Quilting and Stuff by Knitnoid

Category Archives: Orca Bay

Orca Bay is Finished!

orcabaydone2

 

orcabaydoneback

 

  • Pattern:  Orca Bay by Bonnie Hunter, in her String Fling book.
  • Batting: Hobbs Tuscany Collection 100% Unbleached Cotton
  • Top Thread: Omni thread by Superior Thread Color # 3172 – Verbena
  • BobbinThread: Superior Threads Super Bob – Orange (1-1/2  size M’s)
  • Quilting design: AMPANTO03 Curly Q by Aimee Mahan
  • Quilting time: approximately 3 hours
  • Size before washing: 75″ x 84″
  • Size after washing: 70 1/2″ x 79 1/2″
  • Started: As part of the 2011 Mystery 11/18/2011
  • Finished: 5/17/2015

This quilt was on my UFO list in several challenges. I’ll add the links when the corresponding post goes live.

What’s On My Design Wall

Last week there were big finishes.  First was Eye Fooler — at about 4:00 AM Saturday morning. Nothing like finishing with only hours to spare.

kalliquilt-dw

A full picture of the quilt can be seen in Saturday’s post.

The second finish is Orca Bay.  The binding is stitched down and now I need to get it washed, photographed and shipped off.

OrcaDW

 

So what’s next?  Catching up on laundry and deep cleaning the kitchen. Along the way,  I need to put up the extra fabric from the quilts – I’ve already taken care of the backing and batting, but I need to put up the brights from Eye Fooler. After I get that done, I’ll start cutting the recycled shirts for my nephews’ quilts. Now if I can find the note card which tells me how many squares I need to cut….

See what other’s have been working on over at Patchwork Times.

Six and a Half Hours of Quilting

orcabutterMy cats are new to Quilting Quality Control.  Apparently they don’t inspect tops, but wait until the quilting is done.  This is Butterscotch on my version of Bonnie Hunter’s Orca Bay. I gave the future owner the choice of orange or black binding and she has chosen orange.  I’ll do it next week.

gradgracie

Gracie inspected my version of Eye Fooler. This has to be finished and gift wrapped by Noon Saturday. It will get a gold binding with a black flange following Susie’s Magic Binding.

After the quilts are finished I’ll post a longer post with more information about each quilt.

 

 

Ready to Quilt

ready2quilt

Both Orca Bay and Eye Fooler are pinned and ready to quilt. It’s going to be a long afternoon/evening.

Stash Report / February Recap

gradquilt-pieces

 

A whole lot of fabric passed under my needle this past week – the majority of it at the retreat Friday and Saturday. Most of the units needed for the blocks for the graduation quilt  are made.  I still need all of the HST in both sizes and the triangle in a square units for the outer blocks. That pile in the top right corner is the start of the block assembly.

Stash Report: – Reported at Patchwork Times

Fabric Added Since Last Report 0.25 yards (FQ from the retreat)
Fabric Added to Date: 18.91 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0.75 yards (Orca Bay Borders)
Fabric Used to Date: 16.964 yards

INCREASE in Stash to Date:  1.946 yards

350 Blocks Report at Prairie Moon Quilts

I reported 23 blocks.  I counted the Orca Bay pieced border as 10 and I finished 13 stars.

orcabay-top

staraday-february

I have nothing to show for the UFO Parade at 52 Quilts in 52 Weeks. Orca Bay only made it to the top stage.

UFO Busting Link Up

  • # of Projects in Process February 1st: 66
  • # of Projects Completed: 0
  • # of New Projects Started: 1
  • # of Projects in Process February 28th: 67

 

 

What’s On My Design Wall

orcabay-top

First up is the Orca Bay top. This was the 2011 Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt.  I have the batting, backing and thread to quilt it, I just need to scheduled long arm rental time.

So, having finished one quilt top, I’m on to the next one. Eye Fooler in black and brights.

saturdaystitching-kalli

 

Saturday I got a few 2-patches and flying geese made while I was avoiding the borders for Orca Bay. There are tons more of these units which need to be made. The bright fabric for these units are cut but I haven’t cut the black fabric. I made myself wait until the Orca Bay top was done.

