KINDA BACKWARDS...lol... OrcaBay Clue #6 laid out and ready to sew

Well, backwards is better than "no wards", I guess. lol.  I have OrcaBay's Clue #6 laid out and ready to sew.  Creating the OhioStar blocks in positive & negative makes it more interesting to me. I like it. Bonnie is a wonderful designer.

I am making piles of the QSTs & 2.5" squares [oriented in their correct positions] and then will just assembly-line sew them up:

I just noticed that Bonnie has posted the BIG OrcaBay REVEAL!  I won't give anything away... you must go to Quiltville to see for yourself. What a great quilt. Thank you, Bonnie Hunter for an interesting and fun mystery.

Happy New Year, everyone! See ya next year... golly, that's 2012! Yikes!

Quilty hugs,

ORCA BAY - Clue #7 and hiding fabric!

Well, here it is, my first FG of Clue 7 in the Orca Bay Mystery [please see Bonnie Hunter's site for all the info and to join in].

What I learned: when attaching the 'winged units' to the red-string triangles, be more careful of how the seam allowances line up - especially across the top. This first one is a tad wonky. Also, I think less agressive pressing will be good -- it's just too easy to knock & stretch all these bias edges. Thank Heavens my block is not as goofy as it looks in the pic above. The picture angle is crooked. ;(

Hiding fabric! Yipes!!!  I found 14 more pieces of black hiding in the closet. Who knew? lol. Perhaps I should look in there more often during DAYLIGHT when I can actually see something. One of the 'blacks' that I pulled out to cut more wing-triangles, actually turned out to be a 'purple'. But since it reads as mostly black I'm going to use it anyway. Why not, right?! Discovered a couple of neutrals, too.

I'm wondering how everyone else is coming along with their OB Clues? Should be a lot of eye candy on the Net come this weekend. And Sunday will be the BIG reveal on Bonnie's site. Can't wait to see the whole thing! I wonder if it will look anything like what I have pictured in my head? Probably not! lol

My little kitty Missy was being just too adorable this morning, so naturally I snapped a couple of shots of her... kitties are so cute! Notice all the shreds of cardboard bits around her on the rug -- she loves to tear it up! Naturally I let her. It helps to groom her nails, she loves to do it, and I do own a vaccuum and can always clean it up later. . Poor little thing, see how thin she has become? She has almost no hips at all! She is in a battle with Chronic Renal Failure and some days are better than others.

Thank you for stopping by to visit. I hope you will come again.  Meanwhile, I hope you have lots of time to sew up something that makes you or someone you care about happy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Quilty Hugs,

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Isn't this a sweet WH? My wonderful friend SteffiniD made it and gifted it to me two Christmases ago. It is one of my all time favorite quilts!

The 'tree' above is a Swedish Dowel Tree that stays up all year around in my house. I just love it. My youngest son and I made it together - a couple of decades ago! Bill [who was in Jr High at the time] did the woodworking and I made all the tiny ornaments, or "quiltlets" as they have been called. My Mother is gone now, but we keep this tree up all year round because she loved it so and we all loved her!

From my home to yours, the very warmest of Merry Christmas greetings, and the Happiest & Healthiest of New Years!

★˛˚˛*˛°.˛*.˛°˛.*★˚˛*˛°.˛*.˛°˛.*★Merry*★* 。*˛.
˛°_██_*.。*./ ♥ \ .˛* .˛。.˛.*.★* Christmas*★ 。*
˛. (´• ̮•)*.。*/♫.♫\*˛.* ˛_Π_____.♥Everyone ♥ ˛* ˛*
.°( . • . ) ˛°./• '♫ ' •\.˛*./______/~＼*. ˛*.。˛* ˛.*。
*(...'•'.. ) *˛╬╬╬╬╬˛°.田田 門      ╬╬╬╬╬*˚ .˛ ...

Hugs,

PS: The text picture above is courtesy of one of my handy-dandy-talented kids!

JUST TAKES 2 -- New Project Beginning Soon. . . come join in!

A new project is about to be offered on the Internet -- FREE -- for all who wish to join in.

It will be co-hosted by Gay of Sentimental Stitches & Brenda of DearJane fame. Above is their darling button... go grab a button for your blog and sign up with your email addy to receive the free block patterns. It's gonna be FUN!

It's almost Christmas, it's almost Christmas - such a wonderful and colorful time of year. I love all the decorations!  But, today I can sew just a little bit more and finish one more thing! lol. How about you -- can you squeeze a little bit of sewing into this busy time of year?

Thank you for stopping by for a visit. I'm so glad you dropped in and hope you will come back soon.

Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukah to everyone!

Hugs,

WAIT! IT'S NOT SPRING ...YET! Orchids are giving an early show. . .

Isn't this gorgeous? I couldn't resist trying for a very close close-up of the center of this cymbidium orchid. Aren't the colorations amazing? Orchids facinate me.

