Additional information Bonnie Hunter posted about the quilt:
Things to Think About! ((Mystery Related!))
Some questions were raised yesterday that really could be beneficial to anyone planning on the Orca Bay mystery and I thought I would offer up a response here for all --
I know I said what colors I am using…and you are free to follow along there, or choose your own.
But not thinking of what other people would put where, I didn’t tell you which would be more prominent. It’s tricky with mysteries, you know --- you say too much, you spoil the fun!
But at the same time I want everyone to have a quilt that they like….without too much “in the face” of a color they weren’t expecting! So here we go ---
Alda wrote:
I am starting my Orca Bay quilt and was wondering what color is the most prominent, if you know what I mean.
I want to do this quilt for my son who loves black and red, and I am using yellow instead of your blue. You are using blue and red for the strings and I was wondering if I use the yellow in them will it be to much yellow in the quilt.
Or can I maybe use the black and red in them even if I do black and white hourglass blocks.
Ohh my I am really over thinking this ain't I,lol.
So here’s my explaining things a bit farther ---
My RED is most prominent in this quilt. Followed by the black, with blue as the accent.
My backgrounds, of course are neutral, and I know yours might not be, so you need to know where the colors will fall --- just so you can choose to swap your colors around in placement a bit if you need to.
So, if you are choosing yellow for the RED ---- it’s going to be a very yellow quilt. Not that that is a bad thing! But if you want just a “bit” of yellow…use the yellow where I have blue.
And the ONLY place I have black, it really isn't mixed with the other colors, but defines them or surrounds them. SO I wouldn't mix black and red where I have red because putting blacks in other areas could run them into the design of the other blacks. How confusing is this to try to explain? If you think you might want to, it's another case of maybe you should wait and find out how it plays out before you do it.
Someone else posted about how they went through the directions and WROTE IN their own color choices so they wouldn’t forget which goes where. I think this is a great idea! If you are using PURPLE as my BLACK – go through and write PURPLE anywhere I’ve put black..or you just might find yourself digging through your bins and cutting black anyway on auto pilot!
Other questions came in like:
I have lots of 2.5” strips, can I make the hour glass units twice as big? And just make fewer of them?
I wouldn’t. Not until you see where they are going to go and how the quilt comes together. Without saying too much, double the size is just too big for this design to work.
Hi Bonnie,
Quick question... I hope you have time to answer for me. Could i replace the red and blue strings with scrappy strings in all colors?
Again, you might want to wait this one out. The play and distinct definition of “color families” in this quilt is important to the design. I'm not sure it would work with "scrappy everything"....you might be able to do "scrappy everything" where the REDS are , but maybe use just blues..or just one other color for where I AM using blues....or it's gonna be too muddy I think. If this is what you are really leaning toward, you might want to see the whole quilt first before you can really decide.
Another question was on other things to use besides phone book paper, because their phone book is a very scaled down version. My response is THIS….
You can use ANY paper at hand! I had a stack of flyers for the November Cruise left over long after it had sold out over a year ago! Could I make myself toss that perfectly good pile of paper? NOPE! So I did some piecing on those, and there are the stitching lines, right through Pat’s face and mine! Even printer paper will tear off easily if you sew with a denim sized needle ((about a 14)) and make your stitch VERY SMALL. ((about 1.5 or so))
That said…I hope everyone is gearing up for a great weekend! Do you have some baking going on for Thanksgiving? The ONE thing I have to have for Thanksgiving is Pumpkin Pie!
We still aren’t sure what we are doing here. Jeff headed back to Columbia, SC yesterday. He needs to work as much as he can until his rent is up at the end of the month and he moves home. He was feeling MUCH better when he left, both physically and emotionally, and we really had a great visit! I know that it’s the right thing for him to do to come home for a bit.
It sounds like it will work for him to just transfer his job up to the Fatz Café here in Greensboro…my fingers are crossed on that, that would be HALF the battle!
But back to Thanksgiving…Jason has to work the day AFTER..so he can’t come up here for just one day. It’s too expensive for a college kid with the gas that way. Jeff is working Thanksgiving, and off that night at 4pm – so we are leaning toward going down there to have a late Thanksgiving dinner OUT with everyone after Jeff gets off work.
Or. Maybe. For the first time in our lives ever --- the Hubster and I just may end up having Thanksgiving alone at home by ourselves.
That wouldn’t be a bad thing all together, now would it?