Orca Bay Mystery - Part 2

The mission this week was to make 72  31/2" strip squares.
Bonnie is using blues - I am using greens , everything from limes to emeralds !

 These blocks are fast and fun to make.

Funny coincidence no 1 - my scissors match my blocks!

Funny coincidence no 2 :  Teddy bears on my fabric and teddy bears on my foundations!

As of this morning I have 60 blocks done just leaving 12 to do today.  That leaves lots of time until friday to work on Christmas presents.
Happy days!

Friday Finishes!

Must say, I've had a really busy week with my regalia work and Part 1 of Orca Bay ( mystery quilt) but I did manage two small finishes.
I've been making a stack of mug rugs as Christmas gifts and got two finished last night.

This first one  is two strips of seminole patchwork.  We did this at our last meeting of quilt group.
I'm not sure I got my measurements correct as the contrast fabric in the center of the fat strip is an ablong and not a square.  mmmm ?   Still I think it turned out okay.

Close up of my tribally / swirly free motion quilting.

Next up is an old faithful :

I don't think I could ever get sick of making these and I love getting the chance to practice feathers !

I used a satin fabric for the flower this time , a bit tricky and slippery to work with but I think the end result is worth it.

So that is it for now.
Being Friday means I am linking up with Shanna from Sparrow in Flight who is hosting this weeks TGIFF party.
http://ssparrowinflight.blogspot.com/2011/11/tgiff4-santa-claus-is-coming-to-town.html

Why not head on over there and check out the finishes ?

Have a good weekend everyone
Rhianon.

Orca Bay 2011 Mystery Quilt by Bonnie Hunter. PART 1

It's November and that means it is mystery quilt time with Bonnie Hunter.
This is my second mystery quilt and I cut my teeth last year on Bonnie's Roll, Roll Cotton Boll.

It was such a blast - No matter what - every Friday was MY sewing day.

Part 1 of Orca Bay was out on Friday.
If anybody wants to join in then here is the link :

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/orca-bay-mystery.html
You can also find the link in my side bar - it will be sitting there for the duration.

Here is my progress so far ;

Production line under way!

I'm using the 3 1/4" square method as I don't have a companion angle ruler but it is working a treat !

Getting there !

This is it so far - 167 hourglass blocks completed, 57 to go.  The end is in sight.

I'm a really going to enjoy this mystery because I have made some lovely quilty friends from all over the world and we are all doing it together, so it is going to be excellent to have people to compare notes with and also Bonnie has set up the link for bloggers.  So who knows, I may even make more new friends or even get some new followers.  Now that would be nice !!!
If I'm lucky enough to have Bonnie look at my blog, then just want to say thank you for everything you do Bonnie!!!

Til next time
Happy sewing
Rhianon

A Friday Finish - Baby Quilt / Playmat

I am really pleased to get this little quilt finished ahead of starting Bonnie's mystery quilt today.
My sister commissioned me to make this for our nephew who is going to become a daddy for the first time in early February.

Luckily, I was able to find out that the baby is a boy and luckily I had these cute froggy fabric strips that i picked up at the quilt show.

I did the best I could with the fabric, made up some blocks and sewed them together in rows.

I used navy and turquoise for the border and machine quilted it all over.

Machine quilting detail.

I'm so glad to have another project finished.  Now I just have to wait for the baby's arrival, then I can embroider a label with all his birth details.

I'm linking this post to Bending Pins who is hosting this weeks TGIFF party.  Why not drop by and have a look at the other finishes this week.  Here is the link : http://bendingpins.com/2011/11/17/tgiff/

I'm off to sew now and I'll be back soon with more quilty stuff.
Have a good weekend.
Rhianon.

WIPs - Two Quilts for Christmas.

For some illogical reason, I decided that I would try and make my girls a quilt each for Christmas.  I had 2 jelly rolls kicking about in my stash and thought why not ?
There are a couple of Bonnie Hunter quilts I have wanted to make for a while now, so bit between my teeth....off I went.

This one is called Strip Twist and is easier than it looks.

A couple of plain borders and it's done.  It finishes at 72" x 58".  I used most of the jelly roll and have 9 strips left over which will be plenty for the binding and I may even have enough left to make a small matching cushion. 

On to the second quilt now.  This pattern is called Pineapple Blosson. 

These blocks finish at 12.5" and were fast and fun to make up.

Now to decide on which lay out ??

One of the best things about making the blocks is all the little bonus HST's you get.

I had fun playing with these and thought I could even make a childs quilt.......

.......but I have decided to use them for the border instead.

This is as far as it goes at the moment.  I will add a black dotty inner border before the HSTs.  Hope to get all that done today.   I still have a lot of strips of the jelly roll left over ..... I could make the quilt bigger but my girls don't want their quilts 'too big'!
Okay I can deal with that ! but the big question now is...will I get them quilted and bound in time for Christmas ??      I'll try my best.

You can find Bonnie and all her wisdom at  http://www.quiltville.com/

That's all for now.  Enjoy your weekend and thanks for visiting.

Rhianon.

Friday Finish - Anniversary Wall Hanging

I didn't think I was going to manage a finish but a few hours work last night and this was done !

It is a wall hanging for my sister in law and her husband to celebrate 20 years of marriage.

I decided to go with blacks and whites becasue that is the colour scheme of their living room.

Top - with decorative flowers.

Middle section - with hand embroidered details

Bottom section.

I machine quilted the whole piece, with feathers in the outer border.

I invested in one of those cute little hangers.  first time I've used one of them and I think they are great.  I can see me buying more of them.  It just finishes it off nicely and makes it easy to hang.

I'm linking this post to Laura's blog, Quokka Quilts.  She is very kindly hosting this weeks  TGIFF party.
So if you have something finished, head over there and post your link.  We'd love to see what you have been up to.

http://quokkaquilts.blogspot.com/2011/11/tgiff-black-n-white-and-red-all-over.html


Have a great weekend everyone!
Rhianon.

A Lovely Surprise !!!!

At the weekend I was blog hopping as you do and I spotted a comment from another Scottish quilter. So, off I went to this lady's blog and it turns out that she is a Scottish champion Quilter.  She won 3 rosettes at this years show!!!
Her name is Kay Bell and you can visit her blog here : http://borderlinequilter.blogspot.com/2011/10/one-hundred.html

For those of you who were at the show or remember my post about it, here is one of Kay's award winning quilts.

Kay is a very talented long arm quilter and as I decided to follower her blog , I was her 100th follower.
Look what Kay sent me in  the post this morning.

I can't believe it!  thank you so much Kay.  A selection of beautiful Christmas prints.  Aren't they lovely?  I am over the moon to say the least!

This is Kay's business card - just look at the incredible quilting.  fabulous!!!

This is the card Kay sent with my goodies.  It has a wholecloth designed by Kay on it.  Again brilliant work.
If you have a moment please go an look at Kays blog and become a follower.  You won 't regret it.

I just want to say a HUGE thank you to Kay for being so thoughtful and kind.
Rhianon.