Sunday, December 25, 2011

part 6 of Orca Bay Mystery

Look what turned up in my vegetable garden.............................
All finished.....56 Ohio Stars....of course I had to actually finish part one!!! So now I feel double delight.
My wee 'orange friend ' from last time was nowhere to been seen, but I did find these marigolds in my wee vege patch and the pumpkin leaves work well for plates for my blocks don't you think?
This one is for you Rhonda , check out the square top right hand corner....same brown fabric you are using!! I used the same fabric on this table runner........


now for proof I did make all 56 blocks.....................................!
Now don't these wee sweeties go well with my blocks?

Wanna pop over with me to see what everyone else is doing......?

Thank you for taking the time to stop by my corner of the world :-)





Monday, December 19, 2011

Orca Bay Mystery part 5, Dresdens & some other ramblings.....




Here are ALL 350 units for part 5 of Bonnie's mystery!!
Bonnie said cut 700.....yes 700 triangles!! Gulp.....but I did it :-) I did all the cutting in one hit, hubby came into my studio with a cuppa and asked how I was going, i said "well I could do with more of a variety of browns" , he said " didn't already give you some of my shirts?" I said "yes this is the one here". He said I have another would you like it?".....................
Stop the press......I'm thinking a quilter could not ask for a better husband could they? Yes sweet I know, but when he showed me the shirt (pictured in one piece under my blocks) I said "no, it's too nice....but thank you so much".
So I did a bit of sewing here and there, but then yesterday hubby went to play a gig and the boys were content playing with their mates,  I got stuck in!
Turned up the volume on the ipod and listened to Tracy, Phil, Louis, Eva, Rod, Tom, James, Andrea, Kenny, Barbara and more!
So apart from still more to do on part one, I'm done, which is good as I'm going away from my machine for a bit, I will work on this while away................
  I started this well over a year ago, it is portable and a no rush thing.....................

Remember I went to this Christmas party? I had to make a gift, but silly me forgot to take a photo of what I made. Lyn ended up with my gift and kindly photographed it for me.
note to self...make one for me!
I hope you are all enjoying Bonnie's mystery, either just as a spectator or by joining in the sewing madness! For more wonderful blocks check out  what some others have been doing  , you can pop around the world all from the comfort of your computer chair!
I can not believe the amount of hits I have had to my blog since I started this fun mystery :-)


Merry Christmas to all, be happy, safe & well fed!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Orange Orca Bay Mystery

Well Orange, gold, burnt orange, terracota...you get the picture!
I was thinking what have I got that is orange to use to photograph my string blocks?...check out the photo's and see for yourself!

sideways!!1#@!%
I was wandering around the garden looking for something orange, not finding anything....someone 'helped' me!!
Thank you Rose....I knew there was a reason I left the papers on the back!
I did a good chunk of my blocks how Bonnie first said to do them ( trim to 5.5" square, then trim my triangles) Then I did the rest by simply cutting in half diagonally then trim up using my special ruler .

Please check out what others are doing with their mystery, here..........

If I was doing red blocks like many I could have photographed my blocks with my red Hollyhocks......

Need some Christmas spirit.....? Please go to Leeann's blog for a funny Christmas video and to see her lovely red sting blocks, Leeann is from Northland New Zealand like me!




Sunday, December 11, 2011

Ho, Ho ,Ho...Merry Christmas!




Here you go Marcelle!
I phoned Marcelle yesterday to say her quilt is finished and she said  "you haven't posted on your blog about it?" I said " Well I thought I would give it to you first". "Oh no, I'd much rather see it on your blog first, as I don't do surprises very well". Says Marcelle. I laugh and say, "ok I will post in the next couple of days."

Made using all her Christmas scraps........









.........including the back!



"Please quilt simply" says Marcelle...........























Merry Christmas Marcelle!!












Last night I attached the last hand painted button to Christmas Fun by Lynette Anderson and hung it on my quilt rack next to my Christmas tree.
I really enjoyed hand quilting, just going with the flow, no rush ( although the last couple of days I did think to myself it would be nice to have it finished for this Christmas:-)!!!
When I had thread basted ready to quilt I realised I hadn't done some of the stitching on the edges of the blocks......!!!! Then I thought, does it really matter. I put YoYo's in my four corners just for something a bit different. My Reindeer row is going the opposite way, my house is green....so it isn't exactly the same as Lynette's.....because if it was, well then it would be hers! 





Thursday, December 8, 2011

Matilda's Station finished & a quilt airing....


Matilda's Station is all finished. Megan has made this for her daughters Christmas present, she had me sew the binding on too, so hopefully she will find some secret time to hand stitch the binding down.
There are buttons and embellishments to be added. Also the sheep have 'wool' (aka : stipple) that was added after the photo shoot. The chickens have feathers too!



Some photo's of different parts of the quilt follows......










back of the quilt



I have added a few 'eye spy' things to find, maybe if you click on the photo's you will see clearer?

It was quilt airing at the home of 'Quiltme' today.................
  

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

step 3 Orca bay and a customers quilt.......




I had a wee bit of time to work on step 3 of my Orca Bay Mystery, here are my 350 HST resting out on my Thyme! I still have to go back and work on step one.........
Some people are very quick and have finished pop over and see if you can see anyone else doing browns like me.  ( I am #61)

As much as I am loving doing this mystery I do have customers quilts to work on, so here are a couple of photo's to see what I am working on..........................................
called 'Matilda's Station'.......more soon, I am off to work at my favourite quilt shop!!