CELTIC SOLSTICE QUILT REVEAL

On New Year’s Day, Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville revealed the layout for her mystery quilt named Celtic Solstice.  You can see her CS quilt HERE.  Based on her instructions, I laid out six blocks on my design wall to determine if I should go further.



It looks pretty good although this photo is a little darker than the actual blocks.  This is the scrappiest quilt I’ve made in a very long time.   Some of my yellows need to be a lighter shade so it can be contrasted more against the red I see.

Should I make more blocks and finish a small-sized CS quilt or should I just set these parts aside to use for another project?  I would need to make the parts to complete about 50 more blocks. I would like to know your opinion.

Thanks a million.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

CELTIC SOLSTICE CLUE 5 BLOCKS

I am following along with Bonnie Hunter fans in making her mystery quilt, Celtic Solstice.  The clues may be found on her blog HERE.   We are working on Clue #5, split triangle units using some of the triangle units already completed in Clue #3 with additional triangle units from this newest clue. 
These are 12 of the split triangle units I’ve completed last night


and an additional six this morning.



There are more cut triangle pieces in my tray  on the right with the completed HSTs in the blue baske ton the left..  I truly used pieces of scraps in all of my blocks so far with just a few fat quarter parts thrown in.



The chain piecing of the triangle square units makes it smooth and fast.  The one thing I like to do however is to sew them in sections so that after I have assembled 10 or 12, or 20 units, I stop and iron them.  Stepping back and looking at the finished groups always give me a sense of satisfaction that the assembled parts are actually blocks.  Then I make another group, and on and on.

It seems that I don’t have as many black scraps or fat quarters that are large enough to cut 3 7/8 square inches so I’ll have to dig through my fabric closet, Jo Morton Collection, and maybe visit a fabric store to get more variety.

Of course, Ranger the Maine Coon Cat was a big help during this sewing project.



He slept through the whole thing.  Twice.   Couldn't have done it without him.

With this blog entry I am linking up with Bonnie’s blog to share my photos.  I suggest you visit her linky page to see all the beautiful fabric and color combinations that are assembled there.  Simply gorgeous.
It’s not too late to join in on the fun.  Just jump in.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

CELTIC SOLSTICE PROGRESS

I am sewing along with Bonnie Hunter fans on her mystery quilt named Celtic Solstice.  We are currently working on Clue 4 which are 4-patches.

Six stacks of 5 blocks each

This is a total of 30 units for 4-patches that are 3 1/2” square unfinished.  That is only 1/4th of the total required for this quilt but I’m making them in smaller quantity so that I can be sure that I want to make the larger quilt after all the parts are published published.  If not, I will make a smaller version or incorporate the blocks into different arrangements in other quilts.

All of these blocks were made from my scraps stash.  For some reason I had larger pieces of blue than I did red even though red is my favorite color.  I need to sort out and throw away a lot of the smaller giblets of fabric from my red scraps drawer.  My philosophy on saving scraps changed a few years ago when I discovered that my boxes were overflowing and the pieces were too small.  Now, it has to be at least 3” both directions before I’ll save it.

The red and blue scrap drawers
after making these blocks!

The next clue, No. 5, will be posted on Bonnie’s Quiltville blog page on Friday.  However you can join in any time.

I am linking this blog post with the others on her blog who are sharing photos of their ongoing progress.  Check it out to see all the different colors and fabrics being used by the participants.

Until next time,

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

CLUE 3 OF #CELTIC SOLSTICE QUILT

We are working on a mystery quilt designed by Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville.  This clue contained all half-square triangles,



with part of them made into pinwheels.


I used triangle paper to make the HSTs.  I printed the 1 1-2” finished patterns from www.quiltingandwhatnot.com onto Papers For Foundation Piecing by That Patchwork Place because it tears away from the fabric so well. If you choose to use the triangle papers that I used, be sure to tell your printer to print normal pages (not shrink to fit) then measure the 1” square box to make sure it is printed accurately.  

There is a fantastic tutorial prepared by Gretchen about how to use printed triangle papers she drafted to make perfect, accurate half-square triangles.  It can be seen HERE.

Be sure to visit Bonnie’s Quiltville blog to see other quilters’ progress and fabric choices.

On the Christmas front, I am anxiously awaiting arrival of several gifts I ordered, praying that they arrive before 24th.  Apparently the ice storm we experienced in the North Texas area for several days last week has backed up the sorting and delivery of packages from the Dallas distribution center. 

OH NO!

Until next time, keep on sewing.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

CELTIC SOLSTICE MYTERY QUILT ALONG

I didn’t initially plan on doing this mystery quilt that Bonnie Hunter put together but each time I looked at photos of other quilters’ pieces and parts I couldn’t resist.  What can I say.  There are other projects that should be finished but I was lured into this new one.

Here is a photo of the parts I’ve completed so far for the first two clues.



Until I get a better idea of how it is going to look in the final finish, I’m only doing groups of 10 – 15 of each clue.  That way, I can change directions if it’s seems the colors chosen aren’t working together.  I’m not super crazy about the blues I’m working with but if I used darker blues, it wouldn’t be enough contrast with the black.  I’m loving the black and red combo by the way.

I am linking this blog to Bonnie Hunter’s Celtic Solstice page.  Just jump on over there and look at the reason I became so tempted.  Wish me luck.  I've never done this linking thing before.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.