Mystery Quilt is a Mystery No Longer !

Time to sew together all the parts for the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt. 

Looks a little busy up close. 

But it will be a beauty when I get it finished.

I had a whale of a good time.  Visit Quiltville to see how everyone else is progressing. 

A Little Sane and a Little Crazy

My Quiltville Orca Bay Mystery Week 6 Ohio Stars are complete and looking pretty wild and crazy. To see what everyone else is doing check out the Monday linky party. 

And speaking of crazy...this is my Midnight Fantasy Garden block I'll be using for a small stitch challenge over on CQ4Newbies called "Celebrate Life". 

If I Saw This in a Quilting Book or Magazine I Probably Wouldn't Make It!

Remember these 350 HSTs I made for part 3 of the Quiltville Orca Bay Mystery? 

Well, for part 5 of the Quiltville mystery we needed to add "wings" to the HSTs so I cut 700+ 2 inch triangles and then sew them to either side of the HSTs. I added some blacks with color this time - bats, cherries, flowers, hot peppers, shamrocks, pumpkins, lady bugs, polka dots. 

If I saw directions for a quilt that included sewing together so many small pieces I don't think I would make it. I would think it too large a task I would probably start and never complete. But, I do love a good mystery, viewing the variety of fabrics everyone is  using and sewing along with a lot of ladies from all parts of the world to create the same quilt - a virtual quilting bee. And, all the ladies are linked up at Quiltville if you want to take a look. 

What's Black and White and Red All Over?

Answer: The Orca Bay Mystery quilt so far, of course!

Clue 4 to the mystery my very well be a red herring!

I have finished my 68 5.5 string squares in red. But, alas, I have only cut a few in half and re-trimmed accordingly. Now, if only I didn't have to work for a living, well...I could...

Anyway, if you want to see the bits and pieces of the mystery (er, I mean clues) so far go visit Quiltville and the Orca Bay Mystery.

350 HSTs on the Wall, 350 HSTs...

These 2 inch b/w HSTs are for part 3 of the Orca Bay Mystery at Quiltville. We need 350 but I have more than that but quit counting when I hit my goal. It really didn't take as long as I thought it would to cut and stitch. I use the EZ Angle ruler to cut them. For some reason I thought the task daunting and so to the tune of "99 bottles of beer on the wall" and counting forward not back, the refrain "xx HSTs on the wall, xx HSTs, cut one up, sew it up, xx+1 HSTs on the wall..." kept running through my mind as I sewed. I tried blocking it out by listening to some of my favorite Irish tunes; however...my mind just kept on singing about HSTs. Sheesh!

Strung Out

I finished my 72 3.5 string blocks for week two of the Quiltville mystery quilt- Orca Bay. I still have to take the paper backs off - yuck. And, I didn't make a dent in my blue strings so, as title suggests...I'm not really strung out!

No Hourglass Figure Here...Just Lots of Hourglass Blocks

I'm making another Quiltiville mystery quilt this year. Orca Bay is the name of the game. The first step is to make 224 b/w 2.5 inch hourglass blocks. I ended up with 227 that measured correctly and about 20 wonkies. So far this fabric hoarder has not bought any fabric.

It's not too late to join in the fun! Visit the Quiltville blog so you don't miss out.  I made one last year for the first time and it was loads of fun.

I Love a Good Mystery

If I had seen a picture and pattern of this quilt before I started I would have told myself there were too many triangles, too many little pieces, too much cutting and that in no way did pink, red, green and brown look good together. I never would have made it.

But...since I didn't know what was in store for me when I decided to follow along with a Quiltville mystery here I am between clues 6 and 7 and thrilled with how things are turning out and how this quilt is starting to look and how many scraps I have used up. I also found I could make a quilt with lots of pieces, lots of triangles, lots of cutting and like it. Even during the busy Christmas season I could not wait to get the next clue (set of instructions).

I didn't think I would even like a mystery quilt until I tried it this summer when I tried two different mysteries on a couple of yahoo groups I belong to. They turned out just fine (well, they are still UFOs - just tops) but they turned out blocks with all the same fabrics and didn't use up any of my scraps. When I saw a scrappy mystery I jumped at the chance.

Ugh...I hate to iron but it must be done.

Several blocks so far. I didn't realize I had so many polka dot scraps. I don't even like polka dots! More on progress of this quilt later. I hope to finish up soon.