Orca Bay week two

I started right in in the blue string-pieced blocks called for in the directions in the 2nd week of Bonnie Hunter's current mystery quilt, Orca Bay. I think I've only done string piecing once before, so I was happy to have such detailed instructions about how to do it properly: the correct stich length, using the paper foundation, etc. It's addictive!

Time for a mystery quilt!

Actually, I DO NOT have time to be making a mystery quilt, but I've been checking in on Bonnie Hunter's blog Quiltville every now and then and noticed that she just happened to be starting a new mystery quilt one of the days I clicked on her site. It's called the Orca Bay Mystery. Since Bonnie seems to be all about using up scraps, and I've got more scraps than I know what to do with, I figured I can justify my involvement. So I started right in. Here's a photo of the first units she's asked us to make, from black and white fabrics.

If I remember correctly, we're supposed to make 230 or so of these little units (they measure 2 1/2 inches) but the instructions said to just get started, and not to worry if you didn't get all of them finished before the next directions are published on Friday.

That said, I'm determined not to let my current project, the Scrappy Trip, become another UFO. So I'm working on both quilts at the same time. I've got all of the large blocks for the Scrappy Trip finished, and I'm now creating a border for it that I hope will read as a zig-zag line when it's done. Here's a photo of where it stands now:

I want the border to be separated from the main part of the quilt by a strip of fabric---I was thinking of even using white, or maybe a pale yellow. I'll see what looks best when I'm ready to start sewing it all together.

October block lotto

I just finished these 3 blocks for the October round of Block Lotto. This month we need to work with blue and cream fabrics, and can add brown if we want, and are able to make any type of block we want. I didn't have too much time, so I did 3 simple ones, but I like them---they'll go well in someone's quilt when they win the lotto this month.

Making progress

I'm happy to report that I'm making progress on the scrappy trip around the world quilt I started recently. The best  thing about working on this quilt is how forgiving it is---I can sew, and cut, and move things around to my heart's content (which is just how I like to work) and the quilt still looks good. I don't have to worry about running out of any specific fabric, or making a cutting mistakes. Pretty much anything goes.

Here's the counter I work on, with the current crop of 2.5-inch strips that I've cut from my stash laid out:

I don't have them arranged in any kind of order---for awhile I tried to keep them organized by color, or by darks and lights. But I've found that I don't mind just rooting around for what I want every time I make a new block. If I don't find what I am looking for,  I just go into my fabric stash, or my box of scraps, and cut more strips. I even found a few pre-cut strips in my stash that I was able to use, and that made me especially happy!

Here are the blocks I've made so far on my design wall:

This photo shows the 16 blocks I've made so far, and it's about 4 ft. square. I guess I'd need to make another row of blocks all around---20 blocks---to have a bed-sized quilt. I'm having fun with this so I'm optimistic.....I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Scrappy Trip Around the World

I fell in love with this block when I saw it on the Joe Tulips' blog last week (the link is here) and decided to try to make a few of my own. I'd already cut a bunch of 2.5 inch strips for another project I was working on, so it was easy to get started. It's really fun to put different fabric combinations together, slice them up, and see how the pattern develops....I'm hooked. I think I'll keep going until I have enough for a queen-sized quilt for my guest bed. It's a great stash-buster and it doesn't get boring.

How cool is this???

OK, this is not a great photo but I was  excited to see how all the African Violet blocks that I've been receiving from the block lotto folks would look together. It's even better than I'd imagined! I love how the colors are working together. My plan is to sash them with a lovely fabric I've already got in my stash: it's a pale green stripe on a cream field. I love stripes. I'm just waiting for a few more flower blocks and then I'll start working on it in earnest. I'll keep you posted.... 

Experimenting with the Square-Pants block

I've made a few versions of a block I discovered a couple of weeks ago on the Lily's Quilts blog, which you can find HERE.

For the first one, which I've already published, is pictured again below. For that one, I assembled a random assortment of bright fabrics from my stash, in no particular order, and used white as my neutral. I liked the block, but was disappointed that it didn't "read" like the one on Lily's website. Her block read clearly as two overlapping squares, with a diamond in the center, and mine looked like a random assortment of triangles.

So I tried again, and stuck to fabric scraps I had in blues and browns. I figured I could make one of the "squares" out of blue and the other from brown, and then keep the floating diamond shapes in either blue or brown. Here are the two blocks I made sticking to that color scheme:

After I'd finished those two, I checked the photo of the block on Lily's blog again and realized that I hadn't placed the colors the same way that she had. So I made a 3rd version of the block, pictured below:

I think this block, which is most like Lily's, is my favorite of the 4. Now I'm thinking of making a few more of them with the same color placement to see how they'd look together, and then decide whether to continue on and make a quilt. My husband likes these blocks, so I'm encouraged to start something new (you can tell it doesn't take much!).

Above is a photo of all 4 blocks together. I think they cold make a great quilt once I get the color placement figure out! The blues and browns are a little dark though. Maybe I can find some lighter fabrics in my stash to brighten it up.