My First Challenge!

The beauty of Halfmoon Bay

I had started with one idea, switched over to another, did a sample and was still undecided as to exactly what I was going to do for the challenge!  So rather than sit and do nothing, I went picture taking!

I like the texture contrast in this one, it might end up being a quilt one day!

These little treasures were peaking out from under some ferns.

The small sample quilt on the right was my first thought for a pattern.  I loved the way the coloured block seemed to 'pop' out of the off white.  But the lines weren't straight enough, the squares not squared enough so it's going to make a nice place mat for the middle of the table.  With lots of things on it, it should be just fine!

I realised in looking at my little sample, that what I really wanted was for the entire colour pack to stay together.  I loved the way the colours spanned out in the package......an idea was born!

Here is my entire quilting space in the cabin.  Pretty cool huh?  It looks small, and it was, but it worked out just fine, how much room should you need, it was only 2 little packages of 5" squares!

The trick was going to be how to sew white squares onto each of the 4 corners.....344 white square in total and keep them in order.

WOW!  I did it!  Now what?????

Should I continue with the 86 squares that had to be kept in order, without a design wall, trying to work on a 3 foot by 3 foot table?  I love to quilt, but I'm not crazy!  I packaged it all up, put it away and the next day we headed for home.

Richmond, here we come!  Guess who was 3rd in line for the ferry?????

Once we got home, the sewing started in ernest.  I decided to go with one pack of fabric first, lay it all out and sew it together. 

Maggie, of course, was her usual supportive self.  Unfortunately, in the quilting frenzy she took a header off the iron board but the bonus was that we suddenly realized that she makes a great thread catcher!  She wasn't impressed but tolerated me!

Here is the first side.  I started on the far left and just laid them out on the design wall one after another.  For the second half, I started on the far right side but I laid them out from bottom to top instead of top to bottom.  In the end, it made it look like they were just random, but in actuality there is a plan and a pattern!  I guess you could call it kind of a secret pattern.  I am totally thrilled with the results!

So as soon as I got that all done, there was just one more problem.  I had decided that I wanted to use every single bit of fabric in the packs.

What the heck am I going to with these??????