Birds in the Air units. Pinks VS Neutrals?

Dilema...do I like the pink ones better than the neutral ones? I made 100 of each and still have not made a dent in my bonus triangle collection.

I am thinking I like the pink ones better. But I will never know until I get some of those little Ohio stars made. I had some sliver trimming to do last night and now am ready to make some gray stars.

 I received my newest book from Judy Laquidara.

Talk about Border Options!

Great book Judy!

My MaggieMae just loves Nat Geo and Nat Geo Wild TV channels. And last night Macy was watching Bug Wars with fascination. I just wonder what goes through their furry little minds. And I also wonder what they dream about. Their little feet twitch and their mouths move. Eating birdies?

My newest collection start. Stripes! I think they will make great binding options.

And yes, I have fabric stacked EVERYWHERE!

Help choosing colors

Some of my quilting buddies have a mental block when it comes to deciding on colors for their quilts.
One simple way, I have explained to them, is to look at yarns with multiple colors. The decisions have already been made for you. All you have to do is match your fabrics to the yarn colors.
See below:

 This is my third batch of Log Cabin blocks I have made. The last two batches were in black/white.

 This quilt will be for one of my Grand daughters. I have two with March birthdays. One of them is on my birthday and the other is on my brother's birthday. March is a busy month here in our family.

I keep detailed notes. But then I have to re-read the notes and seem to not understand what I have written. What I am attempting to do is to quantify the amount of fabric needed. Be it strips or yardage.

 Here are two rounds done. I am loving the blue and white combination. It looks so fresh and clean and so totally different from my preferred color pallet.

On the wall and obviously the last round fabric has not been pressed yet.

 And when I tire of sewing in the living room I can move to the cutting room and make some more gray paper string blocks. The grays that are out now are soooo beautiful! I want them all!!

 Once again, cutting for scrappy can also be controlled by keeping like cuts together.

 I made 100 Birds in the Air units with pink wings. These are the same units but using neutral wings.

 They are much more subtle in color but I am sure they will look great in whatever I end up piecing.
I have decided to just make lots of pink units and then see what comes of them. No plans just units.

Snow and I am keeping my critters fed well. The green feeder on the right is squirrel proof. So I add the really expensive seed to that one. The other feeders are easy for the squirrels to rob. I also give them raw peanuts and peanut butter sandwiches. No they are not spoiled at all!

My Quilt Guild's Mystery

I am also working on another Mystery quilt being run by a member of my quilt guild.
The designer is Marti Mitchell who also has all those blunt cornered templates. I happened to have the "Peaky and Spike" templates and those were needed for another part of this mystery. I know I bought them many many years ago because of a TV quilt show I had watched.

 I was so reluctant to even start this mystery because it did look very complicated. And also I wanted to devote all my sewing time to Our Bonnie's Orca Bay Mystery. But that one is done now so.....

 The best way to overcome reluctance is to use fabric you LOVE! I have been saving these salmon pink and brown fabrics for my next life I guess. So I dived in and I am loving the piecing experience.

 But these blocks are so big...15 1/2"!!! Compared to what I usually sew on these feel like tanks. But what was really neat (and I do not have a separate picture of them) is that there are "Birds in the Air" units in this block.
My mind is thinking...ok I have the 100 border units done in pinks for my second Orca Bay quilt. And I still have a bagillion more HST in pinks. I could make some of these larger blocks in my more favorite size! And maybe the Orca Bay in pink/gray will actually become a different quilt but using Our Bonnie's units. I was also thinking that I could do two borders of those cute units. I am thinking this is how Our Bonnie Hunter works. She makes lots of units and when she gets a decent amount she designs a quilt with them. There is a method to her madness!!!

So this is clue#3 that I received last night. Fun little units and the block is a variation of a Corn and Beans block. Marti Mitchell calls it a Bean Counter Star. OK...cute name.

Still saving my dog ears...took a container full of sewn units last night to the meeting and got all the ears trimmed with plenty of time leftover for visiting. And of course laughed at for saving them.

None of these pinks made it into my Scrap User System. I do not want to not have enough for this quilt if I go harvesting. I still have lots of variety going on. And when this one gets done I will then work them into my Scrap User System.

