Orca Bay week 7

The Orca Bay mystery is on the verge of being solved! I spent a few minutes this morning joining some of the triangles we'd made in earlier weeks to form new rectangle-shaped unites, and was so pleased to see a pattern emerging. I think this is going to become a really great quilt! I'm looking forward to the final installment of the directions tomorrow, in honor of New Year's Day---can hardly wait to see what it will look like together.

BOTANICAL INSPIRATIONS

Here's a photo of a botany inspired quilt I made to be part of a quilt show that was organized by the Quilters' Guild of Brooklyn. The quilts will be on display at the Windsor Terrace Library, 160 East 5th Street Brooklyn, New York from January 4  through February 7, 2012.

The Opening Reception is Wednesday, January 4, 2012 from 6 - 7:30 p.m.
Here's the description of the show from the guild:

This array of 22 quilts is the result of our Guild’s Summer 2011 Challenge which was to design a 20” square based on the theme BOTANY. The challenge process offers quilters the opportunity to go beyond the familiar and comfortable. Here we present the very personal responses to the BOTANY theme in designs that have been inspired by poems, the mind’s eye, photos, nature’s tenacity, and quilters’ experiences. Just as varied are the different approaches to quilting - traditional, modern, abstract, realistic. They all draw upon the rich quilting vocabulary - assorted textiles, applique, embellishment, embroidery, painting, plus machine and hand stitching. 
If anyone is in the neighborhood, please come and introduce yourself!

Orca Bay Mystery, Week 6

Bonnie Hunter published the directions for Week 6 a day early this week, on Thursday instead of the usual Friday, but I was too busy finishing my Christmas preparations to even notice.

Nonetheless I managed to get a fair amount of cutting and sewing done over the holiday weekend. We had to combing the black-and-white hourglass units we'd made during Week 1 with a series of new squares, and presto! Ohio Stars!

So far I'm really happy with how this is coming together. Maybe my new enthusiasm will help me go back to some of the earlier steps and work towards finishing the number of units required? We'll see....

Orca Bay Progress

Now mind you, I'm not whining, but I'm finding it is taking more time than I imagined to made these string blocks, or string triangles, to be more accurate. I think I hava about half of them done now (they're not all in the photo) and I guess I just need to keep plugging away. I think I've accomplished even less on some of the other steps, so I have a ways to go to a completed quilt.

I guess I just have to relax and try not to worry about it. As they say in my yoga classes, the call it a "yoga practice" for a reason: it's not only about the reaching the goal, but about the journey as well.

Orca Bay Week 5

Over the weekend, I added triangular "wings" to most of the tiny black-and-white half square triangles that we'd made in Week 3. I'm getting a little concerned that I don't have a big enough variety of fabrics in my blacks and whites, and am thinking of going back into my stash to see what else I can come up with. Maybe there are some interesting pieces in there that I've overlooked---think I'll try to look through again and see if I can come up with a wider selection.

Ocra Bay Week 4

I grabbed some time yesterday evening and whipped up about a dozen segments for week 4 of the Orca Bay mystery quilt. The week 5 directions are published tomorrow morning, so I'm just in the nick of time!

Merry Christmas!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this quilt and posting it---I don't think I included it yet in the group of photos of quilts I've made in the past. This one goes back at least 10 years---maybe more---and it's a wall hanging that's about 2 feet wide and 3 feet long.
I hope you like it as much as I do! It's one of my favorite Christmas decorations to hang each year.

Scrappy Trip top finished

I just finished sewing the borders on the Scrappy Trip I've been working on, and I couldn't wait to take a photo, even though the light's not great. But you get the idea. It's a queen-sized quilt, and it is square. The colors are a little darker than they look in this photo. I'm pleased with how it came out, and I'm pleased to not have yet another UFO in my fabric closet to ignore. I plan to send it off to be machine quilted to I have time to work on Orca Bay and other projects. I'll post another photo when I get the entire quilt finished!

Scrappy trip borders

I've just finished sewing together all the blocks I'll need to make a border for the much-discussed scrappy trip quilt---hurrah! When I finish this post I'm going back to my sewing machine to attach them altogether, and then, hopefully, I'll complete the scrappy trip quilt top. Two reasons I'm working like mad today: I've got the day to my self (at least until 3 pm) AND I'm dying to get to step 4 of the Orca Bay mystery quilt, but I've promised myself I'd finish this last step on the Scrappy Trip top first so I don't end up with another UFO. Wish me luck! More photos soon, I hope.

Week 3---Orca Bay

I didn't have much time over the weekend to sew, but I made 16 tiny segments so I'd have something to post today, and so that I'd be keeping up, even if it's only in a very small way!