Orca Bay Continues

I'm slowly working on my Orca Bay Myster Quilt by Bonnie Hunter. I finally have 224 oversized hour glass blocks pieced, but I have yet to trim them down to 2.5" square.

In the mean time at our Graber Reunion I helped put the finishing stitches into Heidi's quilt.

I love, love, love this "fresh modern quilt" ... and the little girl in front of it!

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing Orca Bay

I have started making 224 quarter square triangles, or hour glasses as some may say, for the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter. I have half square triangles made but need to make them into quarter square triangles yet.

And I'm still debating on my fabric choices. You can see from my last post that I've already changed out my cream colored fabric for a cleaner look of white with a little black.

Now, I'm debating on changing the blue also. I have some blue old fashion strips already cut, but I'm not sure about adding the blue fabric with the bits of yellow. I don't mind the blue having red in it but the yellow is adding another color to the quilt. Decisions, decisions. What shall I do?

So Many Quilts to Make

There are so many quilts that I want to make. There is so much inspiration and so many ideas out there that I'll never get them all made. But I'm working at as many as I can while I can.

This Mystery Quilt, Orca Bay is from Bonnie Hunter. She uses lots of scrap fabric and makes marvelous quilts. She also cuts the fabric into very small pieces. I'm hoping I don't bog down on this mystery. I'm already behind. While others have already made 224 hour glass units at 2.5" square, I'm only just gathering my fabric for a picture.

And then this next set of fabric is for a quilt or two from Father's shirts. I'm cutting out the seams and saving fabric from the collars and cuffs. Polly cut the shirts in half so we each have the same fabric to work with.

I have fond memories of father wearing a lot of these shirts. And then I'm getting glimpses of Mother's care for Father by altering the shirts to fit him. His arms were so short and she had to take the sleeves off at the shoulder and cut off an inch or two and then sew them back on again. And then I found seams where she had sewed in the seam under the arm. I have 2 patterns in mind to make with these treasures.

PTQ's Show & Tell

I enjoy our Possum Town Quilter's 'Show & Tell.' We have a creative group of ladies that get inspiration from each other.

Judy shows how she carried designs of the blocks out into the border to complete her top. 

Gwen's quilt was machine quilted by Watana.

As a result from our Karen Combs workshop, Lawana made this quit ...

... and Mary Ann made this quilt.

Linda shows a color wheeel made by her grandaughter and given to her.

Coleen shows a quilt she quilted for a customer.

Watana made this quilt for a University of Alabama fan.

Union Station

Last night I sewed the border on to the "Union Station" comfort top. I'm hoping that our Sewing Circle will tie it and then pass it along to charity. Sewing the blocks together was not for the faint of heart. There were way too many 'partial' seams to make it fun. And then too, I was dissappointed that it didn't look more like the picture from which I got my inspiration. Is it that my gray is too light or should my colors be brighter? Check out the difference here. Would quilting it with a dark gray thread help?

A New Quilt Project

I've been collecting fabric from different people and places down through the years. Usually it's material that they want to get rid of to clean out their houses and closets. Yesterday Linda D. brought me 2 boxes of fabric. I found a couple pieces in there that inspired me to go ahead and cut out a quilt that I've admired for quite a while. I added some pieces from my closet to complete the palette.

A simple quilt. Easy to cut out ...

 ...but it may be a little tricky to sew together. It's going to take some 'partial seams' to make it work.

Scrappy Quilt

How can we make a pretty quilt from this ...

... and this?

Evie came over and helped place the scrappy squares on my design wall and sew this quilt together.

While we sewed, the boys played in the living room.

Later, Evie added an airstrip and hanger to the roads.