Orca Bay Mystery and UFO #5

I love Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay Mystery quilt! She revealed the finished quilt yesterday and I just gasped! I finished all the components, squared them all up and put half of them on my design wall today ('cuz my design wall isn't big enough for all the blocks). I'm in love with it! I didn't use the colors Bonnie suggested--these are MY colors, and I just hoped they would work as well as hers. What do you think?

I named it "Azalea Bay" because of the colors. There are 3,564 pieces in this quilt and so far, I've put 47 hours and 20 minutes into it's construction--worth every minute! After sewing it together and quilting it, there'll probably be more like 70 hours into it. But I loved the process, learned a lot and will do another Bonnie Hunter mystery again in a heartbeat. (I have a different post about this quilt and the process of making it on Bonnie's blog that you might want to look for).



I'm also doing Judy's UFO Challenge and this is my #5 for January: "Anteitam". This was a Linda Ballard mystery class my quilt guild did and I just love the quilt and the colors. The top is finished and I'm looking forward to quilting it but I just hate to pin quilts! I don't have a good place to do it and I can't get on the floor any more as it kills my back. But, I will get it done!

See what everyone else has to show on Judy's Design Wall Monday! I always learn something new from going to everyone's blog.

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!

Speedy Tricks

 My quilting buddies know I'm a speedy sewer and it's because I organize the steps of each project for maximum output. For Orca Bay step #6, I didn't stop to set up each block before I sewed, I started with one center (in my case green) and chain sewed a quarter square to it 28 times.

Without cutting the strings, I brought the whole chain to the ironing board--so much easier than moving one piece at a time!
I press them open THEN cut them apart. Back to the sewing machine to sew the other quarter square to this row then over to the ironing board again with the whole string to press then cut apart. Viola--one row done!
I did the same thing for the other two rows in the block and it saves so much time because I handle the whole lot of them at once instead of picking up one piece then another then another. A great time-saver.

Here are my dark blocks . . .

. . . and my dark and light together. 4 1/2 hours for all of them.


I would be happy with Bonnie's quilt just like this!!

Total time on all 6 clues: 39 hours 40 minutes.

UFO for 2012

I'm out of town for my birthday (tomorrow) so I'm doing this list off the top of my head. I will add the rest of the 12 UFOs when I get home. I have until January 1, right?

My UFO quilts for Judy Laquadara's challenge are:
#1 12 Days of Xmas. This was on my last year's list and I really need to finish it. It's the Nancy Halvorson quilt with her fabrics. I collect 12 days of Xmas stuff so I had to make this quilt. The top is finished and the back is made so all I have to do is quilt it.

#2 Henreitta Whiskers
This was a 2011 online BOM by Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs. Her adorable animal characters  are irresistable and I encourage you to check out her website.

#3 is The Big Easy, a mystery quilt by Linda Ballard I started in 2009. I love this quilt top and all I need to do is quilt it. (Hate to admit this was also in my 2011 UFO list)

#4 would be my Ferris Wheel top. I started this
making these traditional blocks at least 5 years ago with 30s fabrics. The block is pretty intricate and takes a long time to make so I made about 15 of them and put them away. I discovered them a last year, made a bunch more and added this "hankie" border. It's been worth all the time it took and now I need to make a back and quilt it!

#5 Anteitum. This quilt was made in a Linda Ballard mystery retreat in McCloud, CA in June.I actually changed the configuration of the blocks as they were to be set on point with 12" snowball blocks in between. Since I don't like a lot of "empty space" to quilt in I decided to set them better this way and I just love it. Again, top and back are finished all I need to do is quilt it.

 #6 is my Orca Bay Mystery by Bonnie Hunter started just before Thanksgiving! I  haven't even finished all the clues yet but I know I want to finish this quilt ASAP! The pink and green blocks on the scale here are parts of it.

#7 is a project (as of this writing) I haven't started yet: A quilt for my daughter and her wife who are in escrow with their first house and have requested a "black and white and Tiffany Blue" quilt for the back of their couch. I knew this pattern (Happy Hour) wold be perfect for it.

