This particular orchid lives inside my house during the winter months -- we don't really have "winter"  in Southern California, but outside the wind can sometimes stir up trouble and damage the flowers. To be safe, she spends a couple of months living next to the front window in the living room. It is a thrill to watch the plants set their buds and then bloom with spectacular color and majesty.

That's all for tonight. Thank you for stopping by for a visit. I am off to dream of flowers and fabrics -- my goodness, such good stuff to dream about!

Hugs,

MONDAY'S OB PROGRESS - Clue #5

To be on the safe side, I check my s.a. before sewing: My Janome6500 set at 1.8 spi, straight stitch w/needle position at 41 works out just right -- the seam is 1 to 1.5 threads inside the 1/4" s.a. Great! I love it when a plan comes together.

Using the EZ Angle ruler as Bonnie suggests,  I cut a few triangles from 2" strips and prepared to sew some Clue #5's together.

Hey! It worked just great. I'm happy.

They measure what they are supposed to so now I can crank out the other 348! No problem. lol. 

I am having a lot of fun making the units for Orca Bay Mystery -- especially the string blocks. Those are my favorites! Some people say string quilting is messy, but I say, "hey, what mess?". lol

Missy looking on and keeping me company. When I am finished pressing a stack of blocks she hurries back to this end of the pressing surface where it is so nice and warm and curls up, usually some purring is added.

That's it for today.  Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have plenty of time to play with some fabric and sew, even if it is almost Christmas!

Hugs,



OMGosh, I cut it the WRONG Way!... no problem, a fix is possible

Gee willikers, I couldn't wait to trim up a couple of the Red String blocks for Bonnie's Orca Bay Mystery over at Quiltville, and cut them into triangles to see how they would look. Excellent, enthusiasum is always good. lol. GADFRY! I cut 'with' the strips instead of ACROSS the strips! Oh, gee, I felt so dumb afterwards.

Thank goodness someone on the QuiltvilleChatYahoo group had a simple fix to offer: ADD another strip bringing the square back together again and then cut it properly! BINGO! It worked just like a charm. It's nice to have quilting friends bail ya out when ya get into trouble like this. lol 

The Quilting Fairies were smiling on me yesterday. Whew! I didn't relish making those blocks over again.

Clue #4 of Orca Bay: 64 Red string pieced 5.5" blocks.
Progress: 54 DONE and the last 10 are in process.

Hey, that's pretty good... afterall, it's not Friday yet! lol

Thank you for stopping by to visit... it is back to sewing for me.

Hugs,

TATER-BAGS, Tater Bags, and a little touch of Blue. . .

My local Friendship Group has been sewing up a storm making Tater Bags. We've made so many, I have sort of lost count! lol. Now that the Warm and Natural Company has made "tater batting", they are even nicer to sew and use.

I like to include a tag with each gift bag giving directions for use, care, etc.:

There are a ton of free patterns on the Net, and also a FREE pattern is included with one's purchase of W&N batting. Some of my bags are made from strips cut WOF, and a few are made from FQs. For the FQ ones I had to make up my own method, but it all worked out. [If I could figure out how to add a PDF to a blog post, I would share the pattern I wrote.  Hmmm, someday... lol.  If anyone else knows how to do this with Blogger and would share with me, that would be GREAT!]  These bags are quick and easy -- giftees love them!

It's back to sewing on Bonnie's OrcaBay Mystery project. Twelve more Blue String blocks completed this morning -- only TEN more to go and Clue#2 will be done! Yeah... done is good. Then it is on to Clue #4 and RED. . . good golly, Miss Molly, but this quilter does love red!

I am still facinated by how messy string-pieced units look during the sewing process, then trim them up and the Ugly Ducklings turn into Swan Blocks! Guess it doesn't take too much to keep me entertained! lol.

Because I started to run a little low on Blues, I raided my CW fabric bins this morning for more variety. Today was an exeriment to see if these different kinds of styles would play nice together -- I think it might work. What do you think of the blocks above... they look ok to you?

Well... that's about it for today. Thank you so much for dropping by for a visit -- loved having you! If you leave a comment [which is always appreciated!] feel free to leave your blog addy URL in your comment's signature line so I can visit you!

Hope everyone has a lovely day and has tons of time to sew, sew, sew!
Hugs,

ORCA BAY: Clue #2... yes, I know I'm working a bit backwards

Today sees the completion of 10 string blocks for Clue #2. Yes, I'm working a bit backwards -- lol -- I did Clue #3 yesterday. Not to worry. As long as they all get sewed up sometime between now and ??? whenever, it's all good! LOL. Check out all the info at Quiltville -- you'll be glad you did.

I wasn't sure if I would like the Blue String blocks -- blue is a great color, but my personal fave is RED! But now that they are sewn together, I find myself really really liking them -- even loving these cute little blue blocks! Glad I tried a color outside my usual. The "stretch" will do me good.

