Orca Bay Progress

I’m working away but I’m sure things would move at a much faster pace if I stopped making units that look like this

 

Or this one at the front, the ones at the back are correct. Still around another 80+ to go.

 

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Missing In Action

A couple of months ago a friend, Marilyn, gave me these. I think there might be almost a quarter of the stars and larger sashing pieces required.  Honestly I did resist, but she said if nobody wanted them she would throw them out, so at the second asking I said yes I would have her unwanted and unloved Orca Bay pieces. Marilyn decided this quilt just wasn’t for her so aren’t I a lucky girl?

After several fabric shopping expeditions to locate some black with white, white with black, some reds and some of the same blue fabrics and a few others, I have started sewing. You will note Marilyn decided to reverse the colourway and I’m happy with that.

I’ve been sewing away madly like a patchworkmaniac, lol and can’t resist the lure of this quilt design. Every spare moment I seem to be sitting at my machine or cutting or trimming something, I don’t have any of the fancy rulers so it is probably taking me a little bit longer. I have decided to run with a 7 x 9 block design and have about half of these red units completed for the sashing intersections.

I’ve made dozens and dozens of these half square triangles  for the other sashing units which still have to be stitched and I have almost finished the border units as well.

I’ve made many, many star blocks

I’ve started playing around with the layout, it helps keep me inspired to continue with this extremely time consuming project! It looks really good, in fact I’m loving it.

Now back to the machine!! lol

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My Blue Gum Mystery/Challenge/BOM Step 2

Not quite sure what to call it really, it is a mystery, the steps are provided monthly and oh boy is it a challenge lol!

Steps 2 calls for diamonds. I would have liked to use a small spacer before my diamond border but I’m not even sure if I’m allowed, so I decided to run with something open but with dark running around the outside to mark the finish of this step. Of course  I draw it up in EQ first to see how it would look and I trialed several corner options before I was satisfied with this one.

As I said before, I am trying to use some of the scraps from my quilt for Amy. I did buy a little extra to play with but I certainly won’t be able to make a large quilt without more purchases. Colours are still showing a little deeper/brighter than they actually are.

Now I’ve

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A Flimsy for Amy

I’ve been putting the borders onto the ‘flimsy’ for my niece Amy.  It’s not quite so vibrant in real life.

 

I can now say I dislike putting on borders nearly as much as I dislike hand sewing the bonding down on a quilt. There’s just no creative input in it is there? Still it has to be done, so I bit the bullet and spent the day completing it. Now all I have to do is purchase some backing fabric and decide whether to quilt it or send it out to be quilted commercially.

 

I’m thinking I’ll do it myself but it is a large quilt, so  the call of cutting and stitching little patches together is very strong and makes me think I’d prefer to get someone else to do it lol!

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