#8 is another project I hadn't started yet: for my daughter's best friend who's expecting her 3rd baby in February. I made quilts for her first two and she says they cannot go to sleep without their special "binkies". (If I had a quilt for myself with Minkie on the back like I made theirs, I'd probably feel the same way!) I've purchased a Mother Goose panel that's supposed to be made into a book that I plan to cut apart and put pinwheels as sashing. If Judy picks #8 first, I will be happy!                                                   

                                                              

                                                          

                                                                        

                              

By the Skin of My Teeth

Last week was a busy one for me: we had guests 3 of 4 nights and gave a party for 35 people. I was so afraid my Bonnie Hunter Mystery clue #4 was not going to get finished before clue #5 was posted! I'd been so good at completing clues 1-3 by Tuesday of their respective weeks and I was bound and determined not to fall behind. (Besides, I'm absolutely LOVING this process!

Happy to say, I completed all 64 of the 5 1/2" strip squares by Thursday night. Just to be different, I took my photo on our kitchen scale and as you can see, clue #2 (pink) and #4 (green) weigh 13.6 ounces together. Of course, the clue #4 blocks still have the paper on them but it's only tissue-thin yellow pages paper which I plan to pull off by the time this posts on Judy Laquadara's Design Wall Monday.

I'm timing how long it takes me to complete each clue and #4 took me 6 hours and 15 minutes (including taking the paper off the back) bringing the total for all 4 clues to 35 3/4 hours.

As for Clue #5: Since I'm going to be out of town Tuesday through late Thursday, I knew I had to finish this clue by today! And. . . I did it! 5 hours and all 350 are done! I'm also keeping track of the number of pieces are in this quilt. To date, I count 3,392 pieces in mine! Can't wait 'til Friday!

Group Quilts Revealed!

Cooky's quilt

My quilt

Today was the big day! My Calendar Girls group, together 11 years, revealed the quilts from a block exchange we had in July. Every year we decide on a block project, make one for everyone, exchange the blocks mid-year then each go home and make a quilt from them. The theme this year was "North Woods Winter" and we decided to make 8 blocks, 9 1/2". We could make anything with a winter theme but not Christmas (because we've done that a couple of times), applique or pieced. Aren't they all wonderful? It's always so amazing to see what everyone else has put together.

 and Kim's

Here's Sharon's

and Linda's quilt

I'd love to hear what you think!

Orca Bay Clue #3 Progress

Thanks you Judy for giving us Patchwork Times, a great place to post our design walls and chat with quilters from all over the world!

I'm pretty amazed that I'm enjoying Bonnie Hunter's mystery quite as much as I am! After all, asking quilters to make nearly 650 multi-pieced components in the first 3 clues would be daunting to any quilter and I'm simply not used to this type of scrap quilting. BUT I'm absolutely loving this!

I had company this weekend and was so sure I would go completely crazy and not be able to work on clue #3 but things worked out really well--my cousin from South Lake Tahoe visited for 2 days and our plans included 3 craft fairs and a Holiday Home Tour in a spiffy part of Sacramento. And with all the chit-chatting we would do, when would there be time for sewing?! She was due around noon on Friday so I got to work early. I use half-square triangle paper to make my HSTs using 21 different purples and neutrals. I don't have strips on hand and would rather use larger pieces of fabric so this method works better for me. You might say, "but I hate tearing off that paper and cutting off the 'dog ears'" but I have time-saving tricks and if I told you it took me only 4 1/2 hours to make all 350 HSTs, would you think my method was time-consuming? The great thing about it was I was able to include an eager cousin in my process! She LOVED helping me with my 'project' and we tore off paper as we watched holiday movie DVDs. Win-Win!

Yes, by a little over an hour after my cousin left on Sunday morning, I was able to get them ALL finished. (actually, I miscalculated and made 380 HSTs--anyone need a few extra? They're purple!) In that little container in the lower right, I put the tiny dog-ears. Figure Bonnie will have something in mind for them! LOL!!

Next Friday, we're expecting about 50 people for a holiday party. Hope I can squeeze in at least a little sewing on Clue #4 that day so I won't go crazy!