Isn't it weird how the blocks look so yucky and strange after sewing [pic on left]... but TRIM [pic on right] and they look wonderful!

Yup... me likey these little blocks. Perhaps "stringing" is my thing; scrap blocks certainly are! I made a Spider Quilt last year -- Katrin talked me into it! LOL.  Katrin started a Spider Ring and it was so much fun.

Tomorrow will see more of Clue#2 HST blocks and the beginning of Clue#1 QST blocks. The method I am choosing for all triangle blocks is Inklingo! I love the predictable precision I get when using Inklingo. Rather than run paper through my printer, PP, and pick off paper; I iron fabric to FP, run through printer, cut, sew, press, DONE! Love it. A big thanks to Linda Franz for her invention. I have no affiliation, I am just an extremely Happy Camper!

That's all for now... I am off to my closet to pull more black, blue, neutral and some reds. If I do some prep now, I can sew more tomorrow... or at least that is my plan.

Thank you for stopping by to visit. . .

Quilty hugs,

ORCA BAY MYSTERY on Quiltville - My Progress So Far. . .

Hello,
Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville fame has designed another wonderful Mystery Quilt Project. It is called Orca Bay. Check out Bonnie's site for all the info here.  The first three clues have been posted, but it is not too late to join in.

Today I completed about 30+ little 1.5" HSTs. All in blacks and neutrals. Cute little things. Only about 300 more to go. NO problem, though. I am using Inklingo to print my little triangles... no math, no measuring, no special rulers. Just print, sew, cut:

Perfect little HSTs. I am definitely a fan of Inklingo - it is such a wonderful quilting tool!

That's all the quilty stuff for tonight. The light is gone and twilight has set in, so will go grab my crochet stuff and hook a while. Are you following the GGW CAL on LuAnn's blog? Jump over and see what fun we are having.

Thank you for stopping by to visit. May we always have the time and the inclination to make something wonderful for ourselves or someone we love. . .
Quilty hugs,

TaDah!!! More little projects finished -- The Click-It Purse

Last night's sewing finish was a "Click It" Purse. I bought the pattern over a year ago during a Quilt Run, but failed to make it until last night. No grass grows under my feet... right?! lol

The 'magic' that keeps this little item securely closed is: ...

a piece of metal measuring tape! Did you guess what it was? 

This little purse [roughly 8.5" square] takes TWO FQs + two 8" pieces of metal tape. Be sure and round off the cut ends and smooth them with an old file or emery board. It might be a good idea to put a piece of masking tape over the ends as well... don't want the metal tape to "poke" it's way out of the fabric.

This little purse is for my DD to keep in her desk at work. I'm calling it the "911 Bag" because I plan on filling it with emergency items that could be useful: 'cotton angels', bandaids, small sewing kit, lip balm, small tube of Tylenol, Kleenex tissues, nail file, brush/comb,... etc etc..  I think DD will be pleasantly surprised to have this little surprise gifty. Probably wouldn't hurt to make another one for myself and keep it in my car.

A quick visit to a local bead shop was all I needed to creat a 'fob' to hang on the Prairie Point [these are "handles" to open purse]. I found some numbers -- 9-1-1 -- a few crystals, a couple of blue beads, some findings and voila a "911 Bobble" of sorts... just for fun.

That's all for today. I hope where ever you are that you have time to create something you like.
Hugs,

CUTE, QUICK, USEFUL... what could be better?

Spent quite a bit of time sewing yesterday -- the Yarn Goddess is now whining. lol. Finished up several projects. My fave one is of this teeny tiny tote to carry iPod earbuds, change, what-have-you. Handy little gadget and it only took 4 Charm Squares, plus a small corner of a 5th for the loop, and a 3/4" sliver to make the zipper pull. Well, OK, 5 Charm Squares. ;-)

The idea came from: Erin. She wrote a great tute... go check it out. Thank you Erin for such a nifty design! 

I constructed mine slightly different -- see below:

I cut two Charm Squares in half [front and lining] and installed the zipper without cutting into 1/2-circle shape. So easy to line up the ends... straight is better than a curve, eh?!  Next, I added two rectangle batting bits and edge-stitched the zipper... I also chose to lightly quilt, as I was using Cotton Classic batting. [Adding the batting AFTER zipper installation keeps the edges flatter so they don't get 'poofy'.]

Now, stack two more Charm Squares [backing/lining] and a scrap of batting -- tack-press a FP circle on top and cut through all layers. [Quick little bit of FM quilting is optional.]

Last... layer circle bits on top of zipper/rectangle, and using circle edge as guide, stitch around with a 1/4" s.a..  Trim if needed and overcast edge for neatness. Turn right side out, press, edge stitch, and you are done! 

Hope you like this little project. If you decide to make one, I would love to see it. Also, Erin has a Flicker site to share pics [link on her blog].

That's all for today. I hope where ever you are that you have time to create something you like.

Hugs,