VOS Retreat

Every February since 2009 I've flown to Phoenix for a few days to spend a long weekend with 31 of my quilty friends. This year I went a day earlier than before (as did many retreat attendees) and we spent that extra time shopping for goodies. I went to SAS for the first time and also a shop called Family Needlework where I found a great display of silk ribbons. I wanted to get one of everything, but restrained myself.



Above is a picture of my Celtic Solstice quilt, which finally received its borders. I left it with Ami to quilt on her long arm. I chose not to put the final (plain) green border on mine. It was plenty big enough for me as it was. I will most likely bind it with the same dark browns that I used for the inner border. I understand that this former mystery will soon be a published pattern in one of Bonnie Hunter's books coming out later this year.




And here is the layout we decided on for Hot Paisley Mess. Ami offered to help me arrange the blocks (how could I pass that up?!) and agreed that it looked good with the black and white block in the center. She then noticed that I had 4 blocks that had a lot of teal/aqua in them and we pulled those toward the center. We then finished the center with 4 of the lightest blocks. It looks like it's glowing now! While in AZ I did manage to sew most of it together, I just have one long seam now to join the 2 parts, and then I can work out a border. I used roughly 70 of the 100+ paisleys from my collection, and am entertaining the idea of adding a piano key border and trying to incorporate most if not all of the paisleys into that. We shall see. Pattern is Jared Takes a Wife, a freebie from BH.




During the retreat, we also worked on a mystery quilt. It turned out to be a Double Irish Chain pattern, and was hosted by Linda P. I fussy cut some blocks from a print, but if you look closely you'll see that the words run every which direction and not always the same side "up" as the graphic closest to the words. This caused some in the room to have small fits as they tried to "fix" the orientation, LOL. Now I think they understand why I had my blocks set up going all directions to begin with. I will get back to this soon to finish the borders, as I have it all cut out, I just didn't have time during retreat with all the shopping, talking and having to get CS done first so I could hand it off to Ami.













I also made some little hostess gifts this year for Carolyn, Cathy, Ellen, Kim, Denise, Laura, Sharon and Pat. They finished at about 1" across, and are hand embroidered. They can be used as scissor fobs or just for decoration.

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

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

Celtic Solstice Part 5

Well we found out what those leftover HSTs from Part 3 were for...these cute units! We made these last year in the Easy Street mystery but with solid square bits instead of the HSTs. I had some trouble as a few of my winged units were too big. I think I should've been a little more careful with my seams and/or trimming the HSTs to 2" but in the end I was able to get most of them to the right size. Only a few have the point of the yellow triangle cut off.


Here are a few of the different Celtic Solstice components all together to see how the colors are playing. I was pretty nervous about the brown after Part 1, but am ok with it now. In this picture you don't see some of the darker blues that seem to compete with the browns. I may show those next time (or I may swap them out!)

Here's my quilt inspector, Smokey. She FINALLY decided to help. Sheesh! I think she only came to this decision out of fear that Ophelia was going to take over ;)

And lastly, a photo of Miss Ophelia checking out the Christmas Tree. She was a good girl and didn't try to "undecorate" it for me :)

Here's the Monday Linky to return to Bonnie's Blog

Celtic Solstice Part 4

Merry Almost-Christmas everyone!

Still working on a Christmas present that I started late. Wish I'd thought of it sooner but oh well! Getting the binding made today. Here's a sneak peek at the present:



And of course, last Friday was the 4th round in the Celtic Solstice Mystery from Bonnie Hunter. She went easy on us knowing it was a busy week and we just needed to make 4 patches. Whew! Here are mine, with some of the pinwheels from the previous week. And here is the Linky back to Bonnie's blog to see other link ups for Monday.

I'm not caught up yet. The only segment that I've completed totally is Part 1. The Part 3 Pinwheels are nearly done, I just want to redo 4 of them that didn't meet well enough in the middle. I had too much going on to finish the chevrons of Part 2 (and was hoping to find another green I liked, but that didn't happen).

