Finally working on Celtic Solstice

I am finally back to working on Bonnie Hunter's 2013 mystery quilt Celtic Solstice. It is destined for my younger daughters bed and she has been managing how the blocks go together. That meant I only work on it when she is available. Argh!!! The kid is busy with college, she got married last month, life is busy and I want this quilt done.

OK ..... I confess I have 3 quilt tops super close to being done with the piecing. 

I have issues ...... 

Anyway, she finally cleared some time, got the boxes out and started arranging blocks, which I sewed. Two days later, she arranged more blocks. I asked her to count and we were just blocks short of being done. SO CLOSE!!!

So the next day, I pushed, made her separate them by style, recount, and arrange the remaining blocks needed. Wahoooooooooooo!!!  

RIPPLES!!!! 

Todays count showed us one short, LOL. That's ok though. It took a few minutes to assemble the last block and press it. Then I started pairing the two styles of blocks together. Some are a little wonky, a little ripple-y ... I;m not worrying about it anymore. I will steam them smooth. I want this quilt top done. Tomorrow I hope to sew the pairs into 4sie's.

My daughter has these neat boxes from her work that hold quilt blocks beautifully.

I would call the blocks by name but last year as Bonnie shared her tutorials, I saved them to my computer. And backed them up on an external hard drive. Just in time for my laptop to barf and die. I bought a new laptop, my computer guy made a few alterations, then attached my external hard drive. It asked about formatting. Without pondering, he clicked for it to format ..... and it formatted all over my saved info. All of it. Oh well. So one is a 'fight' block and another a 'happy birthday' block or maybe those are the same block. One had numbers but I have no recollection of which numbers, LOL. I just know one block went by two names. 

It is time to get this flimsy whipped out. Can I hear a "Heck yeah!"

Update** I have the basic king size top done! Wahoo! Now to add borders and get this quilted.

Even without borders, the flimsy drapes over the sides of my king size bed. 

Bonnie Hunter is doing a mystery quilt again this year. Her inspiration was the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. It is called Grand Illusion. Go check it out on her blog Quiltville.

Blue moon

I am working on finishing up a few projects before Christmas. And then I need to make or buy Christmas. I'm behind. Meanwhile Bonnie Hunter is preparing to start this years mystery quilt. And ..... I have colors, many beautiful colors floating around in my head wanting to find a quilt pattern so I car wrap myself in them. This is in spite of the fact I have fabric bought for 2 more original quilts and they just sit, folded in bags, waiting for attention! What is wrong with me?!?

I found this sun - moon while vacationing in Branson last month. The colors reached out to me immediately. I didn't have to think about it before my hands reached for the sun.

It has the colors I am craving. Blues, purples both light and dark. Turquoise and aqua. Then it is triangles. Think of the possibilities!

Can you see the moon on the right side? You can see the paleness better in the lower picture, though the top one has less glare. My photography skills need work :)

Now to find a pattern and fabrics and more time .....

My Quilt Inspector

Everyone seems to have a quilt inspector. I have a canine quilt inspector.

Hurry Mom! I wanna go outside!

This is Isis. She came to me 2 years ago, already named. Egyptian lore says the name Isis is literally Queen of the Thrones. She was a goddess of health, marriage and wisdom. This is who her breeder was thinking about when she named her. Her sire is named Zeus. Her dam was Hera. Lots of mythology there. My girl is NOT named after the radical people creating havoc.

Early snow 11-16-14

Isis came to me when she was several months old. She was a wild child but over time has settled into my life. Farm chores are one of her favorite activities. Waiting while I stitch is not her first choice but she does flop on the bed waiting for the moment we can go for a run outside. It's tough for me to get a good picture of her as she prefers to be moving :)

Slender puppy still in early 2013

Quilted Potholders

My oldest son asked me to make a couple of potholders for a friend of his getting married. They were decorating in an Indonesian Elephant theme. Red, gold and green. Indonesian Elephants??? I asked if this was a new fad and he shrugged his shoulders. New brides decorating their first home is not in his realm of knowledge. Typical man, LOL.

I could not find elephant print fabric. I did find some insulating batting with the foil layer which is new to me. Luckily, my stash had some red and gold patterned fabric that looked appropriate. The real blessing - my Janome has an elephant stitch on it! Yes!!

I decided to quilt the layers then trim and bind the various potholders. It was easy stitching, though the dense quilting really shrank my pieces. So I made extras.

I made a red on one side, gold on the other.

I made a red gold stripe.

Before quilting .... 

After quilting ...

I made a half square triangle style potholder.

And would you look at that elephant stitch!

Expanding Sunflower Fields

You recall the Sunflower Field quilt top I tested recently, well its time to expand it to fit a big bed. Plus I need the storage space for new projects, hehehe.

The design makes it easy to go bigger - you simply add more columns and rows of chevrons. And the solid neutral rows with the sunflowers. Soooo cut more squares. Stitch more HST's. Cut.

Press. Trim to size. 

Don't you love the pile of sliver trimmings? Something about the tiny slivers makes my heart happy. I don't like waste but I love the little piles of slivered fabric. Maybe it just shows I am accomplishing something. 

My yellows are close in tone, even though this is scrappy. More flower petals traced and cut. Flowers stitched. Now to assemble and assess the overall size since I am making this bigger than even the pattern allowed. I'm doing my typical out of the box, cut things up and mix them together quilt making. 

Bad Bobbin!

Do you ever wind a bobbin and it just goes wrong? A little bit of thread wrapped on the post rather than the bobbin and the whole bobbin ended up being lumpy. I hated to do it but I unwound the whole thing. It would just make my machine angry, so that thread will have to be set aside for hand sewing. Bad bad bobbin!