Busy beginning of the 2012 year...

It's been a busy year so far... which is the reason I haven't posted at all.

The biggest news (drum roll):  I GOT ENGAGED!!!

On Valentine's evening... Jim proposed, and I accepted. :)

No we have not set a date.  It will most likely be in the next year or two.  We're both very happy.
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Now for sewing/quilting related material:

For the most part my work life has been keeping me out of my sewing room far more than I'd like.  But... I have been able to do some stitching.

Here's a purse I made a few weeks ago.  It's called The Brentwood Bag, pattern #106 by Pink Sand Beach Designs... I love it!

And do you remember that I was a winner in a blog hunt?  Well, here are the fat quarters that I won.  They are so pretty!

There was another contest (I'll have to go back through my emails to find the name of it), and I also won 2 yards of fabric from that one as well.  These are the ones I chose.

Now, do you remember me telling you that I had given my old sewing machine to Jim's mom and taught her how to use it by starting on crumb blocks?

Check this out!!

I don't remember how many blocks she said were in it, but she went nuts making crumb blocks!  LOL  Isn't it gorgeous?  Now I'm going to put borders on it and sandwich and quilt it for her.

And guess what?  A couple of weeks ago I got her started on 6" string blocks.  Within a couple days she emailed me to say she already had 22 done (Feb 21st).  Holy!!  Then, Feb 29th I received another email, she has 62 string blocks done!!  I'll post pictures once I have some. 

I'm still working on RRCB, Orca Bay and my New Year's Eve Mystery quilt - when I have time.  I want to spend more time on my Jamestown Landing too.  Bit by bit I'll get there.

I've also made a dresden plate table runner for my glass coffee table, made a few fabric boxes (with the snaps in the corners), some other odds and ends as well.  Sorry, I didn't take pictures of everything.

This past Saturday I spent a good portion trying to clean up and reorganize my sewing room, it's getting there.

Then on Sunday I visited my girlfriend Dianne in Embrun to help get her started on the black and white quilt she's wanted to do, and has had the pattern and materials for over a year now.  I showed her how to read the pattern, cut the bricks and squares she needed for each block, test and sew a 1/4" seam, and put the block together.  It's a trip around the world pattern that is going to look really cool.  We were able to get 8 blocks done.  They go together in 4's so you end up with an 18" block.  In total she's going to need to make 120 blocks for queensize and then add the borders.  It's going to be fabulous!

That's it for now.

Thank you to some of my quilty friends for emailing me in the meantime to make sure I was still alive :) 

HUGS to you all.

PS.  Dianne and I have registered to go to the Ricky Tim's Super Seminar with Alex Anderson and Libby Lehman in Rochester, NY July 12-14th.  One of our quilt stores, The Running Stitch is organizing a bus tour to and from it.  That will be a blast!!

Orca Bay - Step 4

As Bonnie says in her blog post "there are many ways to skin a cat", and seriously, where did that saying come from?  It's creepy!!

Here's what I've been doing with my Orca Bay Step 4.

First, sew my teal/turquoise/green strings and strips onto 5.5" papers (I've done over 20 I think so far, here's 7 of the blocks).

Then, remove the papers

Now I starch them (with BestPress) and press them, hard.  I want to ensure they keep their shape, no shifting, no wobbling when I cut them, and no distorting later when we get to the point where they'll be sewn to something else.

Here they are, flat as flat can be.

Now to the cutting.
First, I'm cutting down the center across the strips.  No I'm not measuring anything at this point.  I know I have a lot of lee-way since my papers were 5.5" square and my strips extended past that point, and we only need them to be 5 1/8th".

This is where they get real pretty.
Using the Easy Angle Companion ruler as Bonnie suggested, I line up the 3 1/2" mark with the bottom of the triangle (or the center cut I'd made), and follow the ruler to make pretty little triangles.

On some of them, I shifted to either the right or the left as much as possible to have a sliver of trimming on one side, but a good chunk of sewn together fabrics on the other side - Crumb Starters!!

How well do they play with my purple strings from Step 2?

Let's see

I think they stand out well enough... and then think of black and whites surrounding them... this is going to be one pretty quilt!

Thank you Bonnie!!!

Orca Bay Mystery - Step 2

I did these yesterday.  These are sooooo cute!  Seventy-two 3 1/2" string blocks for Bonnie's Orca Bay Mystery.

See my bright pressing board cover/sleeve underneath them?  I made that first thing yesterday morning before I started on the string blocks. 

I'd asked Jim to cut me a 24" by 24" board from the wood in the garage a few weeks ago.  I layered it with batting and then canvas.  It works well, a nice hard pressing surface... but it was starting to look pretty grungy.

As I looked at my stash, I saw this fabric.  It's one that I had to have when I visited Aunt Beth's Quilt World in Navan, Ontario (just outside Ottawa), several months ago during a Poker Dash Shop Hop.  I had already picked up a couple fabrics that I wanted, and just as I was heading to the cash, this one caught my eye.  It's so bright and cheery!  Didn't know what I was going to use it for until yesterday morning.  Now I have a pretty cover that I can just take off and wash as needed.

Now I need to sort through the trimmings from the string blocks... new additions to my crumb bin! Yay!  I have a story about crumbs... but will save that for another blog post.

While I was at it, I cut up the 168 papers for the 4 1/2" neutral string blocks I need for Jamestown Landing.  I have a ton of neutral strings.  Really don't think I'll even make a dent in that basket after 168 blocks.... but for now, those can wait.

... on to Step 1 for Orca Bay.

String Blocks Swap

I finally have a chance to post the pictures I took of the String Blocks I received in the string block swap from the quiltvilleswap yahoo group. 

They are so beautiful!!  Now... what am I going to make with them?

I've found a new favourite!

I've never done paper-piecing before, and I'm LOVING it!

I have 17 blocks (of 60) done so far... posting 16 of them for now.

This is so much fun!

Now I have a design idea in my head for a future quilt... can't wait to start on it once I finish these. :)