Basket of Sunflowers

I am in need of some great spring colors. Last week I had some fun dyeing up some fat quarters. Had some nice results with low immersion and Procion dyes:

Then I needed to play with colors so designed a new wallhanging. It is pinned and ready for stitches.

We have had a very mild winter, and in the last week finally have a bit of snow on the ground. Even so I am ready for spring and playing in the dirt.
Have a nice day wherever you are :)

Sunday "summer days"

We had some very cold temps last week, down to -45C with the windchill. Then it warmed up and gave us a nice cover of snow. Today a gorgeous sunny day with -7C.  So I had some time last week to finish up a design I was working on. I hope to teach this at a shop in the spring, therefore I used Bali fabric from the shop...of course you might know I want to do it in my hand dyes.  I just think the hand dyes give more depth to the subject.
Here it is:

I made it to hang as one long piece, however I think it would look nice hanging as each separate block?

It has been sometime since I did any designing, so really had to put the old thinking cap on.
Hope you are having a lovely Sunday.

New Design and Orca Bay

I worked on a new design last week, it still needs quilted and binding. Need a name for it, any suggestions?
Here it is:

Here is one row for the Orca Bay quilt, I have four rows done and the fifth ready to sew together.

Our lovely spring like weather has gone, -29 for most of the day and predicted to stay that way for a week. A good time to stay in and finish the orca bay quilt.
Hope that you are having a great week.

Orca Bay Final Steps

I've started putting the quilt together, although I haven't finished all the units yet. My, the last two steps just days apart have a lot of work!  I like the way it looks. My red string blocks are just a bare 1/4" too large, so am adjusting !  My design wall isn't wide enough to show the whole strip:)  Hope to have the top finished sometime next week. You can check out this Mystery at: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/orca-bay-mystery.html  I am loving how this is working out, what a beautiful design!

Orca Bay step #5 & 6

Continuing the Orca Bay Mystery. I didn't think I'd be able to keep up during the Season but I did it.

Step #5 was a lot of sewing, sewing all those wings on the little half square triangle blocks.

Step #6---ahhh finally some blocks. Who would of thought Ohio Stars 28 lights and 28 darks, It was fun to put the blocks together and I am really looking forward to Step #7 this Friday.  I am enjoying every step of this mystery with Bonnie, if you would like to see more of the Orca Bay mystery check out Bonnie's blog:
 http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/orca-bay-mystery.html

We had a wonderful Christmas, filled with friends, family, food and good cheer. A very unusual Christmas for the north as we have hardly any snow left! The lawn is green...can just imagine what Mother Nature has in store for us for January :)

Red Fabric and Orca Bay Step #4

Step #4 for the Mystery Quilt made me very happy, working with red!!! I made 64 red string blocks, they are such fun to make.Then these were cut in half to form beautiful rectangles 128 of them! I am having so much fun with this mystery and the mystery continues. Bonnie says there are 8 steps so what is next is a mystery. You can learn more about the Orca Bay Mystery quilt at : http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/orca-bay-mystery.html  
I hope everyone is enjoying this mystery quilt as much as I am.

When I started Step #4 I had lots of red scraps from two previous quilts. I've really been into reds the past few months. Both the following quilts are going on the quilter this week...for sure!  The Buggy Barn star quilt still needs two borders, the other quilt is made of sister's choice blocks and it is ready to be quilted. Gottal love red!

Orca Bay Myster Step#3

Well, I finished step #3. I thought for sure we would be using reds in this step...but not so. I had to dig deep to find blacks, not much plain black so used black with patterns on it. 350 half square triangles unfinished size 2"...now that is a lot of sewing, pressing and trimming. Bonnie your are working us hard for this mystery:)
I had made some HST too small for step #1 so had 98 already made, am I ever glad I didn't throw them out.
You can learn more about the mystery quilt at Orca Bay Myster quilt
Here are my little lovlies.

I don't have any of Bonnie's rulers so I used the Wondercut Ruler for the HST. You sew two strips together, one dark and one light,  sewing on both edges.

Then use the dandy ruler to cut them, it really makes fast work of HST and is a method that I like to use. After cutting you just press the seam open and voila! a perfect HST. I can make 24 from two strips of fabric cut the WOF.

So far I am enjoying this mystery  a lot, and am looking forward to Step #4...will we use our reds???? Stay tuned
Lovely day in the north, little snow on the ground and above zero :)

Orca Bay step #2

I have finished step #2 for the Orca Bay mystery quilt. http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/orca-bay-mystery.html
It was a lot of fun putting together these 3.5" string blocks.72 of them finished. I  started out using computer paper for foundation...didn't work well too hard to rip off. Then I used newspaper, ahhh it worked very well and came off so easily. I really enjoyed putting the shades of blue/purple/and gold together.  And certainly used up a lot of scrap fabric.
Waiting for the next step.
Have a great Day!

Orca Bay Mystery quilt part #1

A little diversion from my art quilts. I've joined Bonnie Hunter's group to complete the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt.
 
I dug out all my blacks and neutrals and started making half square triangles, and put these together to form 228 Hour Glass blocks...lot's of piecing, but that is fine with me. At this time I need something to take my mind off life.
I have my blues and reds picked and look forward to the next step.
This is the first mystery I've done with Bonnie, and I'm very excited about it all.

Here are my hour glass blocks.

Seasons

I have submitted one of my quilts to Quilting Gallery, Nine Patch Galore Quilts contests. It is called 'Seasons" and I would love it if you would go and vote, there are many beautiful quilts to vote for. Go to:http://quiltinggallery.com/2011/09/16/vote-now-nine-patch-quilts/, scroll down to the bottom you will see my 'Seasons' near the end, the voting is further down. Thanks so much.

» Vote Now: Nine-Patch Galore Quilts / Quilting Gallery

quiltinggallery.com

It's voting time for this week's Nine-Patch Galore Quilts. Grab a cup of coffee, some paper and a pen and vote for your favourites.