Orca Bay - it is FINALLY a Finish!!

yay!!! There was some Happy Dancing going on, and a Whole Lotta Happiness in my house.....

Instead of picking on myself for not meeting my goal - I decided to leap with joy - that I didn't put it back in a box!!!!

Here it is in all of its glory ( ha ha - can you see the kids kinda going mom??? Seriously???)

Here is a little close up - so you can see the quilting. I just did a texture Quilting on it. It is such a busy quilt, I didn't think real custom would enhance it much

The back

I think it turned out pretty cool?

AND!!

It was cold enough last night to need a Quilt

So we tested it out!

I used Hobbs 80/20

Quilted with Sew Fine 

And I even bound it 

Yep - all by my little ol' self!!

Linked to: 

Quilt Story

Freemotion by the River

Sew Cute Tuesday

Orca Bay

My goal is to have this quilt finished before the end of the month......could someone please STOP the month!! It is going WAY to fast!!!

Here is where we are.....

I ran out of the trianglly things , and I was too lazy to make more ( or starting to see the finish made me want to just be done!!

 Cell phone pic ( below)

And now!! The top is finished!!

Ta da

Its on to the back now ( sigh) 

If only backings would fall from heaven!

Here is my new gang!!

Someday they will trust me to wear leather like them

( they are SO cool!!)

Hope you all have a great day!

Linking up with

patchworktimes

Cooking up quilts

free motion by the river

sew cute tuesday

Monday check in

Our Anniversary was this last week.... it's been a while ;-)   We went to a Paint Nite Class and it was so much fun. We got to create and see how creative we could be ;

These are our finished paintings

I was impressed that Wrangler Man could do his the opposite way.

Now we need to hang them on our walls!

AND!!

There is a little progress on my Orca Bay

The Blocks are now together

and there is a little tiny border on it

Of course it was Labor Day Weekend

Two of my sons ran on Friday

Saturday we headed to go see my oldest run

On the way back we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado

Those were SO COOL!

They are these huge sand dunes right at the base of the mountains

The 14 thousand foot mountains 

SO beautiful!!

Linked to:

PatchworkTimes

Quilting is More fun than Housework

Cooking Up Quilts

Hug a Bit Quilts

ALYOF for September

On to trying to finish another one.....
This one is a lot of years old - and I have stopped counting how long it is taking...

I am nice to myself that way....

Here is where it is:

The date on the photo says 2014....  we will just pretend that is a typo... right????

ALYOF

Oh ya - it might also be on my FAL list - and might have been on it for a while..... *sigh*

Orca Bay

My Orca Bay has spoken - and she has taken over the design wall.... stubborn little whale is she...

I am getting closer.... our weekend was a little crazy and by Sunday Night - I was plumb worn out... so not much more got done. The couch beckoned and we obeyed!

We were doing another friends chores, and they have chickens. SO! I got their eggs ( the chicken eggs)  - I think I might miss that.......  We also stacked 2 cords of firewood and got the last 200 bales of hay stacked.... I am ready for lazy!


I did get another Block Drive Quilt quilted ... here is a close up

And the full quilt !

I had a goal this year to quilt 12 Quilts of Valor

and with this one ( and the one below)

The Back

 I made it to #28!!!!  

This one was pieced by Diana B.

I didn't want to brag - but I wanted to brag... you know.... some people tell me they can only quilt one Quilt of Valor - and I always tell them - THAT!!! is one more Veteran knowing he or she is appreciated !

Often - I am that quilter that says - well I can only do one.... but it added up this year ( YAY!!)

Enjoy your Monday!

December A lovely Year of Finishes Goals

You all know how easily I get sidetracked.... this actually Posting a list of what I want done.... may actually help. I got everything done last month in my ALOYF goals.....  although I am frantically finishing a goal today. The goal was December 2nd - as that is when our guild challenge is due....

December Goals:

*( and it's what is up on the Design Wall right now)

ORCA Bay.  My goal is to get it completly into a top, make a backing, and fingers crossed - quilted!

Goal Number 2 - Bind this Puppy.... yep - and that actually means digging in and finding an appropriate binding fabric!

Goal #3  .... This plaid. ... Plaid #5... it needs a backing, quilting and a binding.... I can do it right??

Those are my goals....

Those are the facts....

Linking up with:

And Design Wall Monday at http://www.patchworktimes.com

Design Wall 1/2/12

Oh yay!! I have a design and a finish for this week!!!  It helps when all the boys are home, and so is dad - to do all the chores!  i think I need Christmas Vacation alot more than once a year!!


So my first design wall is a top that I finally finished!! I put it in  a tub back in July and I truly can NOT remember why. I wonder if I thought it was going to get hard? Or I was gonna have to think?  Anyways its done! It's out of my pile project, AND its my first of 12 QOV tops for the year!!!

