done as I had hoped this weekend.  22 more blocks still needed for step 1, and hundreds for steps 3 and 4.  But I have done a little of each step as it came out - these are 10 of the 22 blocks I have now finished for Step 4.

Rather than sewing yesterday, I cleaned.  The room is almost at a point where I can make the bed, which seems to be a requirement for having a visitor for the next 5 weeks :)  So I'll finish the cleaning tonight, but hopefully keep a little corner for some sewing - I do want to keep up with the new Orca Bay steps as they come out - at least one or two blocks each week.

Check out Judy's blog to see more Design Walls.  And hop over to Bonnie's for more Orca Bay progress this week.

Stash report - Dec 11

I haven't been up to much this week, but I did get a bit of work done on the Orca Bay mystery.  So I'm going to report my yardage for steps 2 through 4 today.

.75 yards - black and white half-square triangles for Orca Bay
.75 yards - orange string blocks for Orca Bay
1.5 yards - purple string blocks for Orca Bay

That's a total of 3 yards out for Orca Bay this week.  Nothing came in, so I am officially into the black again!  And over 100 yards used for the year.   This is probably where I will end up, since I have to turn my sewing room into the guest room tomorrow, for the next few weeks. I will keep Orca Bay handy, and hopefully do at least a couple of blocks for each step, just to keep current.  But other than that, there won't be much sewing going on until January.

Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 104.5 yards in, 106.0 yards out
Net for the year:  1.5 yards out

Check out Judy's blog for more stash reports.

Purple Strings!

Step 4 of Orca Bay came out yesterday.  This time, Bonnie is letting us play with our primary colour.  In my case, that means purple.  And course this is a Bonnie mystery, so that means more string blocks!  128 triangles, to be exact.

This pile of purple is now strings.  Soon (I hope) to become blocks.  I looked at Bonnie's directions, and all the cutting and trimming, and thought about alternatives.  Instead of 5-1/8" squares, which then get cut on the diagonal, why not a long 3-1/2" strip of strings, cut into triangles?  I don't know if that will save me any time, but it means I can simply cut all my bits to the same length to start.  I suspect there may be a reason my plan isn't ideal, but I'm going to forge ahead anyway :) 

Perhaps in the end I'll have a number of shorter pieces, and I'll switch to making a few squares to use them up. And I did notice as I hung my blocks that a lot of them have teeny tiny pieces in the corners.  Hopefully that won't cause me a lot of grief later.

In any event, here are my first 10 purple string triangles.  Only 118 more to go :)

Design Wall Monday - Dec 5

My design wall this week is an Orca Bay wall.  Step 2 and 3 are on the wall - parts of them, anyway.  I have the final 31 orange string blocks from step 2. And the first 12 (of 350) 2" half-square triangles.

In addition, the Blogger's BOM is still up on my wall.  And the latest Monday Mystery from Sherri.

I didn't make as much progress on Orca Bay as I had hoped over the weekend.  I had great plans, but this cold has knocked me flat, and I only managed about 2 hours of sewing in total all weekend.  That was enough to convert this pile of strings into 41 blocks to finish step 2.  And I pushed myself through a few half-square triangles, just so I would have some progress on step 3 to show today. 

So I guess it's back to black and white land for me this week.  Need to finish 40 more blocks for step 1, and 338 for step 3. Hopefully before step 4 comes out on Friday.

Check out Bonnie's blog for more links to Orca Bay progress.
And don't forget to have a look at the other design walls over at Judy's blog.

Stash Report - Dec 4

I've been working hard this week.  Finished 2 quilts, and made some progress on the Orca Bay mystery.  Unfortunately, none of that has resulted in anything I can count towards my stash report.  I plan to sew the rest of the orange string blocks today (only 41 to go), so I should have some usage to report for next week.

For now, my numbers are the same as last week
Stash Totals for this year:
Overall, 104.5 yards in, 103.0 yards out
Net for the year:  1.5 yards in

Check out Judy's blog for more stash reports

Another Finish

One more finish for this month. My monochromatic challenge is done for November.  This month, Judy challenged us to create something with black and white, and one other colour.  I picked red, and created a quilt that's been stewing in my mind for a few months.  Not named yet, and it still needs a hanging sleeve, but the quilt is done in time for this month's challenge.

It's loosely inspired by M. C. Escher's Metamorphosis (below). 

I enjoyed the process of creating this quilt, but I have pretty much had my fill of hexagons and Y-seams for quite some time.

Proof!

Before tomorrow's step is posted, I had to show that I did in fact manage to start on Step 2 of the Orca Bay mystery.  3 little 3.5" string blocks are done.  I might get a few more tonight, but I won't be anywhere near Bonnie's 72 blocks.  Plus my black and white QSTs - still only 180 of those (out of 224) done.  So I need to get them finished up too.

I think this weekend will be a Bonnie Mystery weekend.  That might get me caught up, depending how challenging she makes step 3 tomorrow :)