This weekend  I pulled out my Orca Bay and finished Part 6.  Now it’s time to work on the Strings from Part 4.  Nothing like working backwards.  I think part of the reason  I got side tracked was the purples were too dark.  So, I pulled lighter purples from my stash to use in the dark stars.  I kept the darker purples for the light stars.

Check out other design walls over at Patchwork Times.  I suspect that there will be a few design walls with step one of Easy Street.

Between the Noah Block (finished by the way) and pieces for Orca Bay, I managed to use a bit over a yard of fabric.  Too bad I can’t count.  I thought I needed an additional 72 QST units only to discover that I had enough made already.  So, they’ll go into the orphan quilt block box for use in another quilt some day.

No fabric (or shirts) were purchased this past week.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  165.192 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 1.017 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 86.362 yards

Net Used for the year -78.83 yards

See other stash reports following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Michelle over at Quilting Tutorials is sponsoring an on-line Christmas /Winter Virtual Quilt Show.  Vote for your favorite quilt on December 3rd and 4th, but you can start checking out entries today by clicking on the icon here or on the right.

Entries are being accepted through November 30th.

I have two entries for the show.  The first is a poinsettia wall hanging.  The poinsettias are three dimensional and I added some ‘bling’.  The pattern is #709 – Poinsettias by WonderArc Designs LLC.

This quilt  measures approximately 55″ square.  I machine quilted it on my sewing machine.

The second quilt is a table runner I designed as a mystery quilt for a quilt retreat. It is called “Gift Wrapped”.

The runner is approximately 17 x 47.  It was quilted on my home sewing  machine.  If you click to enlarge the quilt you can see holly leaves quilted in the gold.

Edited:

Per special request — close-ups of the “bling”.  If you click on the pictures they should enlarge.

As much as I would like to join in on this year’s Bonnie Hunter Mystery Easy Street, I can’t figure out a good fabric combination from my stash.  Never mind that Orca Bay is still in a million pieces.  So, instead of Easy Street I’m going to resume working on Orca Bay.

It appears that I can’t count.  I’m short 72 hour-glass blocks – even taking into consideration that I’ve made 8 of the star blocks.  Once those are done I’ll work on the larger string blocks.  Mine are purple and I know I need to cut more strings — thus the stack of purple fabric.

All the pieces for the Noah block are cut out and fused in place. Well, except for two pieces of the ark and I can’t quite tell where exactly they go from the pattern.  I haven’t decided if I’ll worry about them or not.  I wish there was more color variance in the ostriches, but at this point I’m not sure there is anything I can do about it.  I do like my fabric choices for the giraffes.

This week I can’t get to my design wall.  Saturday before we took off for Mississippi, we went to a music sale.  If you were in the door by 11 AM anything you could carry off was yours for the $20 admission fee.  My husband who has taught all grade levels of instrumental music went to the sale by himself.  After he unloaded his car, we went back in my SUV and picked up more method books and a couple of file cabinets.  There are 4 more crates behind the stack of crates on the left.  The file cabinets are out in the garage.   It’s a good thing I cleaned my sewing room or there wouldn’t be a place to stack this stuff.  I hope that we’ll have it all sorted and out of my sewing room by the end of the year.

As for what I’m working on, I’ve focused on the blocks for my Christmas BOM.  I’ve got most of the fabric selected for the Noah block.

Last week I finished the Row Houses,  Pieced Santa, Train, and Stockings.  If I finish Noah and the Snow Family by the end of the month I’ll be caught up on this year’s UFO and will just have the Here Comes Santa Claus block to complete.  Being so close to completion on this quilt is exciting.

Check out others’ design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

Last week my husband and I drove to Mississippi for a quick visit with family.  On our way home I spotted a sign which said “Fabric – left at light left after Pizza Inn”.  Naturally we made the turns – it was an easy decision since I was driving 🙂

I found Thayer Fabrics (Thayer, Missouri) – great selection and great prices.  But I managed to contain myself to two neutrals and two Halloween FQs and got out for less than $10!

The blocks I made barely make a dent in my purchases.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 2.16 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  165.192 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0.508 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 85.345 yards

Net Used for the year -79.847 yards

I’m linking up to Judy’s Stash Report over at Patchwork Times.

Judy picked #6 for October’s UFO.  That’s the Train and Stocking blocks from my Christmas BOM.   Today I finished both of them.  There’s a bit of fudging going on.  Let’s just say I’m not fond of ‘weird’ triangles.  But the bigger issue is that I discovered that my train block is too tall for the space it goes in.  I’ll fix this problem by adding spacers across the width of the quilt.

So, now there are three blocks.  Noah’s Ark from August, this month’s Snow Family and Here Comes Santa for December.  I see more fusible applique in my future — and possibly a quilt top!

This evening I worked on the Train block.  All the pieces are fused in place.  I just need to decided exactly how I’m going to stitch it down – invisible thread or narrow satin stitch.  Perhaps a combination of both.

This is Sampler Block # 23 – Pieced Santa which is one of the two blocks for this month’s UFO.  I’m still working on the hand applique on the Snow Family block.  I got a little bit done earlier this week, but it’s slow going.