ALL Caught Up and Ready for Part IV of the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt!

Ah YES - what a wonderful feeling to FINALLY be all caught up with Quiltville's Orca Bay Mystery Quilt!  Took advantage of the most recent HOUSE marathon to finish up Part I, and got the second half of the QSTs sewn into hour glass units, pressed/trimmed and ready to go into temporary storage until Bonnie gives us the appropriate clue to utilize them in the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt:

And I got lots more Quilt Jelly, too!  Don't these hour glass units look soooo cute all nestled in their temporary resting place?

And now, time for yours truly to find her a temporary resting place for a nice, long nap...time to get to it ;-)

Later,

~Deb

HSTs of Part III from Orca Bay Mystery Quilt - DONE!

Plugging along - and now have the HSTs of Part III of the Quiltville's Orca Bay Mystery Quilt - ALL 350 pairs, DONE!

They took a little longer than I anticipated (what else is new w/my family/life) because the baby gift for the youngest daughter took longer/got changed in mid-stream.  I would post pics but, because I promised a one-of-a-kind embroidery design/gift, can't post to keep it that way, I know you understand ;-)  To say the two burping cloths and owl receiving blanket(s) w/customized embroidery were too cute is, IMHO an understatement - they all turned out beyond our expectations.  Just goes to show, when one is in a pinch - must pull out ALL the creative juices to bring the final finished product to fruition.  Needless to say, I was exhausted after all that creativity and needed a break before I could resume our Orca Bay Mystery quilt.  

In the meantime, still haven't finished the last half of the QSTs from Part I:

At least they made it to the pressing area (my ottoman multi-tasks as notebook/pressing/sewing/trimming/foot rest area) and all got snipped apart ;-)

Later - gotta get back to it, there's another HOUSE marathon w/my name on it!

~Deb

Making Progress on Part III - Getting Caught Up on Part I of the Orca Bay Mystery!

Starting to see daylight!  Made some serious headway on Part III of the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt challenge and finally getting caught up with Part I - YES!!

Feels good to see some of the fruits of my labor - lots of trimming and cutting HSTs:

And you'll all be glad to know - finished cutting and sewing ALL the QSTs from Part I during yesterday's HOUSE marathon (and it was one of my favs ;-) :

Will get them all pressed and trimmed later this evening, sew them into hour glass units tomorrow-ish and will FINALLY be done with Part I!  Then will get back to trimming and cutting  the rest of the HSTs from Part III.  I will probably save that task for tomorrow because now I'm off to finish that baby gift I promised my daughter a month ago and it's due tonight - gotta dash...

Later,

~Deb

Part III of the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt the SNS way!

Lots of quality sewing time has finally ensued, including a large chunk of Part III for the latest Quiltville Mystery Quilt - so let's get to it, shall we?

All of the half square triangles (HSTs) have been sewn using the square in a square method (SNS) from Jodi Barrows, pressed and started trimming and cutting into the resulting four HSTs:

Pressing and pressing and pressing HSTs from Part III AND QSTs from Part I (trying to catch up) :

Pressed half of the required QSTs from Part I (the 1 1/2" strips are cut, just waiting to be cut into QSTs and sewn, which I plan to finish up later this week...

And I used the Companion Angle to make the cuts for the QSTs and the Easy Square Jr. to make the needed 3 3/8" cuts for the HSTs - both rulers worked great!):

QSTs sewn into hour glass units, pressed and trimmed - the trimmings make for nice Quilt Jelly:

And that's it for now.  Can hardly wait to see what everyone else has been up to - I'll be checking back soon after I take a nice loooonnngg nap ;-)

UPDATE:  up from my nap, checked the tube and there's a HOUSE marathon on Cloo and it's raining outside so I'm golden - I can cut and sew and trim ALL day!

Later...

~Deb

Part III of the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt - Off and Running...

OK, so after a short stint in the recovery chair w/sniffles ALL day Friday (when of course the new clues to the Orca Bay Mystery quilt are posted), finally started to feel better late last night and I sooo appreciated all the Well wishes from Celia and Helen from the UK ;-)

So today is a brand-new day and I've finally been clear-headed enough this afternoon to make some headway on Part III - got ALL my 2" and 3 3/8" strips/blocks cut and am ready to sew:

And lots and lots of strips left for a nice future string quilt or two:

Sewing the 2" and 3 3/8" strips together - almost half done and ready to cut down to the finished 3 3/8" size:

And so I'm off to the sewing machine to finish up - I'll keep you posted...

~Deb

Let's Do the Math on the HSTs of Part III for the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt...

Since I'm bored out of my mind w/sneezing, coughing, watery swelled up red eyes (those flu/virus gremlins just had to show up), and I can't see well enough to cut accurately or sew, thought I'd try and run the math on the half square triangles (HSTs) for Part III of the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt.  I give you fair warning:  PLEASE check my numbers before you go off sewing 150 of these PLEASE - and I accept NO burden of responsibility if you don't check my math and measurements after you make one or two of these units based on the * square in a square (SNS) method of Jodi Barrows (which I dearly love and swear by, especially if you like strip piecing like I do).

