Sunday Stash Report and Ocra Bay Update

This week I was a good girl and didn't acquire any more fabrics, but I didn't finish anything to count either.  My stats remain the same at:

Used this Week: 0 metres

Used year to Date: 15 metres

Added this Week: 

Added Year to Date: 7.6 metres
Net Used for 2012: -7.4 metres

I hope to have a big finish next week, as I wrap up my Orca Bay mystery quilt.

We had our first real snowfall this weekend and I took advantage of the freed-up time (from a meeting that was cancelled) to finish sewing the pieces of Orca Bay.  I had to finish the "birds" and then sew them to the red string blocks.  Imagine my surprise when I had too many birds left.  I recounted my red strings and I was 32 short!  I'm not sure how that happened - I must of been interrupted when I was cutting the paper bases.

Anyways, I got them finished this morning and after a visit from my grandson and his parents (dad came over to help me put new blinds up in the living room), I played with the layout on my living room floor, the only place big enough to do it.  Even so, I still misjudged its size and had to push furniture out of the way. As I was laying out the blocks, I was sort-of paying attention to the blocks to ensure no two fabrics are beside each other and I was amazed at the final result!  I didn't have to move a single piece - Bonnie is so right when she says it will all work together - the eye blends the colours together so beautifully.

Did anyone else have pieces left over?  I had two of these left, this one and a black version that I made a mistake on:

I couldn't leave them on the floor though.  If I left them out to go back and forth to the sewing machine, Daisy (my dog) would steal the pieces and hide them in her crate!  She stole one right from the bucket I had put them in to bring them upstairs before I even got started but left them alone while I was working on them.

Don't the pieces look wonderful piled in there?  I've done a pretty close estimate of the number of pieces I have sewn at 4,352.  I have another 420 to add when I put the border on. 

I'm going to try webbing the top Bonnie-Hunter fashion so I've stacked the blocks in columns and rows.  If I'm successful I'm going to do a more detailed tutorial because I'm still a little confused on how it works.

I'm finally making good use of these Fons & Porters pins I bought a few years ago.  I have modified them by adding numbers to the back:

I'm using the U (up) pins to make the tops of the columns and the column number; and R (Right or Row) to mark the row number as I stack.

Here's the beginning - wish me luck!

And just because, here are some updated pictures of the grandbabies.

Zoey helped me take down the Christmas decorations (well, played with the tissue).  I just love her Pebbles hairdo.

And Alex tried to make show angels today.  It was a little hard because there was ice on top of the snow.  We had everything yesterday, from snow to freezing rain to weird little mini-snowballs - I thought it was hail but it was funny puff-balls of snow.  There was even a funnel cloud spotted in Vancouver.  Today was beautiful and sunny, but more snow is on the way.

PS: Have you discovered the "Just Take 2" quilt-along yet?  Check out my previous post, about 3 paragraphs down for more infor. I've done the first 4 of 6 blocks, and 5 more were released today.  I did mine in aqua and white, but I not sure if I want to do a whole quilt in it.  It just doesn't have the punch of red & white, but that's another topic for a different day.

Weekly update

Lately, I've been posting weekly updates thanks to Bonnie Hunter and her Orca Bay Mystery Quilt Link-Up.  It's been a great motivator to get things done, and it is the most progress I've made on a single quilt top since I took a class with Judy Niemeyer in 2008.  I finished that quilt flimsy in just 3 weeks, but it's still not quilted.

(I would love to have it custom-quilted, but it is out of the budget right now.  If (and that's a big IF) I can learn/improve my free-motion quilting skills, I might be tempted to tackle it, but that's not happening anytime soon.)

Since weekly updates worked so well, I'm going to commit to myself to at least update this blog weekly, with my progress on my latest projects.  I may try to participate in a few blog link-ups, such as Judy Laquidara's Sunday Stash report and Design Wall Mondays.  I really want to manage my stash better (i.e. quit accumulating and start using!) and I like the way Judy keeps track of hers.  She doesn't look at what she already has (good thing!) but only tracks what comes in and goes out.  She counts the yardage when a top is completed, when the quilt has been backed and quilted, and when the binding is added.  She also counts what has been gifted/donated/or otherwise what is disposed of.  The goal is to end the year with less than what you started with.  So my 2012 report to date (9 days in) looks like this:

Used this Week: 15 metres (approx. 15 metres given away to my sister and niece)

Used year to Date: 15 metres

Added this Week: 7.6 metres (5 metres fabric purchased for Zoey's big-bed quilt, 2.6 metres brought from New Zealand by my daughter)

Added Year to Date: 7.6 metres
Net Used for 2012: -7.4 metres

I'm also going to update my UFO (Un-Finished Objects) list and try to clear some of those up this year.  I'm already planning Christmas presents with some of those UFOs.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to have some ongoing projects.  I'm still working on my Hexie Madness and Farmer's Wife blocks, and I'm considering "Just Take Two"  by Gay of Sentimental Stitches and Brenda of Dear Jane fame. They are intended to be red and white blocks in honour of the Infinite Variety quilt show, a collection of red and white quilts collected by Mrs. Joanna S. Rose. I would have started by now, but I don't have any decent red in my stash, and can't decide if I'm going to buy some, or make it in aquas, chocolates and white to match my living room. I have lots of Sweetwater's Pure left from making a lap quilt earlier this past year, and some Bella Solid in Blue Raspberry to match so I'm leaning towards that (it sure would make a dent in my stash!). 

