Don't Forget the Giveaway

There is one more day left on the giveaway for Scrap Quilt Secrets.  I have found your answers to my question so interesting. The color Orange has come up a lot as one that people either have never used or one that they never WILL use.  I used to think that too.  And while Orange is not my favorite color, there are some shades of Orange that have found their way into my projects. 

This was Bonnie Hunter's 2013 mystery Celtic Solstice. I didn't think I would like this colorway but it grew on me.  It's still not quilted yet, maybe this year.

This was a quilt I did for a guild challenge last year.  We had to use the Pelican pattern provided and could interpret it any way we wanted to.  I actually had fun doing this one too.

So, give Orange a try, you never know.  It might become your new best friend, or not.  Here's the list if you haven't already entered, I'll choose a winner tomorrow. Good luck!

3/21    C&T Blog http://www.ctpub.com/blog/

with Diane www.butterflythreadsquilting.com

3/22    Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.com/

3/23    Lori http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/

3/24    Karen http://nanagirlquilts.blogspot.com/   

3/25    Audrey http://quiltyfolk.blogspot.com/

3/26    Pat Sloan http://blog.patsloan.com/

3/27    Valerie http://myplvl.blogspot.com/

3/28    Kelly http://pinkadotquilts.blogspot.com/

3/29    Victoria Findlay Wolfe http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/

3/30    Rachaeldaisy http://bluemountaindaisy.blogspot.com/

3/31    Angie http://quiltingcrescent.blogspot.com/

4/1       Julie http://quiltjewelry.blogspot.com/

4/2       Barb Www.funwithbarb.com

Happy stitching today,

Karen 

Celtic Solstice - All Done.....Sort of

Today was the day - I finished piecing my Celtic Solstice :).  It is a happy little quilt and I really like the final layout.  It's much smaller than Bonnie's, mine is 58 x 58.

I took some pictures as I was building this.

Here are all the 4 patches done - using some darker greens and moving the really bright green ones around.

Then I finished the pinwheels and the corner units - all that was left were the green "V" units.

When all the blocks were done I had to decide about the border. I thought about turning some of the orange triangles (instead of all going in the same direction) - kind of blah.

I changed up the orange triangles, thought about adding some neutral ones to visually finish the blocks, tried using some of the 4 patches I had taken out and auditioned a yellow inner border.

In the end I went with all orange triangles, a neutral inner border and no green 4 patches.  I really like it, especially my little rogue block in the very center.

So now Celtic Solstice joins the pile of Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts - from 2010 Roll Roll Cotton Boll. This was my first and is probably still my favorite.

Next was Orca Bay - 2011.  I didn't like the original border and three years later I'm still trying to decide how to finish this.

This is a black and white check.

This is a blue inner border with a black and white print (it wouldn't be that wide).  Any suggestions????  Maybe the answer is - it IS done- no border.  Although to me it looks unfinished, like it needs a border.

And this is Easy Street - from 2012.  I had  tons of pink, red and grey scraps left over.  When I decided to enter the NYC MQG DWR challenge, I immediately thought of those scraps and they ultimately became Organic Pink Pickles.

So there is my saga of BH mysteries, the tops are all pieced (except for Orca Bay) and they are just waiting to be quilted.  Maybe 2014 will be my year to quilt up some of my tops that have been languishing.

Celtic Solstice has been fun to make, I'm glad I made mine smaller and that it's done.  Considering it's only January 11th, I'm really rather impressed :).  

Now it's on to a project that was started over a year ago.  I've been procrastinating but I'm determined to not do anything else until it's done - except for the never ending hand quilting my Jubilee quilt.  I am determined to finish it before our quilt show in April.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Celtic Solstice - A Little Tweaking

So, after reading the comments from the last post (thanks so much), I decided to try and selectively move the quilt more toward where I wanted it to end up - without a lot of un-sewing.

Fortunately, I had not made anywhere near the number of units I needed (I am so glad) and so I was able to make some small adjustments.  The first thing I did was to make more green and orange units only make them darker so there is less contrast.  Since I'd already made a good number of those, I decided to keep them green and not change to blue.  The second thing I decided was to make the blocks the diamond shape and not the flower (points out) shape.  I had almost decided to rip apart the one flower block I'd made when I realized that with this layout I could use it as the center block.  My quilt will be smaller than Bonnie's small version, probably lap size.

The next thing I did was to make some more neutral triangle blocks using the darker blue fabrics.  What I realized was that the lighter blues were not dark enough and that was part of the reason the circle design was not showing up.

Here's what it looked like when I came down for lunch. To me it looks a lot different - and I have only had to rip out 3 of the lightest green and orange blocks.  I think once I actually sew the blocks together and tighten up the design, it's going to be okay for me.  Maybe not great....... but okay.  I'm still thinking of doing something slightly different in the border.

Pensacola got down to 19 degrees last night, not anywhere close to some of you, but still cold for this girl.

Stay warm and happy stitching.

Karen

Celtic Solstice Choices

After Bonnie's big reveal a few days ago, I was pretty excited about the mystery quilt.  When I made the decision about my BIL's quilt, this kind of took a back seat.  But after the quilt was finished yesterday (including the label - yea!!), I thought I'd take a quick look at these.  I did a rough mock up of the two blocks.

Each one looks really great.