When I pulled it out of its pile, I had three rows put together. I think I just got lazy... or one of the kids had a swim meet, or.... seriously - it was probably the lazy... *sigh*

AND!!! I got the binding put on this quilt!! It was from Judy's Color Challenge 2011 = the purple one... so its now out of my piles!! 

And last but not least - I finished these blocks from The Orca Bay mystery. I am joining the turtle group on this one... slow and steady...... 

To see other Design Walls go to: http://www.patchworktimes.com/

And to see other Orca Bay Progress go to http://quiltville.blogspot.com/

Partially Proficient

I was SO excited last night!!! I had been busily sewing along - I finally (finally) finished clue 5 and was ready to start on clue 6.... I got all the pieces cut for clue 6 andf sat down to sew.....

and I hadn't trimmed by clue 1 ( i think it was that clue) up... and they were just enough too big... that I couldn't fudge....

See all 4,000, 350 million little pieces?? Whooo hoo.... ( please don't look at my piles....)

And all my pretty pieces all cut up!!!

See - the trimmings - they are just a smudge too big, and just enought that I would know. Cuz you all KNOW I am not perfect.....

Fred was back again while I was sewing. I love the majesty of Fred... and I love when he dive bombs my window - scares the bejeebers out of me...

Off to Quilt - I am working on a Custom quilt ... and I am loving it!!!

Design wall Monday Dec 26th

I don't have much on my design floor, as it has been inhabited by Boys!!! Lots of Boys!! Boys doing fun things, and playing Madden Wii Football, and opening presents, and wrestling.  5 boys between 16 and 10 take up a lot of space ;-)

But here is what I have been working on:  Step 5 of orca Bay. And truthfully - I thought I was done with these units looking just like this... and got ready to move on, and something in my brain said.... look again...

Glad I looked again, because if I had left them like this... who know. So I am working on adding the other side to them now.

Fred came back to visit us yesterday. Fred is our resident eagle, He dive bombs our house and thinks its funny to see us all come running... 

See all the boys? After they got tired of in the house...we went out!! To the sledding hill. Grandma gave the cousins the toboggan from the days of old, and they brought it. Oh man - does it run!!!

Two to the toboggan!!!

Then the hill got boring, so they tied onto the 4Wheeler.... the 5th child was out there for a while, then decided he would rather ride... so he is hiding behind wrangler man.

Hope you all had a great Christmas day.

To see other Design Walls go to:

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/12/26/design-wall-monday-december-26-2011/

To see more Orca Bay

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6.html

Stringing, Just a Stringin'

Oh whoops - maybe thats Swinging... but only if you listen to country music....

Today was the day I got to sit down for an hour next to my strings!!! And seriously, it was just about an hour.... how come everyone *needs* me????   Just kidding... I love having my kiddos around!!  And.... we went swimming today. When I say swimming, you know I mean like a workout right? My oldest is pretty competitive and since Cross Country is over he wants to be in shape for his spring swim season.... I think beating mom ( okay killing her) is high on his training list.....

Back to the strings...

Heres the pile.....

Heres 32 of them finished...

 And a few trimmed up... only a lot more to go!!! Yay me!!

Anxiously awaiting the next clue.....

Design Wall and Orca Bay progress

Not as much sewing got done as I had wished, but we sure had a lot of fun this week. Two of the boys and I got to go Ice Skating, we all got to go swimming, and there was some snow - so there was some sledding....

Hot chocolate is really the best way to enjoy ice skating. The boys really skated, I went around a few times, then decided I needed a hot beverage ;-)

See our snow weeds?  The wind blew the tumble weeds and before we had a chance to remove them - the snow came - gotta LOVE winter!!!

Here is some of the progress of Clue #3 Orca Bay - going on over at http://www.quiltville.com/

This is the 120 blocks I finished Friday Night. I was determined to get *something* done!

And proving I didn't give up - more strips!

There's 10 more ironed and 50 waiting to go, but I got tired, and the couch called my name..

See the sledding? Wrangler Man had a few fences to check, so the boys volunteered to go help. I think the boys had a plan in mind, because I have NEVER seen them volunteer so quickly to do work before.... They must have had this sledding planned!

As I got ready to lay out my Jacobs Ladder for my design floor - I met with some resistance. Something had taken over my design floor... they are tough to move!

So here are my 6 Jacobs Ladder blocks done - for the Quilt a long Going on over at

http://imperamagna.blogspot.com/   maybe next week I can have them all layed out and see how many I have made. 

To see other design walls go to http://www.patchworktimes.com/

To see more Orca Bay progress go to  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/