Hope everyone has a good week, and that we get great quilty presents from Santa!

Celtic Solstice Part 3!

I have to admit, pinwheels and I are not good friends. I do enjoy making HSTs, however, and there are so many neat methods to making them. This time I decided to do the "Magic 8" as people have been calling it. I started with two 4 3/4" squares, draw an X on the back of one, then a +. Be very precise in your markings! Sandwich the two fabrics right sides together and stitch a scant 1/4" on both sides of the X lines, so 4 lines total. Then cut along the + marks and then on the X marks, and you have 8 identical HSTs.

So far so good. It's the next part I have trouble with ;)


Here's one of the better looking pinwheels. I still need to press a few more, but they're all sewn up, with one extra.

And here's Ophelia's mug shot. Looks like we won't be able to pick her up until Saturday instead of Thursday. I wish it was next week already!

Here's the link back to the Mystery Monday Linky

Celtic Solstice Part 2!

I'd never made chevrons until now, so this was something new and fun! I haven't totally finished Part 1 yet, but am following Bonnie's advice to start the next step anyway (not that I need much encouragement to start something when I haven't finished the last project, hahaha!)



Here are the first few chevrons I sewed, together with a few of the Part 1 units. I like the 3D effect I'm getting from using lighter and darker colors together.

We just decided this weekend to adopt a second quilt inspector. Her name is Ophelia and she may be coming home with us soon as the 19th. Only 10 days to get ready!

I'll post a photo of her next time :)

Edited to add the Mystery Monday Link up, I forgot to do that earlier, oopsie!

Celtic Solstice Part One!

Well,  I had never used a Tri Rec ruler before this clue and now I think I am an expert! So far I've made all of the orange units and half of the neutrals for the smaller sized quilt.

My oranges are really warm pinks and warm reds, and I switched my neutrals to dark, chocolate brown. As you can see, there may be in issue later with the contrast between the browns and the blues, but I've been encouraged to go ahead and finish the steps using the colors I selected. I need to have more faith in my color sense!

I'm awaiting three new Browns to use for the last quarter of this step. I tried to go shop for more on Wednesday, not remembering that it was the day before Thanksgiving, and found that the shop I driven 30 minutes to visit had closed 10 minutes before my arrival!

See Bonnie's Linky page for links to other blogs.

Getting Ready for Celtic Solstice!

Just a few more days until we get our first clue for Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery!

I've pulled my fabrics and sweated and worried over the choices (and shopped, and then shopped some more), but I think I'm pretty well set up now. Would like a couple more dark, chocolatey browns with some ditsy color in them though, and maybe a couple more for the "orange" pile and...well you get the picture. Oh! Picture! Right...

Easy Street Medallion

Easy Street Medallion, a photo by Misha Misha Misha on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
It seems that my quilt wants to go in a different direction than Bonnie intended it to go :)

It's hard to tell, but there are lilac-lavender squares where it looks rather plain (they look much prettier in person). Will probably repeat the lilac color for the setting triangles, but that will only bring the top to around 50" square. I will then play around with adding some more borders to bring it to 60-65" square. I also changed out the 4 corners after i took this pic, repeating the star pattern, as I had 16 of the double flying geese left over. (edit: see below)



None of the components are sewn together yet in these photos, so many of the geese look strange.

Easy Street - Playing Around!

Well, Bonnie wrapped up the Easy Street Mystery, and I've seen lots and lots of pretty quilts both with her colorway and with others. Lots of eye candy on the Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/quiltvillechat)

 I, however, have to admit that the green squares are just not speaking to me. I do like the lime green with the purple but somehow I just feel the need to go in a different direction this time. Hey, we're quilters, it's our prerogative, right?! :) So first, here are my components in Bonnie's given colors and layout.

Cute, right?

