regrouping again

I don't like counting pieces of fabric. That's one of the reasons why I make so many of my quilts with 2 1/2" squares, so I can cut tons and tons of squares and use what I need and toss the rest into the box to use for the next quilt.

Orca Bay is going to involve a whole lot of counting, but I'm using every trick I know about putting things in stacks and pinning them together and writing myself notes. And sometimes you've just gotta count.



Not knowing how many strips I had was the biggest reason Quinn's Scrappy Trip Around the World has been stalled for so long. When I started the project, I didn't know how many green fabrics were in my stash, or how big I wanted the quilt to be. I cut strips from as many green fabrics as I could find in my stash, and the ones Jan sent me. Somewhere along the line I decided to make it 72" square.

Ever since, I've avoided counting my green strips. I don't know how many I started with, but I do know I've lost some. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were some partially assembled blocks around here someplace, but if I wait until I find them the kid will never have a quilt.



My goal for Sunday was to figure out how many blocks I had finished, how many blocks I had started, and how many strips I'd need for the rest. And to count the green strips.

I have exactly the number of strips I need. There is no excuse not to finish this quilt.

I know I've made more bowties than this! I remember sewing them in fabrics that aren't here...and I very vaguely remember deciding to put the finished ones in a safe place.




To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times. For more Orca Bay and Bow Tie progress, head over to Quiltville. And don't forget to check out my new pattern, 30s Barn Raising and enter to win a Moda Jelly Roll and the background fabric to make the quilt.

design wall monday

My big Orca Bay triumph for the week is that I know where all of the fabric for the project is. Probably. I know where enough to actually make the project is, but I won't be surprised if I find and throw in more reds and blues along the way.

I'm not done with any of the clues, but I've done at least a few pieces of the first three and I'm going to get to those red strips just as soon as I'm done with this:



UPS said it would be delivered by the end of the day tomorrow, so it was a happy (if a bit frightening) surprise to check my email this morning and read that it had already been left outside on my porch steps. I got to it before the local mail thieves, so I've got an extra day to work on my project.

I've also got two turorials to write and a tree stand to find and presents to buy and wrap....how many more days 'til Christmas?

To see more design walls, click over to Patchwork Times. For more Orca Bay updates, head over to Quiltville. And don't forget the Blog Hop Party and the rulers I'm giving away!

Orca Bay Step 2 -- I may be a convert!

I was going to use muslin in my string blocks, because that's the way I always do it. Even after Bonnie said not to, I was going to go out and buy some really thin interfacing. The idea of ripping out paper scares me -- what if all of my seams fell apart?

Friday and the second clue came, and Bonnie was kind of adamant about not leaving anything in those blocks. She's never led me wrong before, so I took a deep breath and grabbed one of the phone books.

We live in the land of the thousand phone books. There's a book for the little town we live near, and one for the county, and another one for the county that has a different assortment of towns...and I have to have one for Salem where we do most of our shopping... Just to function, we need half a dozen. And they always deliver duplicates, and books by competing companies, and the whole thing is a bit ridiculous. But I've got phone books for string piecing! And for the kids to try out some of the things they saw on the Mythbusters phonebook episode.

I wasn't prepared for this step. I've got blue fabric, lots of it. All buried under other things. But it didn't take long to cut strips for a couple of test blocks.

It took even less time to assemble the blocks and peel off the paper. I think Bonnie's made me a convert, at least for this project!

Now it's time to find my strings and pull out the blue ones, and some blue crumbs for the corners.

I'm linking this post to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and Bonnie's Orca Bay Linky Party at Quiltville.

they're all cut!

My original goal was to get 100 of the hourglass units done this week. That
seemed like enough to count as decent progress, but not enough to overwhelm me. Now, I've got all of the pieces cut, and half of them sewn into pairs. And a few more assembled into the hourglass units.

All of those loose little triangles sitting in a pile at the side of my sewing machine make me nervous. I'm afraid that something will happen to scatter them and then I'll have to count again.

As much as I love playing with little pieces of fabric, I hate counting them --especially 448 of them. I'm not sure I've ever needed 448 pairs of anything before! The entire drunkard's path quilt took 320 units. Grandma's Donuts took 320 wedges.