I'm looking forward to a good, progressive New Year!

Orca Bay update.. or how I spent my New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve has never been a party night for me, unlike a lot of people.  As a teenager, I babysat as many kids as I could because it was good money.  As a young married woman, we hosted a party the first year we were married (2 weeks after the wedding) and we had a new baby the following year, so no parties after that.  Once I got divorced, parties were out of the question (and the budget).  As the kids got older, I would invite some single (or want-to-be single) girlfriends over to scrapbook but now that the kids are grown and married, I'm back to babysitting!!  Life is truly a circle!

Zoey at midnite

Although Zoey's mom and dad didn't have big plans, they did invite 2 couples over to play games and cards, so I offered to take Zoey overnight so they could have a sleep-in.  Funny thing is, she always sleeps in at my house and never wakes up before 7:45 (at home, she wakes up about 6:30).  My daughter keeps asking for my secret, but I don't what it is - just that both my grandkids have always slept well here.

After putting my little sweetie to bed at 7 p.m., I heading to my sewing room for some Orca Bay sewing. I made good headway on those red strings and created a nice mess.

 Before I went upstairs to check on Zoey and welcome her into the New Year with a kiss (my secret tradition with every child I've been with on this special evening), I played with my Orca Bay pieces. 

I did have the white block surrounded in the same way, but....

Imagine my surprise when I checked my blog list at 12:03 a.m. my time.  Bonnie had surprised everyone with an early reveal!  I was so close on my guess - if only I had figured how those white blocks fit in!

So I played some more!  My design wall is too small to hold the full width but I'm liking it!  My goal is the top put together by the next Monday link-up.  Wish me luck!

A little late to the party, but I made good progress this week!

Even though I'm late joining Bonnie's linky-thingie, I'm pleased with my progress on my Orca Bay mystery quilt.  I had 4 days off with Christmas and Boxing Day, and I managed to get some sewing in every single day, plus this evening after work.  I only completed one block for Step 6:

Each week, I do at least one unit of the step so I can check for mistakes.  I really couldn't do more on this step, because I still had to finish Step 1, but I got that done on Saturday:

All 224 plus about 10 extra - I didn't think I cut that many extra!

Then I was able to sew up the rows for Step One's block.  First I cut the 56 red blocks and assembled the middle row, chain-piecing all the way:

I didn't get much done on Christmas Day, because I got to spend the day with these little sweeties. 

Zoey is now sitting up on her own, so she was able to enjoy her new toys!  Big cousin Alex loved showing her what to do with them - he is so good with her.  We only got to spend the morning with him and his parents, though.  They left at noon to head to New Zealand for two weeks, to visit his other grandparents.  I miss him already, as I get to see him almost every day.

On Monday, I worked more on Step 6.  First I did the rows ofwith the dark 2 1/2" squares:

And thought I had finished all the ones with the neutral squares, but knew something was wrong because I had a bunch of QTS's left over.  It was time to leave the house to go to a friend's for Boxing Day dinner, so I couldn't look to see where I went wrong.

I had almost all day yesterday to sew - adding up to about 12 hours of time in my sewing room.  There are advantages to being single and having grown children! 

I put aside Step 6 for a bit, and worked on finishing up Step 2. 

Alex had helped me take off the paper on the first batch on Saturday, and I got the remaining 36 finished yesterday.  I also created a lovely pile of clippings I'm going to turn into some crumb blocks, then I'll toss the rest.

Once I figured out I didn't cut enough neutral squares (whoops!), I finished the last of the rows for Step 6 and put them aside for pressing. Before I press the piles, I decided to work on Step 3, and press those at the same time.  Tonight I started sewing together my first 185 pairs of tiny triangles, and then I cut out the remaining 165 pairs, plus a good stack of dark triangles so I can work on Step 5.  Maybe I'll be caught up by this coming weekend, if Step 7 isn't too onerous!

So, my recap is:

Step 1 - complete

Step 2 - complete

Step 3 - 185 pairs sewn, 165 to go

Step 4 - 14 triangles done, 114 to go

Step 5 - 12 done, 338 to go

Step 6 - 1 block done, 165 rows sewn.  Need to be pressed and assembled.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

Orca Bay, Part 5 of ....?