Here's a video demonstration of this marvelous method and a few extras to boot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMCx6cNOMhw
(Don't you just LOVE Jodi's chock-full of fabric/tools/goodies studio - I stop by and visit this video from time to time to not only refresh my memory on all the SNS options but to drool over her studio - can anyone say A-W-E-S-O-M-E?!)

DISCLAIMER:  I am NOT affiliated in any way - receive NO royalties, referral fees, and/or money, gifts, etc., from any recommendation from any Vendors online or offline, including the SNS method and tools.  I ordered and paid full-price for ALL my SNS tools, books, and videos, just to clarify...Thank YOU!

OK, now that all those details are out of the way, here's my math so far - according to Bonnie's Part III directions we need:

• (350) 2" pairs of half square triangles (HSTs in black prints and neutrals) = 2" finished size after sewing the pairs together and 11/2" finished size in the quilt
• PLEASE see **UPDATE below for change in the center square measurement:  Using *SNS method (above) that means we need: (88) different 3 1/2" or (3 3/8" as stated below in UPDATE) center squares sewn to (30 NOT 120 as previously stated since each completed unite will yield 4 HSTs) different 2" x 45" strips - what's neat about this method, you can make the 3 1/2" center squares out of one of the needed colors - let's say the black print and the 2" strips would then be out of the neutrals, or you can switch and make the 3 1/2" center squares out of the neutrals and the 2" strips would be different black prints - whatever you happen to have on hand in the appropriate measurements (I have a lot of 2 1/2" black printed jelly rolls, so will probably cut them up and use for my 2" strips and have a bunch of hunks of neutral fabrics I'll be cutting for my 3 1/2" center squares).  Just remember, each sewn unit of  3 1/2" center square w/four sides of 2" strips yields four (4) HSTs!
• FINAL Math tally, the short version:  (88) different 3 3/8" center squares OR (7.5) different 45" WOF 3 3/8" dark strips sewn to (30) different 45" WOF 2" neutral strips, once sewn/trimmed/cut in fourths yield 360 HSTs

Here's my math according to Jodi Barrows SNS methodology to get the center square cut size:  2" cut size of HST multiplied by the magic number of 1.414 = 2.828 plus 1/2" = 3.328 rounded to nearest 1/8" = 3.453 or rounded up to scant 3.5 which translates to 3 1/2" for the center square.  Even though I've checked the math several times, I've yet to sew even one unit since I don't trust myself yet to see well enough to cut and sew accurately (still waiting on those cold meds to kick in ;-).  So again, PLEASE check this and get back to us and let us know if this will work.  As soon as I can, I will do the same..Thanks so much!

**UPDATE:  the 3 1/2" measurement for the center square really needs to be 3 3/8" to be perfect or you need to go really, really scant if you use the 3 1/2" measurement.  I did it both ways and I even mistakenly grabbed a 1 1/2" strip from my quarter square triangle pile and had a heck of a time trying to figure out why my measurements were soooo off - must've been the cold meds, LOL.  I even went with the 3 3/8" center square on my second attempt to figure out what was wrong and started to make the same mistake with the 1 1/2" strip when the light bulb FINALLY went on, H-e-l-l-oooo!

Again, FINAL Math tally - the short version:  For (350) 2" HSTs using the *SNS method we need (88) different 3 3/8" center squares OR (7.5) different 3 3/8" - 45" WOF dark strips sewn to (30) different 2" - 45" WOF neutral strips, once sewn/trimmed/pressed/cut in fourths will yield 360 HSTs.  Since we only need 350 HSTs, you will end up with 10 extra.

So here's my final results using the 3 3/8" center square with 2" strips:

The top square has just been sewn with alternating 2" strips on all four sides of the 33/8" center square.  The bottom square unit has been trimmed using Jodi's Texas 2-step method with the SNS ruler.

I opted to use my 'spinning' cutting board so I could cut through both centers without disturbing the triangles:

And now the moment of truth, after ALL this cutting/sewing/pressing/cutting/sewing/pressing/cutting do we finally have finished 2" HSTs???

YES Indeed we do!  Here's the 'proof in the puddin' as we say down on the farm:

Alrighty then, we are back in the race sooooo.....let's get back to it, shall we?!

~Deb

Blue String Blocks - DONE!

Finally finished with the 3 1/2" blue strips and strings blocks - Yeah!

Aren't these cute?!

And I even had some leftovers if anyone needs any ;-)

But having read all of Bonnie's books to date, I'm fairly certain I may end up using these somewhere, if nothing else, I can see them pieced into borders later on...how 'bout you?

Well, no rest for the weary - got to get back to the black/white quarter square triangles.  I have 4 hours until the end of this day, should be enough time to get caught up just in time for Part III of the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt - so let's get back to it!