A few more Monkey blocks

I'm really having fun using my small scraps to make these Monkey blocks.....To make the ones pictured above I mostly used a wad of 5-in. squares that I'd had hanging around FOREVER, and was able to slice and dice them and turn them into cute little blocks.

Since the blocks are only 5-inches finished, I'm going to need a lot of them to make anything out of them, so I'm glad I'm enjoying the process. I'll keep you posted!

I'm not going to be able to do much quilting for the next few weeks... I'm going on a 3-week trip with two friends across China! I wonder if I'll find any quilting fabric over there?

New table, new project

I just inherited this quilting work table from a friend and fellow-quilter who was rearranging her house and no longer had a spot for it. It's fantastic! It's made from a door, I think, and has detachable adjustable metal legs. I was able to set it at just the perfect height for cutting fabric.

Now that I've got this great table I decided to make something new from my bags of scraps. I'm using Bonnie Hunter's pattern, Little Money, to make scrappy 5-in. monkey wrench blocks from some of my favorite brightly colored scraps. Since I've got shopping bags full of scraps at this point, this could be a pretty large quilt. We'll see!

Orca Bay finished

I'm finally posting some photos of the Orca Bay mystery quilt I completed this spring using Bonnie Hunter's pattern. I'm really pleased with how it came together.

The photo above shows the quilting, which I had done by Wilma at  

Christian Lane Quilters. She suggested that I have the quilting done in blue thread, and that I use a blue back for the quilt, rather than the yellowish one I had provided. I'm so glad I went with her advice, as I love the quilting and feel that the back is a much better match for the quilt.

The photo above shows the blue quilt back that Wilma suggested, as well as gives you a better look at the quilting.

I'm hooked on string piecing now, and am trying to figure out another project to make where I can use that technique.  I put together the block above, using a pattern called weathervane, but I'm not sure I'll make any more of these. I'm not sure there is enough contrast between the pieces. And maybe there's too much contrast in the blues I chose for the string pieces. Anyway, it's fun to fool around with it.