These 4″ wide bright strips should be enough for the rest of the black and bright units.

dw0223 - strips

By getting these cut, I’ve been able to fold up the rest of the fabric. Admittedly it’s not put away – but that’s only because there’s a quilt top hanging from the shelving.

I did cut one 5″ strip of the black to make the background of the triangle in a square units.


dw0223 - trianglesquare

Next up is to figure out how many units of each fabric I need. I suspect I’ll be cutting all week.

Linking up to Patchwork Times.

 

 

Stash Report

orca-pieced borders

Lots of fabric passed under my needle this past week, but I didn’t get the borders attached to Orca Bay, so no fabric used. My only purchase was two batts, one for Orca Bay and one for a twin bed quilt I want/need to make after I finish the graduation quilt.

Fabric Added Since Last Report 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 18.66 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 16.214 yards

INCREASE in Stash to Date:  2.446 yards

Most of the fabric for Orca Bay is counted already, but I’m wondering now if I’ll have time to quilt it Friday morning?

See how others are doing with their stashes over at Patchwork Times.

Saturday Stitching

saturdaystitching-kalli

I’m working today on a software go-live, which means I have 15 minutes to an hour of activity, followed by several hours of nothing but monitoring e-mail repeated several times today.  So, with one eye on the e-mail, I’m piecing.

All week I’ve been cutting the bright fabric for the graduation quilt, with the intent of taking it to the quilt retreat next weekend. I’ve got the fabric cut for the 4-patches and flying geese, so I thought I’d cut the gazillion squares I need from the black fabric.  I cut 110 (10 strips)  and decided that I should trying sewing a few before cutting the rest (if my math is right I need a total of 832 squares).

I’m making the geese with the stitch and flip method. It’s not necessarily the most efficient use of fabric, but since I’m only making 2 or 3 geese from each fabric and I started with bricks from my pre-cut box, it’s working for me.

This quilt needs 160 black & bright 4-patches, 256 geese (plus a ton of other pieces) so I need to do a bit of power sewing, but I’m also paying closer attention to detail.

You see, I really want to finish Orca Bay. It just needs the borders. But 75 of the pieced units had issues. Since I last posted, I fixed 4 of them – but I’m finding that I need to go back and re-work the pieced triangles. Which makes me want to box the whole thing up and do something else.

saturdaystitching-ob

But because of these last 21 units, I’ve paid more attention to the piecing I’ve done on the black & bright units. In fact there was one goose that I attempted to stitch and flip the sky on 3 or 4 times before I decided it wasn’t meant to be and set the unit aside. Finally I ripped it apart and remeasured everything again.  The square was short on one side!

saturdaystitching-blacksqure

 

It works in this 2-patch, but no wonder I couldn’t get the goose to fly.

saturdaystitching-butter

Butterscotch has the right idea. A nap would be good.  But I have a period of activity coming up with the go-live, so instead I’m going to rip the rest of the Orca Bay pieced triangles apart and build them from scratch — this before I cut any more of the black fabric for the graduation quilt.

As for what I’ll work on at the retreat? I’ll still be working on the graduation quilt – just different units.

 

 

Progress On Multiple Quilts

orca-borders75

Slowly I’m getting the border pieces done for Orca Bay. I have 75 units trimmed. The other 25 units have issues so there’s ripping and re-sewing in my future. My goal is to get all the units finished this weekend and maybe, just maybe get the border on the quilt.

kalli-brights

Next weekend I’m going to a 2-day quilt day retreat.  22 hours if I last that long. So, I’ve started cutting the fabric for Eye Fooler, the quilt I’m making for my niece to take and work on. These pieces are for the black & bright 4-patches and flying geese.  I still have a few more pieces to cut and of course all of the black fabric. Once I get these units done, I’ll move on to the triangle in a square and half-square triangle units.

 

Orca Bay Progress

orcacenter0209

 

The 5 seams were sewn last night. I try to assemble large quilts in 1/4 sections. It wasn’t until I was sewing the last seam – the horizontal one across the middle of the quilt – that I realized just how heavy the quilt top is.

Tonight I’ll work on the borders.  Last night after supper I finished my 88th star and then started sewing the rows together in the current section. I think I only have 6 more stars traced off so it looks like this weekend I’ll be digging in my scraps/stash for stars.