Thanks, Bonnie, for this wonderful design! I have seen countless gorgeous quilts and I’m sure I’ll see many more. It’s awesome.
This is my Celtic Solstice before I took it to Michele
That said, I learned a LOT while doing this mystery and I thought I’d share it here.
1. Bonnie’s idea about using the Command strips as a seam guide is fabulous! I have a Janome Horizon 7700 and its 1/4-inch seam foot – both regular and Acufeed -- has those flanges (or guides) on the edge. Hate it!
I’ve never liked them and usually use the Little Foot. However, I wanted to use my dual feed foot because of the small pieces, and the Command strips made it so easy! I was a little concerned that it would be tricky to set them up. Not so.
I simply used her seam guide and marked the bottom of the bobbin cover with a Sharpie. I can see the mark and place the Command strips accordingly. It was easier to keep my seam allowance accurate and faster, to boot. I’ll be using these from now on.
2. Someone on either the Quiltville Yahoo group or the Facebook page mentioned that she tries to keep usage of a single fabric to 10% of the total to keep the look really scrappy. I tried that and I am very happy with that formula. Bonnie had suggested that we make half the units if we weren’t sure about either of the provided sizes.
I thought half the smaller one was too small, so I made half the larger size. I ended up with a full-sized quilt and I’m delighted.
I have a lot of units leftover and I’ll need to do something with them, but I have other items on my list to do first. For the record, I have 63 triangle in a square units of both colorations, 41 shaded 4-patch units, 83 four-patches, 43 chevrons, 20 pinwheels and 38 half-square triangles. I think I may be well on the way to another quilt!
3. I used a Frixion pen to mark my sewing lines on both the chevrons and the half-square triangles. It worked perfectly. I’m aware that many people do not trust the chemicals over the long haul. I guess we’ll have to see, but it was a good solution for me.
4. I was hesitant about starting a new quilt around the holidays. It wasn’t as tough as I was afraid it would be to keep up, once I caught up, that is. I started late and only caught up around mid-December. I never doubted that the design would make me happy, because all Bonnie's quilts are so terrific. I seem to be one of those who love working with little pieces so her patterns are right up my alley.
I’d like to note that the colors are “off” in the picture above. What appears to be blue is really teal. I cannot take outside pictures because I’m in Ohio and we have about a foot of snow in our yard, so I have to settle for indoor shots. I’m sorry, because the actual colors are really vibrant.
Now I’m going through Bonnie’s previous four books to see if I can use these units in another of her designs. I’m thinking about Bargain basement from her first, Scraps & Shirttails. It uses 3 1/2-inch strips and units. It could be a perfect fit! Later.
This is the first mystery quilt I’ve made that I liked. I always was disappointed when my color choices fizzled. Not this time. I’m now officially a Bonnie mystery stalker.
I'm linking this to Bonnie CS finale and will also link to Design Wall Monday.
