Sunday, January 1, 2012

Mystery Revealed!

Before you read any further, open your mouth wide and inhale noisily. . . go ahead. . . THAT is the sound I made this morning when, still half asleep, I logged on to Quiltville.com where Bonnie Hunter had just revealed her Orca Bay Mystery quilt for all to see. OMG---what a spectacular quilt ! ! ! !

I had seen many of the finished quilts from Bonnie's past mysteries and vowed I'd make one some day even though they looked like a LOT of work. I had high expectations but the fact that I used colors different from Bonnie's had me a little worried. And, since I'd kept track of the time each of the 8 steps took to make as well as the number of pieces used in my very scrappy quilt, I almost dreaded seeing what the quilt would look like--what if I did all that work and spent all those hours as was disappointed?

Obviously, I needn't have worried. I'm SO, SO happy with my quilt! What do you think? This photo shows about half of the blocks I made but it's as big as I can go on my design wall. I'm calling it "Azalea Bay" because Orca just doesn't fit my purple and pink with green color-way. I love Azaleas and they're these colors so it seemed to fit.

So, what are my time and piece totals? I have all the components completed and squared up, all I need to do it sew the top together and so far, I've spent 47 hours and 20 minutes on it. And, give or take a few, there are about 3,564 pieces in my quilt! I'm sure that's a record for me even after making well over 100 quilts in 14 years. By the time I'm finished putting it together and quilting it, I think I'll be in the 70 hour range.

I've learned a lot making this quilt: That the Companion Angle Ruler is a slick tool I'd never tried before, that string piecing is fun, that phone book pages make perfect string piece foundations and that I love making hundred and hundreds of the same little components, chain-piecing my heart out! Who knew?

Bonnie: Thank you for gifting us with your creativity, your expertise and your generosity. If you do this again next year, I'll be right with you!

I'm sure a lot of people have posted their success of this Orca Bay mystery on Judy Laquadara's Design Wall Monday. I urge you to look at all of them!

15 comments:

Carol said...

This is gorgeous -- I love the colors you chose. I thought about doing the challenge but only printed the instructions to possibly do later. I know it would take me twice as many hours at least! Maybe someday.

Linda said...

OMGosh! That is beautiful!!! Love love love your colors.

Sue Daurio said...

oohhhhh ahhhhh, those colors are fabulous!!! Great job. Love seeing your border, I did purple to and haven't gotten that far. Great quilt!

YankeeQuilter said...

Very nice! I'm redoing some of my string squares to make them a bit brighter but overall I'm really happy with the quilt!

Joni said...

Love Love Love your color choices! I admire you for thinking outside the box and going your own way. It is so lovely!

I've also been thinking about joining one of Bonnie's mysteries. I guess next time around, I'll have to stop thinking about it and get in there and do it.

Avery said...

Wow, that is SO pretty!!!

Myra said...

Very pretty in your chosen colorway... Very nice! ;)

Béa said...

Wonderful colourway, I love your top.

Helen in the UK said...

LOVE your colour combo. I also notice that you have swapped the positions of the dark/light Ohio stars - interesting. It's so much fun to see all the variations of this stunning design :)

Rhonda said...

Oh My... I just love the colors in this one. : )

Sharyn Mallow Woerz said...

Looks like a happy basket of easter eggs! Lovely version, thanks for sharing!

Andee said...

Your colors are gorgeous! I hope mine in yellow and green looks half as good!

Anonymous said...

Cindy W Aus,
Not sure if you realise this or not, but your pink strings are diaonally facing the purple stars instead of the light stars, yousrs actually is the only one I like with this same design element, because the purple stars look like they are exploding and continued with the pink, but with the pink turned the other way facing the lights, it sort of makes your eye go around the quilt on the diaginal, ar does yousr BTW, because the pink and purple go together so well.
The others that did them in the same colourway as Bonnie and turned theirs, just look like a big mess and the block just stops,IMO.
LOVE LOVE LOVE your colours.

Anonymous said...

Cindy W Aus,

Wish I learnt to proof read before I push publish. lol

miss-linny said...

I love the colours you chose and your layout. I haven't started mine yet, I wanted to see the finished versions and yours are the colours I like best. LW in the UK