On The Wall Today

Well, I have been able to make progress on Orca Bay.  I have all of the hour glass blocks made.  These are the units needed.  Plus a few others.

They turned out better than expected. I usually have trouble with this pattern.  Only two went in the trash. The rest will work just fine.

Here are 50 of the 72 string blocks needed.  The hardest part of this step was committing to a color.  I know my primary color is going to be yellows/oranges and I had thought I would use greens with that.  But my daughter and mother both said they liked blue.  So blue it is.  Not to lead either of them to believe this might end up on their bed.  Deciding that might end up being the hardest part.

Be sure to visit Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times to see all of the great projects there today.

And for directions to Orca Bay visit Bonnie Hunter here.

Have a great day.

Julie

Scrappy Mess

String blocks in progress.  See there on the left - two are done!  That leaves just 70 more to be made.  Yesterday was spent cutting strips.  The box on the left is full of actual scrap strips but that wasn't going to be enough variety.  Which led to the two boxes on the right.  They are 1 1/2" and 2" strips. Most of the 2" strips won't be used except for the corners. I'm finding that 2" may be just a little too wide to fit a minimum of 5 strips per 3 1/5" paper piece.  I actually read the directions more than one time to convince myself that they were really supposed to be only 3 1/5".  They are. 

Here are my 1/4 square triangle blocks.  We need 224 but I'm sure there are a few extra here.  At last count 235.  It is always nice to have a few extra available. That way when you get to the end of where they are being used there is still a variety to choose from  But what does one do with the left overs. I'm still trying to figure that out from the border pieces of my Roll, Roll, Cotton Bole quilt.  I have quite a few of these Here purple and green sections left over.  They are too nice to be thrown away and too few to make anything.  So into the scrap, not really a block, storage tote.  Guess the left overs from these triangle blocks will join them.  Maybe Bonnie Hunter will come up with a design to use the leftover almost block pieces:)

And that is my progress to this time on my Bonnie Hunter Orca Bay quilt. You can find the directions for it here.

Well, enough messing around it is back to the sewing machine for me.

Have a great day.

Julie

Orca Bay Week One

Bonnie is doing a link up of our Orca Bay progress.  So I am doing a second post this morning specifically for posting my progress. 
Here are my 1/4 square triangles all ready to be pressed open.  This was this morning (way to early). And if blogger wasn't giving me fits I would show you the picture from two hours later with all but 60 of these pressed and ready to be paired up.  Oh, well blogger wins.  No second picture.

 

Making Progress

Here are the 5" blocks that I made this last week. I haven't decided what else I am going to do to them. I am sure there will be some sashing and maybe another small block to border them.  They are for a table topper for a blanket chest my son made when he was in high school. 

Here are the 1/4 square triangles that are for Orca Bay  (see it here). This is Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt.  This picture was at 5:00 this morning.  Right now there are only three more stacks of 20 to be pressed open. So I am hoping to get these sewn together in the next day or two.

Don't forget to visit Judy L's Design Wall Monday here. 

Have a great day!

Julie

Orca Bay Is Here

                                                    

Yes, right here in Kansas. Or where ever you might be.  Just go Here to find Bonnie Hunter's latest mystery quilt. 

I can't wait to get started. But I suppose I should go to work first. They might not understand another day off for quilting.  Hmmm, wonder what we will be doing with 448 quarter square triangles.  Something good, I suppose. 

Of course there is still one little problem for me.  I can't decide for sure what colors I want to use.  I keep pulling colors and laying them next to each other then putting them back.  MY SEWING ROOM IS A DISASTER.  I was hoping that the first clue was going to make me decide.  Nope, not going to happen.  The first clue uses the neutrals and the blacks and I already know what they look like.  So I guess there is yet another week of indecision.  One thing for sure - my quilt won't be red, blue and black.  Mainly, because I have just about exhausted my supply of red.

So off to work for a day of hurry up and wait. Then home to sew, sew, sew.

Have a great day.

Julie

On The Wall Today

Yes, this really is still what I'm working on. And as of this week it has leaves on either side.  They are sewn on so they are probably staying.  I have an enormous amount of bonus half square triangles left over from my Christmas tree quilt.  You can see it here http://juliekayequilts.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-presents.html  I don't have time this morning to figure out the link thing right now.
Anyway, I think those bonus triangles are going on as a border to the cardinals.  We'll see.

I am also working on this block.  It looks pretty large in that picture.  But it will finish at 5".  I don't have figured out yet how I'm going to use these. But I am ready to get at making more.  I started with some 1 1/2" scraps and started making 1/2 sq triangles.  Then figured out the rest as I went along.  I tried using EQ7 but I just couldn't make the measurements work for me. I wanted to work with strips and squares I already have cut and EQ wasn't doing that.  So it all worked out in the end.  But even though I wanted EQ so much that I finally bought it.  It has still not helped me at all.  Someday I will stay away from the sewing machine long enough to figure out how EQ works.  Maybe.

Have a good day and a great week.

Julie

Nothing Much Done

I just have not done much in the way of sewing for the last two weeks.  I started on the cardinal runner at least two weeks ago.  And this is all the farther it is.

I made three other blocks trying to get something to go on either side of the cardinals. None of them worked for me though. I think the tree will work but still need something else for the other side.

And as can be seen, I did get my b.o.m. done for Holton. And I don't even need it for another week or two. I am usually working on blocks the night before or even the morning of needing them. So I have accomplished something.

This is where I was trying to stretch my red and green fabrics to make a back for my Smith Mountain Morning.  That did not work.  I was trying to use the blocks that were made for the cardinal runner. (Those three blocks can be seen blending in with the SMM top.)  I just could not get that piece of green to be large enough. So that is now all folded up and put away. And no I still don't like those blocks for the cardinal runner. They don't have enough color and it just makes it too long.  I do have another piece of material (11 yards) that will obviously be large enough to cover the back. It was just something that I did not want to use.
If I sound whiny, I am. After all, it is Monday.

Julie