Orca Bay Mystery Clue #7 progress

I am loving the look of these Sunset/Sunset colored Flying Geese units. But I am not loving all the bulk of the seams. I have not pressed them yet. I may have to "whack" 'em with a piece of wood to get them flatter. I am honestly not sure if I am going to continue making these units. As you can see, I have not cut all the string blocks in half yet. I may end up doing my own thing with these units.

Update: I missed a step...did not use the Companion Angle ruler to trim the string blocks. Once I did that the units are much more to my liking and I am plugging away now a much happier quilter!

 But then again...I may just plow on ahead...bulky seams be dammed.

 I made many more "Birds in the Air" units than Our Bonnie originally told us to make. I am glad I did since she asked us to make 4 more units this morning. I am so there already.
Are you ready for the next photo?
Hold on to your hat....

I am an OCD gal. I have a large mason jar with nearly every "dogear" I have ever trimmed off a unit in my entire quilting life. This small container is stuffed full of the dogears from this project only.
I know.
I am odd.
My guild members laugh at me and tell me to get a life. But I love the look of that mason jar with the colored bands that are a history of my quilt life. I did meet another quilter in blogland who has "SEVERAL" jars full of her own dogear trimmings. I am not alone in this obsession.

 I spent the rainy morning in the cutting room. I have a drawer of 3 1/2" strips precut. One side of the drawer is colors and the the other is neutrals All I had to do was pull all the neutrals out and give them a nice press with my Reliable Digital Velocity iron.
( I love this iron. It is heavy but does the job so nicely )

 And since I wanted to be efficient, I cut into all the strips in that drawer. I have many more than I need for this mystery. (both quilts of course)
But I figured that I might as well cut extra and I am sure I will use them somewhere.
They do not fit in the pencil case. In fact this picture was taken only halfway through the cutting process. I have twice as many done now. I may skip the first part of clue#7 and work on the other section instead. That will take the pile down a bit. HA!

Just a picture I failed to post while making the Quarter Square units. I saw on the Yahoo group that a quilter had squared up her units by only trimming on two sides. Not centering the ruler and trimming on all four sides. Been there...done that. I feel for her. Even with the EZ rulers there were a few that were oversized here in Subeesew's world. I did trim all four sides by centering the ruler. That must have been caused by the strip width. Some were a thread or two over the cutting line. I figure that bigger is better sometimes. It is so much easier to trim units to size.
Some of my strips that I received in the last red and black/white swap were cut too small. They were not a true 2 1/2" cut strip. That is just the difference between quilter's rulers and cutting methods. I think their rulers must have slipped while they were cutting. I spread my fingers wide and brace the ruler to the table with my little finger. I push it right up against the ruler and I "walk" my hand up the length of the cut. And some quilters use their cutting mats as the cutting guide. I never do that. Yet some of my guild members use the cutting board lines. It works great for them as all their strips match. But to try and add them to another quilter's stack is really a bother. Oh well...not a big deal. I noticed this when we were cutting up kits to sew on Project Linus quilts. Our guild made 100 quilts in the last year alone for this worthy project.

 Here is a peek under my cutting table. In each drawer is a basket that can be removed without distrubing the strips. These get filled as I work. The strips do not stay in these drawers very long. I have larger containers for the strip sizes all sorted by size and color. Of course...OCD Me!

 And while I was sitting on the floor I took a picture of some of my shelving and fabric bolts. I can get down on the floor just fine. It is getting up that I have issues with. It is a bummer to get old. My head is still young!
And yes, there are rulers hanging from the ceiling of the room. They are very handy.

 I love my Digital Velocity iron. It is made by Reliable. It has a removable filter that gets nasty leak causing minerals before they enter the steam chamber. I get a nice steam facial when I use this iron. I only use it for fabric prep not during piecing. It is way too big and heavy for that.

And this is a closet in the cutting room. I cannot get into the closet. Those are empty hangers. And the stuff way in the back of the closet is Cross Stitch supplies and yarns. The big clear container is stuffed with BATIKS! I love BATIKS!