What I’ve learned from Celtic Solstice



This is my Celtic Solstice before I took it to Michele

Thanks, Bonnie, for this wonderful design! I have seen countless gorgeous quilts and I’m sure I’ll see many more. It’s awesome.

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.

Flimsy is done!

 

 

My Celtic Solstice flimsy is done! I'm mostly done with the backing, so I hope to get it to my favorite long-armer, Michele Mayton, sometime this week to get it quilted. It will be a pieced back using some fabric I had in my stash and some leftovers from the top.

 

I've said before I used only stash for this quilt, but I did have to get something for the outer teal border. Nothing I had was just "right."

 

I really love this quilt and the design. Thanks, Bonnie Hunter, for all you do for your fans!

 

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday. Check out the quilty inspiration!

 



I've assembled the blocks

    In playing in EQ7, I decided to go with a 5 by 7 layout and a quilt that measures 60.5 by 78.5, a generous throw size.

Some of the blocks

 

   I got the file from the Inklingo blog post about layouts and changed the colors to mimic mine. I managed the blocks and now I'm thinking about the borders. I love everything about Bonnie's design, but I have the irrepressible urge to "make it my own," so I'm playing in EQ7.

    I’ve played a little on the computer and I’m undecided.

    Borders are my least favorite part of putting a quilt top together. I just don’t like wrestling with big pieces of fabric. That’s probably why I love Bonnie’s designs so much.
    I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday. Check out the eye candy!

Loving the Solstice!

   


My first nine Celtic Solstice blocks

    I've assembled the first 9 blocks of my version of Celtic Solstice and I couldn't be happier with my color choices.
    There's always that little bit of unease when you change colors from the designer. I thought I could keep the values the same and it would be OK.
     But, since you don't know what the quilt is going to look like, it's still a bit of a crap shoot. I think I won!
    I noticed today while reading the Facebook posts, that I've pressed my 54-40 or Fight blocks wrong. I can fix that on the other blocks, but I'm not going to change the ones I've already done. I've learned a lot on this project and I'll post about that next week.
    This design is a winner. Of all the posts I've seen on FB, they're all wonderful!
    I'm linking up with Design Wall Monday and Bonnie's Link-up. Check out the creativity!

   

A look back

    I had a pretty good quilting year in 2013. Going in, I wanted to improve my Free Motion Quilting, and I glad to say I made headway on that goal. I’m not where I want to be, but I’m closer than I was.
    According to my records, I finished 16 projects. Most were older UFOs that I used as practice for my FMQ. I’ve seen other bloggers make collages of their quilts, so I tried it:

From left, top to bottom: Stack of Leaves, Carpenter's Star, Ellie's Paper Dolls, Christmas Diamonds, Asian Kisses, Big Zig, Gabe's Quilt, Scrappy Trips in Blue, Butterfly Whirpool, Texas Braid and Sophie's Butterfly Challenge.

    This is just some of them from this year, but I haven’t been consistent about taking pictures of all my completed quilts, so you’ll have to trust me that there were five more finishes. (Three were charity quilts for the Mansfield Millennium Quilters and I don’t remember why I didn’t get pix of the other two.)
     So, what about this year? Currently I’m working on Bonnie Hunter’s Celtic Solstice Mystery. She revealed a knockout design on Jan. 1 and I have all the pieces and parts done as of this afternoon. I will probably start assembling some of the blocks tomorrow. I’m pondering a design decision on the other set and I won’t make a decision on that until this weekend.
    I chose to make half the number of units required for the king-sized quilt, so I’ll have layout decisions to make too, although I love the quilt so much I may go ahead and make the larger option. Another decision I don’t need to make immediately.
    More on my plans for the New Year in my next post. . .

I love Mary’s Triangles!

    I’ve switched to Mary’s Triangles for making the shaded 4-patch units for Clue #5 of Celtic Solstice. Why? Honestly, I was struggling for accuracy with the individual pieces cut with the EZ Angle ruler. I’m sure it’s my cutting. I have trouble seeing the edges clearly against the color of my mat. Also, the light isn’t the best.

    With Mary’s Triangles (MT), you use squares and rectangles, or in our case, half-square triangles and rectangles.

    I used a chart in a book, Triangle Tricks, published by Martingale & Co. It’s a whole book devoted to the unit known as Mary’s Triangles or the shaded 4-patch. I‘ve had it for some time but never made anything from it. Lucky for me that I remembered it because it’s really helped me with this stage of the CS mystery.

    For a 3-inch finished block, the chart in the book calls for two 2-inch squares (our HSTs), two rectangles cut 2 x 3 inches and one rectangle cut 3 1/2 x 4 1/2. The description of how to make them sounds much more difficult than it is to do them. I made 30-plus units the prescribed way over the course of two days. Using this method I've made 36 in an afternoon.

    And, they're more accurate! I couldn't ask for anything more. If you're interested, here's a link to a tutorial on making a block using four of these units.

    The book came out in 2003 and is available on Amazon, here.

I'm certain I'll be able to finish Clue #5 on time and probably catch up with Clue #4 (4-patches) I'm doing those as Leaders and Enders while working on the MTs.

    This mystery has been a lot of fun so far! I haven't done many of these because I've had unpleasant surprises a couple times. I feel confident that Bonnie's design will be wonderful in my colors. Wish me luck!

    And, my wish to you is a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

    I'm linking up with Patchwork Times and also Bonnie's link-up. Check out the creativity!

Jeanne in Ohio

Clue #4, here I come!

I’m nearing the finish line on my previous clues, so I plan to begin cutting Clue #4 tomorrow. Clues 2 and 3 are done and I’m almost done with #1. I've chosen to go on and finish #1 because that's a difficult unit for me and I wanted to get it out of the way. The 4-patches shouldn't be hard, although 150 is a lot!
I have some gray squares precut because I goofed on the second clue (Bonnie’s green is my gray). I have a few yellows also, so I think I’ll make 4-patches with those as Leaders and Enders while I strip piece the majority of my 4-patches. I’ll need 150 to continue my plan to make half of the number for the large sized quilt.

Wish me luck! My wish for you is a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

I’m linking up with Bonnie and barely in time. I’ve had the sewing done for a couple days, but had holiday responsibilities so waited until the last minute to write this post. I’ve got to stop procrastinating!