 

Back before we knew what the parts were going to be for, I started playing around with the bits and pieces and came up with some potential blocks:

 

But once I saw the final (official) layout I felt there's just a bit too much green for my personal liking, and I really thought all those geese were going to make stars...so I had to start playing around again…so here’s my potential layout, once in green and once in lavender/lilac.



I really like the lighter/softer color. What do you think??



and here's some eye candy for you! http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/01/mystery-monday-link-up-jan-7th.html

Easy Street Step 5

Ahhh, it's almost Christmas. I have presents to wrap and gift cards to label and candy to bag up...but I have my priorities. It's time for another step in Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery!!!



There's been some discussion about what these units are called...since they're not Flying Geese per se, Bonnie suggested perhaps they're Sitting (or Squatting) Turkeys. Personally I think they look like little houses!!

Smokey is not interested today, for whatever reason. She did watch me briefly but then decided she had a better shot at seeing something “interesting” if she faced the window.




And last but not least, here is the Mystery Monday Linky to see the other participants' blog posts!!!

Easy Street Step 4

More geese! I'm actually almost enjoying making flying geese now that I have my fancy new rulers :)



Right on schedule, Smokey showed up to help. What a gal! She never fails to keep me company when I'm sewing.

Here is the link to the Monday Linky http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-4.html and here's the link back to Bonnie's blog, should you want to play along and/or save the steps and make your own Easy Street quilt...http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/easy-street-mystery.html (editing from my phone, sorry for the inelegant links!)

Easy Street Step 3

 

Here's the latest step in Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Mystery! These little guys finish at 3" and were surprisingly easy to make with the Easy Angle ruler. I need to make 16 more but need to cut more black & white strips first. Just thought that 16 of them made for a nice sized photo op!

Here's the Mystery Monday Link Up so you can see the work of others participating in the mystery!



Above is an updated photo showing the other 4 aqua fabrics. I made a total of 4 units for each of the 8 colors. Below is Smokey inspecting the units. She says you have to get VERY close to inspect the seam allowances!

Easy Lane - Step 2

 

I'm so excited with how easy this step is going! I had read Bonnie's suggestions last year when doing her Orca Bay Mystery to buy the Easy Angle and Companion Angle rulers but I didn't buy them until recently. They are so nifty! I also like how versatile they are, as each one can be used to make several different sizes (unlike another Flying Geese ruler set I bought that only makes 2 different sizes). She also made a killer video on how to use them properly!!

So here are the first few geese I've made for my Easy Street (or in my case LANE) mystery quilt. I will be making about 50 more but wanted to at least knock a few out and get them posted so I'm "keeping up" as best as possible. To see other participants' posts for this mystery please visit http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html



I had practiced with the rulers over the weekend and made even SMALLER geese (finishing at 1x2") for a Farmer's Wife Sampler swap that I'm participating in. I got ahead of myself and made the geese dark and the sky light in the first set before I realized that the Cups and Saucers block is the other way around. Whoops! Bonus block for me, I guess :)




I then made another block using different fabrics...I liked the look of the 2 blue ones but the lighter one was thicker than the other and it made the seams very bulky. Unfortunately the pattern in the dark purple is conflicting with the angles of the block so it kind of makes one a little dizzy looking at it, LOL. Good thing I only made one of this one too...but I like it enough I think I'll keep it for my own quilt.

Easy Street...or Maybe Easy Lane?

It's time for a mystery!!! Here's my Step One for the latest Bonnie Hunter mystery: Easy Street. The finished size if you do the entire quilt is 84" square and I just want more of a couch quilt/throw so I'm doing half of the steps to make something closer to 60" square. Therefore the working title for MY quilt is Easy Lane ;)

Here are 98 three inch finished 4 patches...the grey is our "constant" and is a batik. The other parts are black on white prints. The colors in the quilt are purple, aqua and apple green. Below is a photo of the fabrics I pulled, except I changed the grey to a darker one. I also pulled out a few of the other colors that I thought weren't quite right and set them aside for later...we'll see if they feel right later on.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/11/easy-street-monday-link-up-1.html