The Temptation
I have belonged to Kathy Tracy’s “Small Quilt Talk” yahoo group for simply ages. They have recently moved to a different platform and I joined. While looking around the new site, I saw the photos and files of the new MYSTERY quilt. I ♥ LOVE ♥ mystery quilts. They stretch me. You don’t have to join the group – her mystery is available FREE (until it’s over) if you click HERE. And then click on the Mystery Quilt tab.
Of course, since I’m working on my Quilting PHD in 2018, everything I start in 2018, has to be finished this year. So, if I was to start this Mystery quilt – I’d have to finish it. It’s small 30″x 30″. I could rationalize it … my need to start something NEW … to use up some of my stash. I’m sure I could come up with lots of other reasons to start this quilt!
Of course, I’m going to resist this temptation. I’m just writing about it on my blog in case **YOU** want to participate.
Design Wall:
Quilting:
This is the Queen Size Beginner mystery quilt that we did with the guild. The bobbins are wound – I’m going to stitch in the ditch around the multitude of 4 patches … I’ll decide later what I’ll put in the negative spaces.
Piecing:
After debating which quilt I wanted to finish piecing, I decided to work on Orca Bay #2. Mostly because it has the most piecing left to do and it is still February. That gives me 10 months to finish the top, sandwich it, quilt & bind it. The worst parts are already done (the blue and red string blocks). If I calculate correctly, I think I have 6 billion more pieces to sew together for this quilt. (Yes, that is a slight exaggeration!) I originally did Orca Bay #1 as a mystery quilt in 2011. That quilt was gifted and I want one of my own. And, I want it bigger … This quilt can be found in Bonnie Hunter’s book, “String Fling” available at the Quiltville website.
You can see a picture of Orca Bay HERE.
Linking to:
To see what other’s in the quilting world are working on – click on the following links:
- Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
- Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
- Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
- Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts
Happy Quilting!
Gail

Quilting:

I’ve started quilting my Carol Doak paper pieced quilt. This is one of the quilts that was on top of my filing cabinet and I was reluctant to tackle them. I made the pieced back and sandwiched it in early January. I’m looking forward to having this UFO done! So why am I FMQ stitch in the ditch? Its so slow … but then again, it’s what this quilt is calling me to do.


I’m taking a few small projects with me. I hope to complete at least 7 UFOs while I’m gone. This is half of my suitcase (the other half is for clothes)
The fat 1/4 flannel quilt that was sitting on top of my filing cabinet is DONE! The sun was shining for a few minutes after the quilt came out of the dryer. I quickly hung the quilt on the line an snapped a photo.










Benartex had a contest on Facebook and I entered a quilt that I had made years ago with their fabric. No, I didn’t win. I didn’t even come in the top half. But that’s OK. Just for entering, I received a very cute charm pack. It’s called “A Moose for Christmas.” It’s in the process of becoming a table runner. This is the first design / fabric placement layout … there’s likely to be many more before I start sewing it together. It’s fun to work with these fabrics because they are so very cute! And the colours suit me and my house.
adhesives etc. but they are fantastic for cleaning your machine. They were on sale … so was some fabric and I looked at the fabric and quickly looked away. And then I was chatting with the gals in the shop and I looked some more and then the wagon broke! In my defence, the neutral fabric is for backing a quilt! The colour is not true in the picture. The top fabric is actually a beige/cream and the bottom is a pretty blue. A VERY pretty blue. A lovely lovely blue. Did you know that blue is my favourite colour? 
together! Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s put a dent in my 2″ square box. Hmmm, I think that what they say about scraps having sex and multiplying must be true!








