Starting Orca Bay Again

Last week I was really not in the mood to be at work… Why? Because I had this quilt to finish!

This is one of the last projects I needed to finish up for someone else before I got to work on MY project, the one that’s been on hold since December because I had too many other things to do!

I’ve been reading Bonnie Hunter’s blog for a while now. She came to our guild at some point last year and her scrap-user’s system really clicked with me. I started cutting all my stagnating stash into strips and using them in scrap quilts. In December, Bonnie started talking about a mystery quilt she was going to be doing called Orca Bay and I was IN! I love mystery quilts!

Well, with Christmas and everything else, I barely managed to start Clue 1 before I had to put it aside, and even with working on it a few minutes whenever I could, I’m still slogging through Clue 2 (okay, I’ve started cutting for Clue 3 as well). Everyone else got the final clue somewhere around New Year’s, but I’m still plugging away when I have a chance.

Here are the pieces I made for Clue 1 –

I love all the different black and white fabrics I was able to find in my strip drawers – I did buy a couple more black fat quarters since I didn’t have a lot of selection but I’m really enjoying how they all work together.

Clue 2 has been a little harder. Not only do I have limited time to work on this quilt, Clue 2 is string pieced on paper… not my favorite. And I need to make 72 of these blocks:

After about 25 of these pieced on paper, I started to get creative… long strip sets I cut squares from, shorter strings I pieced in diagonal sets. Anything to get away from all those papers! I have almost 60 done now, so just a few more and I’ll be done!

Clue 3 is half-square triangles that I’ve been cutting a few of at a time in between other things. Now that I’ve finished up the Pineapple Blossom quilt and taken it to it’s new home (did I mention it was supposed to be a Christmas present? Whoops!) I can charge headlong into Orca Bay until it’s time to start on the next quilt. I have a t-shirt quilt to make for a graduation present, which isn’t due til early May, but I will need to get busy on it pretty soon.