Orca Bay Mystery Step 3 Progress

It's been a busy, busy week! I am so glad Bonnie is breaking the mystery into smaller pieces this year. It is perfect for my hectic life!

Here are the step 3 units I have finished. These are in piles of 20, so 180 are done.


Here is the pile on my ironing board waiting to be pressed. These are in piles of 10, so 90 are ready for pressing.

...and here are the rest of step 3 HST's, either in the chain or just a few waiting to be sewn.

To see where a bunch of other people are at in the mystery, you can look here
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-3.html

I must admit, I didn't follow Bonnie's cutting directions this time. I have lots of 2" strips I could have looked through, but I decided to use my Accuquilt GO! cutter for these units since I have the correct die. I had dug out fabrics for this mystery, so I might as well use those. I cut one 3" strip from every brown and gold fabric I pulled, and I was only one strip short as it turned out, so I cut one extra from the golds. The Go! die cuts 6- 2" HST's (1 1/2" finished) at a time, but you can layer the fabric 6 layers deep. Since I was cutting with the brown and gold right sides together, ready to feed into the sewing machine, I could get three sets of six HST's cut in one pass. I ran the die through 20 times, and I have 360 HST's cut perfectly, with the dog ears already cut off! I only need 350 HST's so I have a few extra, that will end up in something sooner or later.

I'm sure there are people thinking I didn't save any time since I had to cut strips to go into the Go! cutter, but honestly, there is nothing like perfectly cut HST's with no trimming needed. I have a lot of numbness in my hands, and cutting at an angle is hard for me. Cutting strips is easy with my June Tailor Shape Cut, so for me this was perfect.


I got the front and back of DH's stocking done. He wanted burgundy and gray, but I have so few gray strings, he got two burgundy to every one gray. I just have two more stockings to work on before I start assembling them all.

DH and I took a trip to Houston last week. It was just a quick trip, Wednesday-Saturday. We got to spend some quality time with DS the Elder, and got to meet his girlfriend, possible future DIL?, time will tell. We really liked her, and she is interesting in sewing! Score!

While we were in Houston, we had quite a bit of texting going back and forth with DS the Younger. On Thursday, he joined the US Army! He won't ship out until May, but boy, is that a serious "Mom moment" when the youngest joins the military. DH was in the Army for 10 years, my dad was Army, my brother Navy, DH's dad retired from the Air Force and I have a nephew currently in the Air Force, and there are several other military people in the family. Obviously, we are a pro-military family. This is the first time I've had one of my kids join though, and I'm sure I'll cry when he leaves.