It's on to the next step of Orca Bay, and I've decided to keep the name since I live on the West Coast of Canada, less than 100 km where orca pods J, K & L live year-round. I realize I am very fortunate in having seen these whales in their native environment many times. Once I find a picture I'll have to post it, but since I've had to restore my computer twice in the last month.

I tackled Step 5 in a small way, just a few to get the feel for cutting out the tiny triangles and adding them to my HSTs.

I'm rapidly running out of black, so I've dipped into my blue, brown and green drawers to find the very darkest shades to add - as long as it reads "dark", anything will work in my quilt! After doing about a dozen, I decided I better go back and finish Step One before I did any more on Steps 3 & 5.

Here are 310 QTS's (and a few to spare) ready for sewing on my mini design boards.  I might have shown these before - I got the tutorial from Lori Holt's website "Bee in my Bonnet", and have put them to good use!

Chain-piecing went fast, and a few leader/enders got sewn up as well!

Then the inevitable pressing began.  Thanks to one of the links on Bonnie's Monday linky-thingy, I learned to press them before cutting them apart - what a time-saver that is.

Next, pair them up so no two fabrics are the same and 155 pairs were laid out ready to sew.

But I had to take a break - my kids invited me to go to the Christmas Tree Farm with them - how could I turn down the opportunity to participate in my grandchildrens' first trip!  It turned out to be a decent day - mild and a peak of sunshine, with only a sprinkle of rain as we were about to leave.  Since Alex is going to New Zealand on Christmas Day with his parents to visit his paternal grandparents, he didn't get a tree but he helped Uncle Rob-Rob carry their tree to the truck!

Uncle Rob-Rob got his name a couple of years ago, when Alex was first learning to talk.  My daughters' friend's husband's name is Rob as well, and we quite often refer to the 'boys' as Rob, Rob and Ray (my other daughter's husband).  Alex starting calling each of the Robs Uncle Rob-Rob, and the name(s) have stuck!

Whoops, I forgot to turn this one!  After I got back to the house, I made up this panel apron and bonus potholders so I can bake cookies with Alex later this week. 

I finally got over my fear of free motion quilting and decided I couldn`t wreck these too badly, so I tackled it!  It was a lot easier than I thought, and I will definitely practice more. 

Then I got back to Orca Bay!

I`ve cut out 160 pairs for Step 3, only 160 to go, then 700 more triangles for the wings.  I also got the 224 quarter triangle squares sewn tonight, just need to press them and measure/trim and Step 1 will be done. 

Good thing I have a 4-day weekend coming up - 2 whole days after Christmas with no obligations so I plan on sewing and getting caught up!



Have a good week sewing - to see what every else has done with Orca Bay so far, check out Bonnie's linky-thingy (her technical term ;o) at http://www.quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html.



And then there were four (steps, that is!)

As Christmas is getting closer, it's tougher to get to the sewing room, but I've managed to get a few red string blocks done.  I am really loving these blocks - I also tried a couple of new things this week that I'll keep doing in the future.

First, I sewed the strings together to the full length of the first strip, except for the very last ones.

Then, I followed Bonnie's revised cutting instructions to cut the blocks in half first, then use the companion angle template to trim the triangles to size.

This one got sewn a little crooked, but I was able to fix it by trimming it after cutting it in half.

I also like this method because the paper blocks are a little larger then we needed, so I could adjust the trimming so the seams fell further away from the corners (this is one of the blocks I cut to size first before cutting in half).

It makes for 2 different looking triangles!

Don't they look pretty all lined up!

Making a crumb block was a lot easier with these trimmings - but I don't think they have as much character.  Check out everyone else's progess at Bonnie's Linky-thing at http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/mystery-monday-link-up.html

Other things of note:

This was my view driving home from work the other day - the full moon rising over the local mountains.  The pointy one in the centre is Mt. Cheam, and it is only about 15 km from my home.

I have a collection of nativities, but last year I had to buy the Fisher-Price one for my grandson, Alex, to play with (and learn the Christmas story).  I have to set it up on his little table, because my dog likes to try to steal the little people (jealous, a little?)

And Zoey was mesmerized by the feel of the branches of the Christmas tree.  She didn't bother with the lights or the decorations, but kept reaching for the prickly branches.

Ouch, Gramma!

By the Third Week of the Mystery, Bonnie had me make:

350 Half-Square Triangles  (322 to go)

74 Little String Blocks (36 to go)

& 224 Hour-Glass Blocks (156 to go)!

The Twelve Days of Christmas kept going through my mind with these new verses!  I have a lovely pile of blue strings & crumbs building up, so I couldn't resist making a little (3 1/2") crumb block from the trimmings of my string blocks.  Not sure if I'll make more, but it is a great way to keep things out of my garbage can!

I'm thinking of my mystery quilt as a marathon, not a race, so as long as I plug away at each step until the next one comes along, I'll be happy for now. It's just so busy between work, getting ready for Christmas and playing with the little ones that I'm not going to stress over yet.