There are a lot of seam issues when pressing, but it is a very scrappy quilt.

So I started making blocks and when I put them on the design wall, I was a little confused when I didn't see the blue arcs really stand out.

I kept seeing a lot of green.  So I looked at Bonnie's pictures and her 4 patches looked a lot more like orange and blue (I think her greens are a lot darker).  I covered over the green blocks with blue and this happened....

I saw the blue arcs and the design looked a lot better.

I really like the balance of this a lot better.

Here is the layout with the green and orange 4 patches.  Is it just me or does it look very chaotic?

From a distance it's a little better, but not much.

Then I saw a post from Heather about her alternate layout.  She took the green "V" unit and put it facing out instead of in.

So I did one with the alternate "points out" layout -I wanted to see if there was a noticeable difference between that and the "diamond" layout.

 

Here's a look with all points. The two on the the top are not quite as defined as the one on the second row as they are not stitched together.

Any thoughts on which you prefer? I kind of think the "points out" layout makes the circle shape a little more defined as the light triangles meet the light area instead of the yellow area.  But I think my colors are not strong enough for the this layout and that the diamond layout looks better.

I will also go on record at this point and say that these colors are SOOOOOOOO not me.  I will reserve judgment until there are a few more blocks, but this may end up being a small quilt - know what I mean?

So for the moment I'm at a standstill.  Has anyone else noticed that their green looks awkward?  Maybe this is why I usually wait until the reveal before deciding to make the quilt. Oh well, it's been fun up to this point.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Celtic Solstice - Part 4 and 5

Home again!!  We were out of town for the holidays and I got a little behind on the Celtic Solstice mystery, so I'm including pictures of last week's clue also.  I can't believe I'm actually on schedule!!  Bonnie said if you only had time to make a few, then make a few.  I've taken her advice to heart.  We were up in NC for 8 days, so I haven't been able to make anywhere close to the number of blocks needed - especially for these last 2 clues. You can see more here.

These are the latest blocks, fun and quick to make and they turned out pretty good.  We got home Sunday afternoon and 6 blocks was all I could manage before I crashed.

The green and orange blocks were last week's clue.   These 4 patches were super fast and easy and I had time to make a few before we left.

Here is everything I've made so far.  I'm off to work tomorrow, but maybe this week I'll have time to play catch up.  I am very intrigued to see where this is going.  I hope I don't feel disappointed to see the finished quilt.  These are SO not my colors, but I keep telling myself I'm stretching my creative boundaries :).

Here are my precious wee ones on Christmas morning.  Notice how all 4 kids are looking in different directions!  We had such a good time.

This is my mom with her 8th and youngest great-grand.  We had a short but sweet visit with them.

Here are my folks with 3 of their 6 grandchildren and 4 of their 8 great-grands.  I know I've said this before, but I am blessed.

Happy Stitching,

Karen

Celtic Solstice - Clue 3

First let me say thanks for all the sweet comments on my win in the DWR Challenge for Organic Pink Pickles.  It has been such an unbelievable experience.

But in between all that and shopping, wrapping, and getting ready for Christmas, I've managed to find a little time to play.

I'm still not too sure about these colors....... they are kind of bright.  And kind of orange!

But I'm trusting Bonnie to know best.  I've kept the color swatches up on the design wall to help me when I pull scraps.

I've got a lot more of the chevrons to do.  They are really fun, but kind of tedious.  I've been thinking of another way to make these that doesn't waste quite so much fabric - I'll see how it works out. 

This is my cutting table and I can hardly find room to cut!!  I'm using 6 different rulers and I keep losing them under the piles:).  At least I'm using up some of the wild colors.

Have a great day,

Karen

My Fourth Time - Celtic Solstice

It seems I'm a sucker for a mystery - especially one from Bonnie Hunter.  And this year (for the first time) I'm doing it right.  This will be my 4th mystery quilt by Bonnie.  All the other three I waited until it was over to see if I liked it, and then decided to make it.  Which is kind of like cheating, but it's a lot of work, and I wanted to make sure I was willing to put that much time into it.

These yellow and green chevrons are Clue #2.  They are really fun to make.  This time I am making this quilt in the same colorway that Bonnie suggests.  The last 2 times I have changed her suggested color choices.  This is not at all my normal palette, but surprisingly I had fabric in most of the colors.  I bought a few 1/8 yd pieces but for the most part I'm stash busting which really feels good.

The neutral and gold triangles were step #1.  Bonnie recommended using the Tri-Recs ruler set, which happens to be one of my favorite rulers.

I used this ruler set for my Pineapple Nine Patch quilts that I did last year.  Love it!!

So here is where I am at this point.  Bonnie's suggestion is to make some of each step so you can get an idea but you don't have to stress about making the entire amount.  Bonnie's quilts are always HUGE - and this year she's offering a smaller version.  But I'm guessing it will still be big.  So I'm not making the total number of blocks at this point.  Hmmmmm, I guess I still want to see what it looks like before I totally commit :).

And here's an update on"Jubilee Tribute".  The 1/2" crossed hatch quilting is about halfway done but  I still have a long way to go.  I'm trying to do a little bit every day and I can see progress.  This is the most hand quilting I think I will have ever done in a quilt.  It is such a special quilt but it still speaks to me :).

Stay warm, happy stitching, stay healthy.

Until next time,

Karen