Orca Bay Top Finished!

Here is my finished top. Sorry about the great human fold, but Betty and I were doing our best. it turned into a very large, heavy and amazing quilt. I am looking forward to getting this quilted.

thanks again to Bonnie K Hunter of quiltville.com for her inspiration and leadership.

Because we received our 'star' clue just before Christmas Eve, my quilt is called "Stars of Wonder Stars of Might".

Orca Bay Update

UPDATE: February 6 2012. Top is done. Apologies for the very human fold but Betty was doing her very best.

Thank you Bonnie for your inspiration and leadership. I can hardly wait for the next one.

Imagine the frustration. I was without internet and phone service for the past 9 days. Well I had other things to do, like make the 4 more Ohio Stars that I had somehow miscounted.

In desperation to get my Orca Bay fix I did go round to the public library to get caught up on all the new Mr Linky posts that were happening. I did call my DD after new years (not knowing the next clues were going to be released) and she read the #7 clue to me so that I could get my flying geese made. Those went together amazingly fast.

Then I talked to Cathy Tomm and she explained over the phone (cell) how to contruct the rows. Since I have gone back to work full time now, I make the most of those hours between 5 and 7 am by working on Orca Bay and my other MQ.

The following quilt I did at a LQS Dec 27-30 with my friend Maureen. We give each other the gift of time for Christmas by taking this 4 day class together.

(Near) Completed pictures shall be posted after the weekend.

Wishing you all a very happy and creative new year. Many many thanks to Bonnie for your generosity of spirit and talent.

Orca Bay Step 5

How I do love a mystery. And this Orca Bay offering by Bonnie Hunter (Quiltville.com) is a very good one, albeit my first one. I have also enjoyed going through past mystery patterns. I understand that this is the first time that the Mr. Linky has been used, and I agree it is a wonderful addition. It is a lot of fun seeing the interpretation that everyone around the world is doing.

So now I have cut 350 - 2 3/8 squares re-cut to 700 triangles and have sewn (and sewn and sewn) them onto either side of the 350 hst's. These look great.


the chain of triangles sewn to hst's
Triangle #2 sewn to opposite side...a chain waiting to be pressed and clipped.
Because I know these were stacks of ten...I know that I have 70 still to convert.

Re-stacked in batches of ten, they are easy to keep track of this way. I look forward to using more of the yellow/orange, the blue green and the red/violet. Bring on Step 6, etc etc. This is a lot of fun.

Like the rest of you there are other considerations in our lives and not the least of which was having my granddaughter here on Friday for her 7th birthday cake at Grandma's and a sleepover.



Quilt On!!

Orca Bay Step 4

It has been wonderful being in this on-line world-wide retreat with quilters working on their Orca Bay mystery quilts. Their colour choices, 'mq' progress and snippets into their other lives (family, pets, holiday plans, other quilts, etc) has been a wonderful gift.

I loved that I got to bring on the new colour into the mix this week...red/violet.

Add to this a stack of recycled phone book pages cut to 5.5" square (64)

sew them together to get the most delicious string blocks

the variety and scale of prints make for some lovely string blocks ...make a large stack while you are at it...

Starch, press and then pare down to 5 1/8" and cut in half diagonally for the finished stack of triangles which are just lovely.

Done and Done...!

But it was not all quilting this weekend. I also attended a dance recital for two of my granddaughters, Tanea and Odessa. What shining stars they are in my life.

A 3 year old getting her dancing slipper on straight all by herself.

Every dancer deserves the freshest and prettiest roses available.

Wishing you all the very best and bring on Friday December 15 and Part 5!

Orca Bay Step 3

I have made a valiant effort at getting my 350 HSTs done before tomorrow's posting of Step 4. Here are 200 of the 350 needed.

Another 30 that needed their ears trimmed...who comes up with these terms anyway?

I am really enjoying the process and the little gifts to look forward to on Fridays. Something along the lines of an Advent calendars for quilters. Perhaps I ought to set out a little chocolate for myself to go along with the weekly clues.

Orca Bay Up dates

I have decided to participate in the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt after being made aware of it by my friend and fellow quilter Cathy Tomm and I am new to this whole blogging thing.

However, I do LOVE MQ's.

I chosen a triadic harmony of red/violet, blue/green, yellow orange and black/white.


I can read, but not always successful at the counting side of things...I have ended up with more of everything that I need so far. 234QST's and now 75 string blocks!