Orca Bay Sans Borders

Worked for five or so hours on Orca Bay (so far) today and got this all together. Hoping the borders happen after the SuperBowl in time for Bonnie's link up tomorrow! Wasn't too much unsewing as this went together so that was good. I am loving it now that it has turned into something! The borders are done and waiting for attachment!
Forgot to Mention that BJ gifted me some sock yarn yesterday (yippee) and a belated Christmas present too!
This little tree is so cute I hate to take it apart and sew with it! Ros gave me a huge stack of magazines which I have been paging through, but my picture didn't turn out so no pic!

Hope to post again later with a completed Orca Bay!

Orca Bay Kind of Day!

No avoiding it, today I had to figure out how to make my Orca Bay (aka Long Lake though I have had several people tell me I should call it Green Bay and that is growing on me!) work. My flying geese blocks were too big for the Ohio star blocks...so DJ and I started ripping off the wings and re-trimming (uh read that I skipped a bit of the directions and didn't cut them to size the first time around--UGH!) and then resewing wings and putting the blocks together. This was a painstaking process and there was much grumbling (just ask Ros and BJ since we sewed over there all day!). Eventually I decided I could just open up the tops and sew the middle seam a quarter of an inch and I was good to go.
Ros showed us her very cool fish quilt. BJ suggested the orange inner border and I think it really makes the quilt! Ros used scraps and made a backing for it that is great too. DJ really liked it.And BJ (show off LOL) proudly displayed her Orca Bay top which is complete sans borders. It is FABULOUS and BJ said it all went together super de duper well for me. This did not perk me up, but since it is her first Bonnie Hunter quilt I am glad it was smooth for her. Me thinks she reads the directions better than I do!

BJ made her borders today but didn't get them attached yet (I might catch up to her yet, HAHA!) She and Ros both worked on a block of the month from crafts.com or something like that. After seeing them deal with it I was really glad I didn't add that onto my to be done list for February!
Ros is doing hers in batiks.

She also made the bag on the right to replace the one on the left. She stores her plastic bags in there.
Ros' BOM blocks. Two for January and two for February. Somehow I didn't get pictures of all of BJ's!
Ah finally row one of Orca Bay comes together.
Row two was faster. I did this in rows because it was challenging to figure out how to lay it out. BJ helped with advice like the yellow blocks corners will point to the dark blocks, etc.

Row three was as far as I got at Ros. It really went slow for me, but it was a lot of forward progress.
DJ and I came home and I got another two rows on. Now it is halfway. WHOOT WHOOT!

I then took a break from the blocks and pieced the border. Unfortunately I did two halves backwards and DJ is currently helping me unsew them. I will get them back together and then if I still feel like it I will keep working on the blocks. I really want to get this one off my UFO list because I have lots of other stuff to keep me busy in February and I am impatient to get to it!

Three Mourning Crosses Flimsies are Done!

Didn't have much sewing time all week or today and I have been fighting a migraine...not to mention I suddenly am hearing a weird noise (sounds almost like a super windy day in my right ear) which is apparently tinnitus (usually I get ringing which is far more tolerable than this noise) and may well drive me insane. LOL. Getting old is getting to me! It could be a side effect of one of my long term migraine meds so I am going to have to look into that.

Anyway will be sewing at Ros' tomorrow with her and BJ and whoever shows up from the Huggy Bunch! I already packed up Orca Bay since that is what Judy pulled for UFO's..so much for letting that baby get dusty!

Mourning Crosses No. 1 is a Flimsy

The border fabric I ordered for the three Mourning Crosses quilts arrived today. So after a long day of work and twenty minutes on my bike (I am trying) I cut some and sewed one together just to see how it looked. I like it!

In other news the Schnibbles for this month is I.S.T.H and my Small Quilt Group on Yahoo is doing Broken Dishes for February. Add to that Judy pulled Number one for the UFO...and wouldn't you know it, that is my Orca Bay. Dangit I don't know how all this is going to happen this SHORT month, lol. I am going to give it a go, but maybe I have bitten off more than I can chew here!

Can't wait to get started, but I better get to bed...working in about 8 hours..ugh!

A Little of This...A Little of That!

Randy gave me this audiobook for Christmas so I have been listening to it while I sew (un

less DJ is hanging with me and then we were watching Firefly). The story is alright but not great. Good thing Randy doesn't read my blog, lol.

I started out by finishing up the Mourning Crosses quilts. I wanted to get three made for sure and I accomplished that! They all need the last outer border which I ordered from Thousands of Bolts last night. Can't wait to see how it looks on these! For the second and third quilts I put my Dad's shirts in a cross pattern...second block in the tow and bottom row and the first and third block in the middle row.

So that is what three of them look like so far. I can't wait to finish them up and send them out.

Made and attached a border to Lil' Twister Valentine too. And I cut and made my bow tie blocks with my Dad's shirt fabric too! The golf block and the plaid next to it are really from the quilt I made him...the leftovers pieces of fabric I had from that. But all of it reminds me of Dad.

While digging around in the flannel bin I again came across a bunch of these blocks sewn into long rows by the kids (about ten years ago) and decided to pull some apart and turn it into a doggy size quilt. No sense in it sitting in the bin any longer.

And decided to jump on one more bandwagon...Christmas Through the Year. This is the first thing I made for it. Two dolly buntings (I made about four or five of these and gifted them last year, so here are two more for this year!) are ready for Christmas. Feels good to get a jump on it! I just hope I can keep it up each month!
Back to work tomorrow, but a little bit of this and a little bit of that meant A LOT got done today!

Saturday Quilting and Sewing with Pink Lemonade!

I made four more mourning crosses blocks with my Dad's flannel shirts in the center. They kind of are all wonky because I am not lining up the stripes or anything, but I like it. Only a ton more to go since I am for sure making two more of these little wallhangings and maybe three more. I decided I am going to add some of Dad's shirts to my bow tie quilt so I don't need to make a fifth one! So that will be coming soon. I made two bow ties today from my basket but no pic yet.
DJ helped me out by doing the spray basting on three of my little quilts. So I quilted this one with pink thread. Just went in both directions on the big squares.
I dug in my leftover binding drawer for binding and had the EXACT amount to do this one. The binding isn't civil war fabric but the color went and so I just went with it. I am glad I did because when it was done I realized that this quilt matches the Double Delight on the bed in my room (yes I finally put it on the bed!) and so it is hanging over the bed. Will get a photo of it all when the bed is made!

I also quilted this one across in both directions though I didn't easily find binding for it so this is as far as it went. Figured I should finish it for Valentine's day. One of my co-workers saw in on facebook and texted me to ask if she could buy it. That made my night though it isn't baby size which is what she was looking for.

Went and saw "The Grey" today which was a bit too gory for me but it was a decent story. I knew DJ would like it and it would be easy to interpret. We tend to save some of the movies for when they are out on DVD so she can watch the captioning and I don't have to interpret in the theater. This is 2012 and it is RIDICULOUS that all movies are not just open captioned. Hearing people would get used to it (just as they get used to other handicap accessible things) and Deaf people could enjoy what everyone else takes for granted. I am just sayin!

Home Town/ Around the Block Schnibbles is Quilted

Haven't even seen this baby quilted in person, but Ros blogged about quilting my Home Town/Around the Block schnibbles so I snapped up the picture to show off! She does a nice job with these little ones and I always want to keep them all!
Well, I am working all day and night (with this quick hour off) so there is all the quilty fun I am having today. I hope to get in more tomorrow!