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.

Study in red/gree tones and hues

Don't have a title for this one yet, another one done in Pamela's class. We were to choose complimentary colors and uses anything but the true colors I did sneak in some true red on her lips :)
I was amazed what I had in my stash for red/greens. The sky is a piece of hand dye I did, and wouldn't you know it with the help of some colored pencils a moon appeared.

Enjoy.

The Note

Here I am taking another online class with Pamela Allan...and I haven't finished quilting the three from the previous class...oh the lazy days of summer:) I call this one 'The Note'...will leave the rest up to your imagination you will note there is only one wine glass...

Here is the first one from this class, a study in black and white. Not stitched yet, I certainly have some stitching ahead of me...

Washday

Here is the final one from Pamela's class, I got stuck and had to redo it several times.  First we did a small composition, then we cut a section out and re-built it. This one needs stitching. Thank goodness Pamela is a patient teacher :)

The Dock

Finished stitiching  The Dock, stitching always brings the raw edge applique to life.
Also finished cupcakes, and added some bling :) The Dock is all hand stitched whereas the Cupcake one is machine stitched.
Two more to go.

The Jive

Here is the third one done in Pamela's class, still needs stitched. I have several pieces now that need stitching. The challenge here was to show emotions/mood...I think I've caught the 50/60's jive, music and fun...right down to the poodle skirt.  I am working on Lesson #4, when that is done I can get with the stitching.
June 3rd and we are having wet snow, not nice at all!

Annual quilt Show

Our guild held their annual quilt show on May 15, I was busy all winter preparing for it.  . I did won 1st place viewers choice for this one. It is called stitchers garden, and is an exercise in using all those fancy stitches on your machine as well as bobbin work, and different feet.  I mainly used my hand dyes for the applique sections.  It fits my queen bed and hangs over quite nicely.

'Cupcake'

The second lesson in Figures and Faces, with Pamela Allen. This challenge was head and shoulders.

All the hooplah over the delicious cupcake outbreak brought about this composition, she still needs stitched, but here she is in all her glory. The next lesson is 'mood'...mmmm...wonder what I'll do? stay tuned....

New Class "The Dock"

I finally feel like the creative mojo has returned after a long hiatus. It took a class with Pamela Allen to bring it back. The class is called Figures and Faces and I am having so much fun. Here is my composition for the first lesson. I call it "The Dock" , I am now in the process of stitching it, but will post the picture for your enjoyment.It will really come alive with some hand stitching on it.

I was thinking of the impending flooding on the Mississippi and how this scene could vanish, a couple very happy with days catch.

'Village'

This is another piece started in Pamela's class, it is a village using patterned fabric. I still have to do the stitching.

Sisters

I have been so lazy keeping up my blog, just too much happening.

This is a piece I did in Pamela's class, the challenge was to take a palette of one of the masters and use the same palette to create a composition. I chose one by Henry Matisse, re-created it in fabric and then the third one is the same color palette and my composition. I call it 'Sisters' , my dear oldest sister played the piano and I always wanted to play stand up bass :) Using Pamela's method there is no drawing, the scissors are the drawing tool.
I have another one I started in the class but haven't finished yet. Still snowing up our way, and I can tell you I am sure ready for spring!!

Almost Macke

I just wanted to share this piece with you. I did it in a QU class with Marilyn Belford.  What I did was try and reproduce Macke's 'Three Girls and a Dog'using fabric,  very similar to the class I am taking now with Pamela.  You can see that I didn't pay much attention to values and the different shades that Macke used :)  Hope I do better in this class.

More Snow Fun

This is the wagon this morning, we had a lot of drifting last night.
I also had fun with some snow dyeing, here are the results, I've got four more on the go :) This is my first time using Procion dyes for snow dyeing, and realize I should have used more dye.  Have more dye on the ones I've got batching today.  The first one I twisted before putting into the container.
Must take advantage of all this fluffy snow.  And I love the surprises that happen when snow dyeing.
Hope you are having a great day.

And the other picture is a small car that has been parked at the hospital for the past week, yesterday you couldn't see it at all, the wind has loosened some of the snow...yes we have had a lot of snow!

Ravens

Any of you that were in the Still Life class of Pamela's will know my love affair with ravens.  This morning I looked out the back window and this is what I saw.  At least twenty Ravens, hunkered down in this tree trying to stay warm in our frigid snowy weather. I am sure it is very hard for them to find food right now with the amount of snow we have had, and we have a heavy snowfall warning for today 20-25cm which is more than 6 inches!  The temp is in  the -30's with the windchill....ahh gotta love winter in the north.
The trees out front are loaded with snow, and the yard out back...well that's the wagon under there and it is a large wagon that horses pull!  Enjoy the photos.

FFFC #52 Color Field

These are the two pieces that I started for the last Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. Our challenge was doing a piece in the 'color field' technique. This is large blocks of color, sort of abstract but not really?  You can see I had some trouble with this challenge.  Here are the two pieces, started and still not quilted.

The first one I did is 'Fields of Tulips', and it is quite landscapey, perhaps too much so to be called color field.
This next one I called 'Morning Sunshine" and it is more like  the technique of 'color field'.  I guess I am just too much of a realist to wrap my brain around this technique :) But hey, I tried!

Beginnings

I have been so neglectful of my blog. Find that I'm not spending much time online. Anyway, I just finished a piece for a new group I belong to. It is a Haiku group, once a month we are given a word to kick start our imagination. We are to write a Haiku and then put it to picture.
This month our word was 'beginnings', this is our first challenge.
I chose the newborn for my Haiku. Spending so much time at the hospital with my Mom I have witnessed so many new borns and hope they all have a rich full life.

Beginnings:

behold your journey

embrace enjoy entirely

beloved little one


I chose a piece of my snow dyed fabric, love the way it portrays the rays of sunshine, and all the wonderful colors of our world with some turbulence a long the way. I free cut the silhouette from a rough sketch  and added some hand stitching.