Grand Illusion - Parts 4 and 5

Can hardly believe it, but I'm all caught up! Here are the first 3 parts, all counted and stacked up. I had finished the chevrons earlier in the week and got a good start on Part 3. Paired up and sewed the rest of Part 3 today before even starting Part 4...not how I usually do things but I was in the mood to "complete" something.

And here's Part 4, all done as well. Probably shouldn't have done so much in one day but I was on a roll. Going to go ice my wrist now and watch some TV to keep me out of trouble!

 

Link to Quiltville/Bonnie Hunter and the Grand Illusion pattern info
Edited Dec 26th...Mystery Monday Link Up FAIL, hahaha I forgot to come back and do the linky and now it's too late ::sigh::

Edited again Dec 28th...well, since I missed the previous linky I may as well try to combine these for tomorrow's linky instead. Here's Part 5. Not much to say about it, except that I really like the turquoise and the yellow together. Even though I've been making half the parts on this journey I went ahead and made all the 4 patches requested in Part 5 and will use leftovers for something else.

Mystery Monday linky return:

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html

Grand Illusion - Part Three

This will be short and sweet, as I did too much this week and aggravated my tendonitis :(

Swapped purples for the greens. Just sewed up enough to make sure I liked it. Not quite as dark as the picture.




Link to Bonnie Hunter
Link to Monday Link Up

Grand Illusion - Return of the Chevrons!

So many of us had a hard time with these units when making Celtic Solstice, but I must say I finally got the hang of it after a few hundred squares, LOL. In fact, Hot Paisley Mess (still not a top yet) has a lot of these sew & flip corners as well.

Here's Part 2 of my GIMQ (the "MQ" is added because "GI" just looks funny). I'm loving the pink and black together. We haven't dipped into the greens yet, and part of me wants to switch mine to light purple instead...we'll see where the future clues take us I guess, and I'll make a decision then.

Link to the instructions (only available for a limited time)
Link back to the Mystery Monday Link Up

Grand Illusion - Part One

So...here we are again...LOL. For this year's mystery I decided to mostly follow Bonnie's colors. I went a bit richer with three of them, however, and decided my neutrals will actually be pastel batiks. I toyed with the idea of substituting something else for the yellow, but then I found one that I liked at Pacific Fabric and decided to go for it.

Here is my palette, minus the yellow (I put a polka dot yellow in the pic to hold the spot)

 

...and here are my first 4 blocks for the first clue. I have quite a few more of the HSTs made (nearly 100) but have some other things I have to work on today so I'm setting it all aside for a little while. I will be making half of the units to begin with, for a smaller quilt. Mine will be roughly 60" square depending on border, vs 88" for Bonnie's original.

 

Here's the link back to Bonnie's blog, and here's the a link back to the Monday Link Up as well: http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-1.html

Around the World Blog Hop

I  was invited to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop by Brigitte from the about.com forum. It sounded like fun, so I quickly said "sure!" Then I promptly forgot about inviting others to play along. Whoopsie!

I sent out three invitations on Saturday. One to Ami Krenzel, a friend and longarmer extraordinaire who just recently returned to the quilting world after a far too long hiatus. Another invite went to the (in)famous Pirate aka Shelley Rodgers, who I've had the pleasure of meeting several times as we attend the same retreat each year. I've even been to her house, and fed her chickens! The third invite went to my friend and almost neighbor Samantha who blogs more about her pets than her quilting but since her pets are absolutely adorable I really can't hold it against her ;)

Update: (as I'd typed this up in advance)...Ami and Samantha have replied that they'll participate, while Shelley had to decline. I sent another invite out to Suze, who also attends the same retreat. We both have an affection for painting and for working on things in smaller scale. I haven't heard back just yet, but am including her blog link here in case she says "yes" :) 

Lately I've been making blocks based on Bonnie Hunter's Jared Takes a Wife, a free pattern from Quiltville. But to put my own special twist on it, every fabric in this quilt is paisley! I've made 26 or 27 of them, and now they're aging while I decide how to set them. It's quite likely I'll not sash them, as I like how they look together...but I need to consider putting them on point or what to do for borders, etc. There are roughly 65 different paisley fabrics in the project so far, and I have over 50 more that I could use in borders or setting triangles.

Here's a (slightly out of focus, sorry) photo of the design wall. I haven't sorted them yet, so no need to wonder why it looks so muddy in the lower right section ;)


Here's a link to the full album on my Flickr page if you'd like to see the blocks/fabrics in detail.

Ok, now for the questions!

1. What am I working on?
The above project, Bonnie's 2013 Celtic Solstice Mystery (finally got the 49 blocks sewn to each other, still have to do borders), today I was quilting on a baby quilt for my friend Cassandra, and in my purse I have EPP Hexies that I'm using to create a cover/sleeve for my Kindle.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I'm not so sure that it does, but not many are as obsessed with paisley as I am ;)


3. Why do I write/create what I do?
I've always been interested in art, and over the years I've worked in many mediums including acrylic and beads (mostly jewelry). If I don't have a project to work on, I go a little stir crazy. This is one of the things I like so much about quilting...I can bring it with me and work on it almost anywhere that I have light!

4. How does my writing/creating process work?
I love to get inspired by things I see online or in shops. Other times it's just a particular fabric that I have to have...and then I see where things go. I love trying different color combinations out, and am particularly drawn to cool tones.

Ok, there you have it. I did it, Brigitte! Now I hope the others are willing victims I mean participants ;)

Slacking on the Blogging...But I'm Still Quilting!

I haven't been very good about keeping up here, but I have been sewing a lot. Here's my latest project: a completely paisley quilt using Bonnie Hunter's Jared Takes a Wife block.

Here are the first two. I've since sewn one more and kitted up 11 others to sew while I'm in the city entertaining Phia (fka Ophelia).

Celtic Solstice - First 9 Blocks

I'm afraid I've been busy working on other things lately that had deadlines, so I haven't had as much time to work on CS as I would've liked. I did get 9 blocks completed and sewn to each other recently, however, and here they are!

I swapped dark brown for the neutrals and pink for the orange. This was a fun mystery (as all of Bonnie's mysteries are!) and I look forward to participating again next year :)

If you'd like to download your own set of instructions (until June 1st, 2014) click here
To return to the linky, click here

Celtic Solstice - The Big Reveal!

Here are my first 9 blocks put together. I'm playing around with the layout of the blocks (although the downside of that is that the seams won't nest in the Birthday Girl Block). I also found a great layout by Forest Jane on the Facebook group that uses half the BGB's Bonnie's way and half turned in like mine, plus an alternate border. I've asked her to send me the EQ6 file so I can play with it some more.

My fabric choices are a mix of Civil War, Thimbleberries, and whatever I could find that I thought looked good with them. The neutral was changed to dark, chocolate brown and I used pinks instead of orange. 

Sorry for the short post, I'm recovering from a chest cold and have to return to work today. I should've written this yesterday but it slipped my mind!

Link back to the Monday Link Up