Sunday, December 29, 2013

Celtic Solstice Part 5

imageWell 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!)

Playing with the pieces
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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 ;)
Merry Christmas from Ophelia
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

Monday, December 23, 2013

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!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Celtic Solstice Part 3!

All 25
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 ;)

Pinwheel
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


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Monday, December 9, 2013

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!)

1 & 2

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!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

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.

Close up of a few of the finished unitsMy 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.