Clue #4 Mystery Monday

Bonnie Hunter released Clue #4 for her Celtic Solstice Mystery quilt along last Friday. Thank goodness, she chose a simple unit this week - 4 patch units in orange and green. Granted we need 300 for the king size quilt but the main difficulty is accurate piecing. It's amazing how easy it can be to muck up your seam size and throw the size of your unit off completely. Bonnie covered this issue in depth on her clue release. Thank you Bonnie!

Bright and cheerful HST's

I have not completed Clue #3. Or Clue #2 either, LOL. The #2 chevrons put me off my stride. They are coming along better now but they are not done. I lowered their priority to work on Clue #3's HST and pinwheels. I love the pinks and yellows even though I have a print in each color that is high volume and can read confusingly. I have to double check to be sure each part really is yellow or pink! Overall, I love the colors and contrast.

Half of a pinwheel, stitched and ironed.

I have all of the HST's stitched, cut and ironed. I have 51 pinwheels done so far and hope to finish the rest by the time I am linking up on Monday. I do need to trim about 50 more HST's. I finished the last pinwheels Sunday! Hoorah!! They really are sweet looking. And plenty scrappy enough for me.

I opted to use a 5 inch square to make 8 HST's at a time. I loved learning this method. It does however make a HST's slightly bigger than 2 inches. That means I need to trim my units. I did this deliberately as my piecing can get inaccurate. I'm a novice, so when I can give myself breathing room - I do! I dislike all the trimming but look at it as encouragement to learn better, more accurate piecing. And for now, less time spent picking seams apart to redo pieces or worse, having to discard pieces that end up too small.

Tiny shreds for .... what?

Does anyone have a good idea of what to do with the tiny shreds I trim?
I hate tossing them.
I hate the idea of hanging on to them without a purpose in mind.

Pinwheels and HST's done. Time for 4 patch units!

Clue #4 is 4 patch units in orange and green for Bonnie which is pink and green for me. She gave us a strip method to make piecing and sewing go quickly and easily without losing the scrappy possibilities. Amen!! They will stitch up 3 1/2 inches now and end up 3 inches finished in our quilt. It seems that 3 inches is our magic size for Celtic Solstice.

I cut strips from each piece of fabric guesstimating how many 2 inch squares it would yield when done. I paired a pink and green strip together and stitched the length. Press. Then I paired a pink-green strip with another pink-green strip to make my 4 patch unit. Snuggle them tight, then slice into 2 inch pieces, pin, stitch. Voila! A super nice 4 patch unit!

It was funny - as I was laying one strip on the other, I could hear Leah Day from The Free Motion Quilting Project in my head talking about using your hand to smooth the batting evenly over your backing. That is a tip I use constantly as I prepare to cut fabric, pin pieces, everything fabric related really. I smooooooth my hand over the surface to make things even and proper. Thank You Leah!! I really have the most amazing quilting teachers.

Part way through stitching, it hit me that as I was guesstimating strips to get 300 2 inch squares - I actually need 600 of each color because I need 300 4 patch units! Duh! 2 squares of each color to make a 4 patch. 600 green squares. 600 pink squares. What was I thinking?

The first two sets of patterns - more to come

Actually I was thinking about Christmas. Tasks to do. Food to cook. Presents to wrap. Bonnie to thank. Yes!! Thank you again Bonnie! The more I cut, stitch and trim, the less I shop, cook and eat, LOL. It could be a new budget and diet plan, LOL.

Pink and yellow and green looks so springy to me!

Needless to say I am about halfway through Clue #4. I can wrap it up before Christmas and revisit the last of the chevrons. That is a whole post of chaos by itself, LOL. That will also get me totally caught up on our Mystery quilt. Amen!

Linking up with Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery Monday