Celtic Solstice - Step 4 - 4 Patches (and other projects, too)

This week was an easy one for the Celtic Solstice mystery -- and I almost finished over the weekend.  On Friday night I started laying out strips of orange and green from scraps from previous steps and from my stash. I was able to use up all the orange and green small strips I had, and only had to cut into fat quarters for about 25 of the 120 four patch blocks.

I sewed and sewed and when I finally counted I had 116 four patch units!  So, just four more to go:

I could not resist the urge to make a holiday four patch with some of my least favorite fabrics celebrating St. Patty's Day, Halloween, and Christmas:

And I made worked on the pinwheels - I have only 4 completely done (a whopping two more than last week). All the remainder 2 patches are sewn and need to be joined into the full pinwheels:

I did all this sewing on Sunday.  To see what other folks are doing with Celtic Solstice, click here!

On Saturday, I went to my guild's sew-in at a local library and got the binding sewn onto my Grandmother's Choice quilt:

I started handsewing it to the back last night -- I have about 80" of the 400" total done!  This I just plug away at and stitch a little at a time or when I'm watching TV (kinda rare).

I also got more done on a quilt I'm sewing for a baseball friend and I decided on the setting for another BOM.

To finish out my saga of my very productive sewing week -- AND I finished the first 25 blocks of the Dear Jane quilt I am making using charcoal and cream for the backgrounds:

I will start some applique blocks, but probably not until next weekend!

I love sewing!

Celtic Solstice - Pinwheels!

Clue number 3 in Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery has us making many tiny (1 1/2") half square triangle blocks!  200 blocks to be exact - at least for the smaller version I am making. Here's a look at every combination of yellow and orange I sewed into half square triangles!

Not only do I have many fabric combinations, I used several methods to make these blocks. Bonnie demoed the Easy Angle ruler - I used this with the fabrics I had in 2" strips.  I had a bunch of 2 1/2" squares laying around, so I used the Tucker Trimmer for those.  And - I learned a new method where you combine two squares, right sides together and draw lines diagonally and mid-line (like and asterisk). Then you sew 1/4" along the diagonals, cut along the diagonal lines and the lines through the middle of the blocks to make 8 half square triangles at once.  I especially like this method because you do not end up with bias edges and I I will use it again, especially when I need a lot of units out of the same fabrics.   I not use it a for many of the blocks because I went very scrappy and only wanted at most 8 of any one fabric combination.

As you can see in the back, there are two pinwheel blocks done - these are 3 1/2" square and will finish in the quilt at 3" square. I still need to make 23 more of these cute little guys. This means we will end up with 25 pinwheel blocks and 100 of the half square triangle blocks.

Also in the back you can see my Bell jar with all of the "bonus triangles" from Step 2 - the chevron blocks.

I was slowed down this week by a terrible cold, but still managed to finish ironing Step 2, remade a few blocks that didn't quite measure up. I also trimmed all of the step one blocks made with the Tri Recs - and only had to redo one or two of those.

Fortunately, tomorrow's clue -- Step 4 -- is the easiest of them all, Bonnie says.  I should be able to catch up over the following week and finish both step 3 and step 4.

It will get interesting in January when I start business travel again. I am trying to borrow a sewing machine to use in the hotel at night and over some weekends that I will be gone. If that doesn't work out, I will watch and learn as others continue this very fun project. And then I'll catch up when I can! No biggie!

Check out what others are doing - there are some wonderful color combinations from those who chose to go their own color way! Link up for Step 3

Stay tuned! Clue 4 comes out tomorrow morning!!

Dixie Diary Layout and Setting Concept

I decided on my layout a couple of months ago for the Dixie Diary BOM, but I wanted to wait until all of the blocks were completed before finalizing it.  I am use a light cream on cream graphic fabric for the sashing, light and/or embroidered pieces for the corner stones, a darker tan for a small inner border and a piano key border, also incorporating some embroidery pieces. I don't know what I will do yet for the largest outermost cornerstones yet.

Here's the concept laid out on my dining room table:

 

Does this layout work well?

Proposed layout of blocks

Updated option:

Cornerstone, sashing, piano key border concept

Cornerstone, sashing, piano key border concept

The sashing is 2", the inner border will be 1" finished, and the piano key border will finish at 4".

In my desire to try new things, I decided to do this piano key border, something i have never done. Currently I my plan is to alternate "keys" of light and dark. Is that too regular? Should I mix it up more - couple darks, couple lights few dark, etc.?

I think I like this - it will be a wall hanging in my bedroom. Should the piano key border stay or go?

All opinions are welcome!

Celtic Solstice - Slow and Steady Progress

It was a busy weekend for me, so I did not work on this project as much as I did last week.  In addition to this project, I met my Mom for a recital, went to a class to make a bag and a table runner, made the final block of the Dixie Diary BOM, worked on my two Dear Jane quilts, and picked up the last two blocks for another BOM!

For Celtic Solstice, I cut all the pieces I need for the 100 chevron blocks that will finish at 3", and I'd say I'm just over half way through sewing them up.

Here's where I was Sunday morning after the first 20:

I am saving the leftover triangles in the Bell jar - this is not tamped down at all.

And here's where I ended the day yesterday with 40 completely done, and 20 just needing to be pressed open.

The jar is filling up - I have to smash them into it now!.  Can you see the front block on the left?  It has both Christmas fabric and St Patrick's Day fabric in the green stripe!  I am not being very particular about pairing fabrics up, either. This was a happy suprise. I hope I can remember to place it by something made my orange fabric with Halloween candy corns.

