Working on Step 4

I am working on Step 4 of the Orca Bay Mystery slowly, but surely. I had hoped to get a lot of sewing done this past weekend, but I mostly helped take care of fussy babies with runny noses, as well as work on some Christmas preparations.

Here are some of each of my four steps together. I like the way the colors are playing together. The greens I pulled to use for the mystery were a dark pine kind of green, but I already had a bunch of green strings. I decided to use both, and I cut some 1 1/2" strips from the pine greens and added them to my green strings. I decided not to use the lime green strings or the lightest greens either. I'm hoping with the addition of the pine green strips to my selection of strings it will help them read darker as a whole. I had considered cutting a bunch of new strips to use for the string blocks, but that doesn't help me use my green strings, and I know the variety will look good in the quilt, even if it reads lighter than my original plan.

I haven't trimmed any of the Step 4 string blocks yet, but 23 are done, and about that many more have at least some strings sewn on them. If I get all the strings blocks done by Friday I will be thrilled, even if I haven't trimmed any of them. I can trim them later, next week should be less busy than this week.

I babysit quite a bit this week, both for the grandtwins and my little guy. The little guy I watch is getting a baby sister later this week, so I may have him a bit while his Daddy is visiting his Mama is in the hospital. I had him all day today, and I'll have him tomorrow as well. He is getting great big brother practice by interacting with the twins.

If you want to see how other people are progressing on the mystery quilt, go here
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/mystery-monday-link-up.html