Friday night I finished up the center of Ocean Waves and wanted to start on the borders.  It will have 3 borders — a 1 1/2″ turquoise border, a border of 3″ pinwheels and then a 6″ turquoise border.  As much as I wanted to move forward, I must have realized I was too tired to measure and cut.

So I counted and sorted my HST squares for the border.

I decided I needed 42 more pinwheels to complete the border.  I made the HST over the weekend and finished up the pinwheels Monday night.

Then I measured the quilt, assured myself a 1 1/2″ inner border was all that I needed and started sewing pinwheels together.

In the end, there were 26 extra pinwheels.  Good thing I didn’t try to measure and cut — apparently I can’t even count when I’m tired.

Stop back later this week and I’ll should have a picture of the complete top.

Although it’s not my design wall, these are the last of the HST that need to be sewn into pinwheels for the border of the Ocean Wave  quilt. I finished the center Friday night.

I should be focused on this quilt.  I don’t need it until mid-May, but I wouldn’t mind having it done early.  So what did I do most of the weekend?  I played in EQ working on layouts for my Blue and Brown Sylvia’s Bridal Sampler Swap Blocks.  I don’t have the blocks drawn yet — may not draw them, so here they are up on my design wall.

They are not in the order I’ll put them in the quilt, and I think I’ve decided to set them straight instead of on-point.  I’m borrowing this layout from Trisha Chubb which was in the SBS book.

(Ignore the fact that I don’t have everything colored correctly, I’m too lazy to go back and fix it–again.)

The blocks will float inside of the chains.  It’s easier to picture when the blocks are outlined.

The large center block and the cornerstones will be cut from my small stash of left over blue CW fabrics.  Since my largest piece is only a FQ, I’ll make them scrappy.  The brown chains will come from my barely larger brown CW stash — again I don’t think I have anything bigger than a FQ.  It’s the background fabric I’ve got to figure out what to do.  I’m pretty certain I want the same fabric throughout, and with the possible exception of some muslin bought years ago for testing dressmaking patterns or the Kona Snow I have in my 30’s box for my 30’s SBS quilt, I know I don’t have a length of fabric large enough.  A trip to the quilt store will be required.

So, I guess I best get back to those pinwheels and finish up the Ocean Wave quilt — which will also need a backing the next time I’m out.

Don’t forget to hop over to Patchwork Times to see what others are have been working on .

More HST Squares for Ocean Waves — but I think I’m done now.   I also am counting the background I cut for the group quilt I’m involved in and the blocks I made from my stash.

Fabric Added Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 10.583 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 1.463 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 20.878 yards

Net Used for 10.295 yards

This is the end of the first quarter of the year and as I look back to last year’s first quarter I see that I had used three times as much fabric.  But the again by this time last year I had finished three quilts, two pillowcases and a pair of pajama pants.  This year, I’ve only completed one quilt — but then my UFO challenge this year has been parts/pieces of a quilt instead of full quilts.

My purchases are within two yards of each other — and had I not started the JT2 quilt, my purchases would be about half of what they were this time last year.  Bottom line.  I’m happy with my usage over all.

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their fabric usage goals.

Last night the only thing I sewed, was the three seams to finish the center of the Ocean Waves quilt.  Then I spent the rest of the evening figuring out how many more pinwheels I needed to make.  This box contains hundreds of HST squares of the right size — the are “bonus” triangles from several quilts I’ve made over the past couple of years.  When I started Ocean Waves I went through these and pulled everything I thought I could use. A few weeks back I went through the box pulling more HST to get more variety in my quilt, as I ended up with way more black HST than I wanted in the quilt.  But last night I came up 42 pinwheels short, so it was back to the box.

I pulled more pink, gold, blue, red, purple and green to add to my mix and still didn’t have enough HST squares to make 42 pinwheels.  So, I will be stitching a few more tonight.   Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have a border for the quilt.

Now I’m off to measure to find out how many more pinwheels I need to make.

Since my usually Friday night plans aren’t happening this week, I’m going to spend the evening working on my Ocean Wave quilt.   Three more seams and then I get to work on the border.  I should be ready to quilt this top in no time.

Then it’s border time!

Do I have to count this as a new start if it’s parts and pieces for a group quilt?  We are using Bonnie Hunter’s Boxy Stars.  I have no repeats in my purples, but I am wondering if that floral is “purple enough”.  I’m not going to sew the blocks together until I see what everyone else comes up with.  We are using a single white fabric from my stash.  We’ll figure out the border after we get the blocks together.

This past week there hasn’t been much time at the sewing machine.  First there was 4 days on the road and then when I got back I wasn’t able to sit at the sewing machine for any length of time, as I twisted my ankle and knee when I went bowling.   Needless to say, I did not haul my sewing machine to the 2nd Friday sew-in and took my red work.  By the end of the  night I had finished the first piece except for the two snowflakes on the right side of the piece.  Then I pulled out the holly leaf piece.  I’ve worked on it on and off all weekend and I am half way finished with it. At this rate I might have a quilt top in a year or so.

When I did sit a the machine I worked on sewing the Ocean Wave blocks into rows.  There a row missing from the wall — it’s on my sewing table.  I have a few half blocks to make and attach, then I can sew the rows together.   — that star hanging out there was from a couple of weeks ago.  It’s still waiting on the Bells block for the UFO challenge.

This box contains the Part 4 of Orca Bay.  I’ve been working on them as leader enders for the past few weeks and finished up the last of them Saturday.  Now I’m sewing pinwheels together for the Ocean Wave border as leader/enders.  I’m going to need a new L/E project before too long.

Hop over to Patchwork Times to see what Judy and others have on their design walls.

Four days on the road didn’t leave much time for machine piecing.  But I did start to piece the current section of Ocean Waves together and in doing so, I finished Step 4 of Ocra Bay.  That means I get to count those 700 HSTs this week. There was also a Dutch Nine Patch Block for a hug quilt.

Fabric Added Last Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added to Date: 10.583 yards

Fabric Used Last Week: 1.448 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 19.415 yards

Net Used for 8.832 yards

Follow the links over at Patchwork Times to see how others are doing with their fabric usage goals.