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.