I avoid counting pieces as much as I can.

For Quinn's Trip Around the World I know I need two hundred and sixteen strips. So I cut a bunch and assembled them into blocks and at some point I'll count the blocks and see how many more blocks I need and multiply it by six to see how many strips short I am. I did something similar with the pieces for Cabbage Roses, my drunkard's path quilt.

That's one of the reasons why I make so many quilts with 2 1/2" squares. I cut a bunch, use what I need, and toss what's left into my box of squares. Sooner or later they get used up. Or I need to cut more for the next project.

While I wait for the next clue, I'll see how many more of those hourglass blocks I can get sewn and finish up another UFO.

I love little pieces

Quilts with little pieces make my heart go pitty-pat. Most of my quilts are made up of 2 1/2" squares, and sometimes I start to wonder if those aren't just a little too big. Usually, I convince myself that 2 1/2" is a perfectly reasonable size, especially for baby quilts that I'm giving to someone else's baby. But I will do a postage stamp quilt for myself with much smaller pieces one of these days. And a Lego Quilt.



The first step for Orca Bay is right up my alley. I hadn't done many hourglass blocks before. And I hadn't used this ruler. But I'm loving the technique and I'm using some of my favorite neutrals. Bonnie said to use up the icky stuff, but it only takes a 1 1/2" strip of each print and I plan on keeping this, so I'm using fabrics I love. Now that I think of it, I'm not sure if I even have any neutrals I don't love.

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and Bonnie's Orca Bay Linky Party at Quiltville.

there was a reason I couldn't find it

When I first discovered Quiltville a couple of years ago, I bought the two rulers Bonnie recommended. I knew one was the Easy Angle and, looking back, I assumed that the other one was the Companion Angle. That was the one she talked about when the clues for Roll Roll Cotton Boll came out.

Turns out, she also recommended the Easy Square Jr. and now that I look at the picture of that one, I'm pretty sure it the second one I bought when I bought my Easy Angle.

No wonder I couldn't find a ruler I never bought in the first place! (And no, I can't find the Easy Square Jr., either. But I'm not looking for that one, so it doesn't count.)



Now that I actually own the ruler I need, I've started cutting pieces.

Thanks for the advice on how to make this work without the special ruler. I knew I could do it, but trying to find that ruler was driving me nuts. And I really like that I can cut the pieces out of 1 1/2" strips. Whatever black and neutral strips I don't wind up using for this project will go into my pineapple quilt, whenever I start that.

Weekly Stash Report

Another week that no new fabric followed me home! Not a whole lot used up, since I've been recovering from the baby quilt binge.

Fabric Used this Week: 2 1/4 yards yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 76.75 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 1020 yards
Net Added for 2011: 868.75 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 6640 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 14075 yards
Net Added for 2011: 7435 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.

more blacks!

While I was searching around my sewing machine for my Companion Angle ruler, I found these blacks --

And some smaller pieces that I'll be able to use if I either find the ruler or decide that I never bought one in the first place and drive into town to buy one. Can I start with a different method and then switch to the ruler once I make it into town to buy another one? Or is that just asking for trouble?

While I'm cleaning up the sewing corner (because Thanksgiving is coming in less than a week, so it's time for that fun annual ritual), I'm also pulling out yellow fabrics because I stumbled across the instructions for Kiss in the Corner. How did I never see that one before?

How black does black have to be?

With just a little bit of digging, I came up with some more blacks.

What I've really got to do is stop looking at finished quilts and seeing the black fabrics I've already used up. They're not in my stash anymore. I love the quilts I used them in. There's no point in wishing I had just a little bit left to add to my black pile for Orca Bay!



Before I took the picture, I was a little more concerned about my choices. The background of the witch hats is a bit brownish. The polka dots are polka dots. But they all seem to play nicely in the picture.

I've dug out my Easy Angle ruler, which I bought because one of Bonnie's other patterns called for it, and one that I thought was the Companion Angle but isn't. (It's actually part of a different set that I bought for a different project that I never made.) I'm sure I bought the Companion Angle when I bought the Easy Angle...hopefully I can find that one before the step that calls for it.