2013 Review

It's very satisfying to look back over the year and contemplate what you have done. Here are all the projects that are complete tops, if not actually quilted, that I could find. There are no doubt a number of others - odds and ends - that escaped my search. Happy New Year!

Celtic Solstice Clue #5 - Check!

Clue #5 of Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery quilt is done! 100 units grouped in piles of 10. It feels good to have this checked off the "to do" list. To join in the fun and see what others have done with this mystery, click here.

The weather here today is sunny and 60 degrees. Kind of amazing for the end of December in the Midwest. It's not to be taken for granted, either. Much colder weather is on the agenda for the week ahead.

Celtic Solstice Clue #5

Bonnie Hunter posted clue #5 of Celtic Solstice at her web site. I finished eight of these pretty quickly this morning. 92 to go! I didn't have any problems with them and they came out to the right size and square!

Finishing Things

I finished up a few things in the past two days. First up is clue #4 of Celtic solstice, seen above. To see what everyone else is doing and to follow along, go here.

Next is a quilt for baby Ethan's first Christmas. Ethan is the son of my nephew. Here is his quilt, made with fabrics from the Comma line by Zen Chic.

His cousin, only 5 weeks old, is Elsie. She has already been gifted with a quilt and now she has a tiny bear to go with it.

Here is the quilt that the bear goes with.

I also made five fabric gifts for my quilting buddies, but since they may glance at this blog on occasion, I will post a photo of those tomorrow, after they have been given to the recipients.

Celtic Solstice Clue #4

Clue #4 of Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery quilt posted this morning. I am more than half way through completing 120 four patch blocks. 70 finished, only 50 to go!

I have also been working on sewing down the binding on a quilt to be given away tomorrow. Thankfully that task is now complete. The quilt is for a nephew's baby born earlier this year. To go with baby quilts I am making diminutive teddy bears from leftover scraps. The bears need to be stuffed, so it's my project for the balance of the evening. With any luck there will be a photo tomorrow.

In between all of this there was a batch of German springerle cookies and one of chocolate chip cookies made.

Another Passion

My piano came home yesterday after an absence from my life of 40 years. It sounds lovely but will need another tuning soon. The piano repair place gave me a coupon for a reduced price for the first tuning. I played it some yesterday but it was so cold from being on the delivery truck all day that it was like playing on top of a block of ice. It has come up to ambient temperature overnight and should sound even better today. The top will have to be down unless in use as I found my little female cat, Jade, attempting to play on the strings last night.

Clue #3 Is in the Can

This week we have 25 pinwheels to make and 100 half square triangle blocks. Thanks to the snow last night, which caused our guild meeting to be canceled, mine are finished!

To see what everyone else is up to, click here to go to Linky Monday #3.

Welcome aboard to Annemieke and Robin! Glad to have you following.

Cute, Cute, Cute!

Clue #3 has posted at Bonnie Hunter's website!. See the Celtic Solstice button to the right. This week we are making 25 pinwheel blocks that finish at 3". They are just so cute and diminutive. Some of the half square triangles will be leftover and not sewn into pinwheel blocks. The plot thickens.

Clue #2 Almost Done!

Shown in groups of ten, clue # 2 of Celtic Solstice is almost finished. I just ran out of wind this evening. The last ten blocks are cut and sewn together as far as rights and lefts. They have to be trimmed of excess fabric and then one more seam sewn to complete each block.

To see what everyone else is up to, click here to go to Linky Monday #2.

79 To Go!

I was able to complete 21 of the 100 units needed yesterday. Plus all of the remaining squares have been marked with the diagonal line that Bonnie recommends. This is step 2 of Celtic Solstice, a mystery quilt by Bonnie. It is very cold here today and that means lots of sewing time indoors!

If you haven't seen her blog today, check it out. Judy Martin, the log cabin queen is featured. Might be my next project.

One down, 99 to go!

Clue # 2 posted early this morning at Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt. I have a doctor's appointment this morning and it snowed last night. You know what that means. Lots of snarled up traffic. So I am leaving extra early and not taking the interstate. But I just had to make one of these cuties - chevron blocks that measure 3.5 inches unfinished. And mine did! Yeah!!

What is that old saying? Haste makes waste? Well, it sure did this morning. The first block at the top of the post is WRONG!. This is the correct one. It was a simple matter of reverse sewing one seam and resewing the halves back together on the other sides of the patches.

New Project Started

I had so much fun learning to use the Marti Michell specialty rulers to make the blocks in clue #1 of Celtic Sostice, that I started a new project with them. Alex Anderson's "Holiday Lights" is a customer favorite. I am choosing to make it in the version with mostly black print backgrounds with colorful trees. The other version has green trees with mostly white print backgrounds. Since most of the white prints in my stash are currently in the project box for Celtic Solstice, I opted for this version. Early days yet, and of course, this won't be the final layout.

Tomorrow is clue #2 of Celtic Solstice. It is snowing here now, so it is pretty safe to say that come morning I will be at my sewing machine with a hot beverage and clue #2 printed out in front of me, sewing away.

Another Puzzler Block

Here is the fifth Puzzler block in the series I am doing with several of my quilting friends. Laying them out on the floor today, I grabbed some black and white prints off the cutting table to see if it was a combo that I liked. Black and white prints as sashing is a definite possibility. It's all going to come down to scale.This photo shows a print that doesn't hold its own against the colorful blocks.

 This one is better, but not there yet.

Adding black and white borders, sashing, or binding to an otherwise colorful quilt is what I like to refer to as the "Mary Engelbreit" effect. See this ornament to get an idea of what I mean.