At the moment I don’t have a design wall.  See those white strips above the quilt?  Those are the 3M Command strips/hooks I normally hang my design wall on.  I haven’t taken my quilt show down yet, so I still have my Dragonfly quilt hanging on the fireplace wall.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t got something in the works. Tomorrow I’ll announce the first block of the Quilt-a-Long I’m hosting.

While you wait for something new to appear on my design wall (or the wall to reappear) check out other design walls by following the links over at Patchwork Times.

I’m attempting to participate in Shelly’s 4th annual Final Countdown to get us prepared for the new year, but I’m running into some challenges. For example today’s challenge is:

Clean up a pile.

There are no piles — well except maybe my desk – as there is a quilt show going on in my house.  But, my sewing room is next to impossible to use, so perhaps my “pile” will be to take down the quilts in here.

The one on the fireplace wall is easy — and I need to put the design wall back up shortly.  The quilt tops  on the shelves are easy — they are just pinned in place.  But I will have to enlist the help of my husband to disassemble (and store) the hanging racks.  They are bigger than me!

Shelly over at Prairie Moon Quilts is hosting the 4th annual Final Countdown to get us prepared for the new year.  Saturday’s challenge is:

Locate your UFO that’s closest to being done, and do something about it.

Since my sewing space still looks like an art gallery, I had doubts that I could make this happen.   I know exactly where the UFO closest to being finished is. It’s on the shelf, but the big ironing board is leaning up against that shelf and there is a quilt hanging in front of it.  Then I remembered a UFO with easier access.  The 2006 Mystery quilt that I quilted on the 17th.  It is still in the quilting bag tucked under my cutting board with the zipper leaders still attached.

I’ve removed the zipper leaders.  I assume that counts as “something” – although I think the idea is to actually finish it.  So I will bounce back and forth between putting away the serving dishes from the party, laundry, binding the quilt and the 2nd Countdown Task (to be announced) until I get it all done.

I haven’t done a stash report in a couple of weeks, so sat down last night and brought  my spreadsheet up-to-date.  I didn’t quite make it to 100 yards used for the year.

Total fabric purchases for the year, including recycled shirts totaled 167.692 yards.  I used 92.6 yards for the year resulting in a net increase in my stash of 75.092 yards.

No telling what 2013 will bring in the way of fabric purchases or usage.  I will however continue to track the inbound and outbound fabric and participate in Judy’s  Stash Reports.  You  can see how others finished the year by checking out this week’s post.

First, I have not fallen off the face of the earth.  I’ve just been busy.  First with preparations for Christmas, then for a party and for my husband’s birthday.  I thought I  had pulled it off, then woke up this morning and realized that I don’t have his birthday present wrapped!

But the title of this post is “Quilt Show”.  For the party, my husband suggested that we display a some of my quilts throughout  the house.  “Some” turned out to be all but three.  The pictures start in the back of the house and end up in my sewing room office.

Ted’s Office

In the Hallway

‘Hiding” Exercise Equipment

Guest Bedroom View 1

Guest Bedroom View 2

Our Bedroom

Living Room View 1

Living Room View 2

Buffet After the Party

Table After the Party

Sewing Room View 1

Sewing Room View 2

Sewing Room View 3

Sewing Room View 4

Sewing Room View 5

Sewing Room View 6

Sewing Room View 7

Sewing Room View 8

The quilt stands/racks in my sewing room were built by my husband. I’ll do a post on them when we disassemble then later next week.

My fabric counting is mixed.  I’m not even sure I can explain it.  But, I’ve got my trusty spreadsheet with multiple tabs which keeps me on track.  Apparently when I started Orca Bay I counted the fabric as I stitched it into units.  I show 20 purple string geese last December.  This week I made 18, so I’ll use last year’s number, minus two for this week’s count.

Surprisingly, not fabric came into the house – and I wandered through both Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann’s a couple of times this past week.  I even fondled a roll of 2 1/2″ strips at Big Lots!

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

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0.344 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 90.65 yards

Net Used for the year -74.542 yards

I best get to sewing if I’m going to use 100 yards by the end of the year.

To see if anyone else fabric #s moved follow the links over at Patchwork Times.

I haven’t sat at my sewing machine for the past couple of days.  There are a variety of reasons, but I think the most fundamental reason is that I am not loving my Orca Bay.  But I may have found a solution.

The picture above is ‘as designed’ if you factor in my color choices (one string geese is turned wrong).  The orange, which I love, leaps out and is almost confrontational.  My DH suggested using another color for the orange — but for the life of me I’m not sure what I would use — and I really don’t want to have to re-make those blocks.

I tried something different.  I turned the geese blocks the other way (well, perhaps all but one block).  I can’t explain it, but something about this layout works.  Maybe it’s the more even distribution of light and dark.

Side by side I still can’t explain it.  I haven’t decided if I need to turn the orange blocks or not.  But at least now I feel I can continue working on this top.  Of course the whole thing may get packed up as I need to finish a couple of other things before the end of the year.

A few more purple string blocks were pieced and I have a few more to go before I can start to assemble the quilt.

Early last week I alternated the star blocks and decided to make my quilt one column narrower than the original pattern  The added bonus is that means I have to do fewer of those purple string blocks!

Last night I managed to make two purple string squares resulting in 4 of the flying geese units.  I pulled everything out and started putting it up on the wall.  As dark as some of those geese are, with the lighter squares in the stars the whole quilt feels lighter.

The other good news is I now just have the small crates in front of the wall — although I’m not sure that having the large crates in the living room is an improvement.  But, the music is now roughly sorted, so we are making progress.

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