Orca Bay: Out on a Limb, part 1

The old sycamore tree by the back deck has the perfect branch for displaying a finished quilt.  And I am pleased to introduce Orca Bay, finished at last!  It has been since February of 2012 that it has been waiting to be quilted.

 It's somewhat anticlimactic to finish something that has this many pieces in it, that I started working on so long ago.  I'm really pleased with it, though.  Bonnie Hunter's patterns are stunning.  You can find it in her String Fling book.

 You can see the squiggle-loop-star quilting (my easy-quilting trademark) and the new, all-machine-sewn binding with accent flange.  I like that binding! I may do it a lot more now I know how!

 At midrange, the colors really sparkle.

I used some fabric my mom had for the backing, and made up a quick label.  Quarta practically lives in the sycamore tree during the summer, that's why there's a bucket to lift up her books and picnic lunch.  As of today, though, the sycamore tree has several thousand new occupants.  More about them in the next post, part 2.

Yesterday, while I was doing quilt photography, I decided to do a little garden photography too.  This is a clump of Nigella.

Most of the mustard has passed the mustard-greens stage and is working on going to seed.  We tend to let it, and that's why we never need to plant mustard seeds.

The red columbine has made itself comfortable by the back garden for several years now.

The California Poppies like the sunny West side of the garage, where our tomatoes and peppers have the best chance.

Up until today, we mostly had Mason bees and bumblebees in our garden.

I'm not sure about bee varieties, but I think this one was a Mason bee.  He held still long enough for this shot.

Daniel is cleaning out the overgrown perennial garden for me.  The outer part of the triangle is formed by the foundation of an old barn or other outbuilding, from back when our house was part of a working farm.  I've been wanting to clean out all the daffodil bulbs and iris rhizomes for some time, and make it more of a colonial/Victorian herb garden with a limited number of flowers.

 Quarta made "bunny salad" for our dinner.  A salad that looks like something cute is always fun.