Now that I am remembering to press the seams in each pair in the opposite direction, they are coming together. There are more pieces than it seems to me, so it is taking longer than I expected. No doubt that is exacerbated by the fact that I have 5,549 other projects in the work. Oh, and I work full time, too.

I am enjoying the process.

I wonder what Friday will bring?!

Dixie Diary - Month 12 - Turning Yankee

The story last month left us hanging to learn whether Sarah Morgan would swear allegiance to the Yankees in order to help her mother survive the war, and we learn this month that indeed they went to New Orleans. Her mother gave them "the what for", though. Read about it here!

And here is the block for this month:

This was a little challenging to construct because the embroidery is from a dish towel and not so sturdy, even with the muslin with which I always line the embroidery pieces. At the same time, once pressed the seams lay down quite nicely.

This concludes this BOM.  Now on to the setting for the quilt. I have a plan, and I hope I can execute it. It might be a while before I get to it with all the other projects on my plate. I think I will try to make a little portion of the setting every night and perhaps it will proceed more quickly than I think!

This has been a very fun project incorporating my grandmother's embroidery in the blocks. I never really knew her, though I am named for her -- my given name was her nickname. I'm not so sure I look like a "Eugenia" -- "Dena" suits me better! So this has been a therapeutic project, as well as an experiment in use of the embroidery. Success on both areas, so it's been a good year.

Thanks to Barbara Brackman for the journey through the Civil War through the eyes of young Sarah Morgan. Thanks to Dustin for moderating the Civil War Quilts flicker site where we shared our progress.

Dear Jane - Changed My Mind!

I have been a little ambivalent about using the bright colors in both of the Dear Jane quilts I am making. Sooooooo, I'm changing it up for one of them. The quilt using cream and charcoal for the backgrounds will now have shades of pink, fuschia and purples. Six of the blocks I have already done work in the new scheme, so only (!) 17 to redo. Ha!

It will be worth it. Here's the new scheme with some of the "old" blocks:

The striped fabric is my inspiration. I will use the brighter fabrics with the cream background and the more pastel fabrics with the grey background. The blocks will be arrange in concentric circles with the grey in the middle, then radiating out alternating background colors (and thus bright and pastel colors as well).

Grey-cream-grey-cream-grey-cream-grey / pastel-bright-pastel-bright-pastel-bright-pastel

I will keep the pieced border triangles in the grey/cream combinations. The non-pieced border triangles will likely be bright/medium shade or tone since the outermost blocks will be charcoal with pastel colors. Maybe I'll make them all in the medium range.

I went through my stash and I have a nice collection of fabrics to get me started.

This will make it more interesting for me to have two completely different color schemes going at the same time. 

And now I'm happy!

First Six Blocks

 Update:  Here's the first 6 blocks - I need more pastels, so I guess I just have to go shopping!

Quilt-a-Thon Weekend

I had a lovely Thanksgiving with my Mom and some friends on Thursday afternoon. Before I went, and after I got back, I worked on my Dear Jane blocks.  On Friday, Bonnie Hunter released Part 1 for her holiday mystery quilt, this year called Celtic Solstice. This was my project on Friday and Saturday.

 Dear Jane

Here are the first 13 blocks for my quilt with gray and cream backgrounds:

And here are the next 10 from the second installment of the Dear Jane club I'm in.  These are mostly paper pieced, a new skill for me. Tedious, but very precise outcome so it's worth it!

Second Month - 10 of 12 done with Black and White Backgrounds

Second Month - 10 of 12 done with Gray and Cream Backgrounds

I am amusing myself with the b/w versions by using fabric in some of the blocks that go with the name or with current events. For instance, the mustache fabric I used to honor the fact that it was "Movember" when I made it. That's a movement to focus on men's health where men grow a mustache in November, soccer ball fabric for the block called "Chris's Soccer Field", and utensils on fabric for the block called "Adelaine's Apron Strings". A little hidden humor amuses me!

I am including some of my grandmother's embroidery in the gray and cream version -- you can see two blocks in the picture from the first month that include some of the embroidery. I will scatter some in here and there, as the mood hits me.

I find it interesting to see how the blocks look in different color ways, too. The two picture of the second month have the blocks in the same positions. Interesting isn't it?

I still have 2 more center blocks to do, and 3 more border triangles. I know what I want to do with the borders for the gray/cream version, but I'm still deciding for the black and white version. More on that when I get more of them done!

Celtic Solstice

I worked all day Friday and much of Saturday on the Celtic Solstice Step 1.  We used the Tri Recs rulers seen in the first picture and made many units - orange and neutrals in the middle with blue side pieces on all of them. Here's my progress:

All orange fabrics used so far are shown here - 92 units

All neutral fabrics used so far are shown here - 96 units

 Step 1 is completed! Well, except for trimming dog ears. Maybe I'll do that and maybe I won't!

Check out what everyone else is up to here!

All in all, a very productive weekend!

During the next week, I am going to work on the baseball quilt I am designing and making for a friend who is going into the hospital next week for surgery.  I will not have Friday to sew, so I may not make as much progress on the mystery. I am going to try to keep up unless it starts to stress me. This is a FUN project, so I'll do all I can and finish up later if I need to!  Kudos to Bonnie Hunter for providing such a wonderful project for her fans each holiday for free.