Celtic Solstice Link-up

For the past several weeks Bonnie Hunter has hosted a link-up where everyone who is working on her most recent mystery, Celtic Solstice, can link their own blogpost  to Bonnie's and we can all share our progress.     I am amazed at the number of quilters who have been able to keep up with the mystery steps and have finished their quilts!  

I, for one, am way behind.... and I know there are others who may or may not link up.  This holiday season has just been to busy for me to barely begin working on this king size quilt, much less finish it. But, I am happy with the progress I have accomplished  thus far.  Progress is progress... no matter how much or little you have made.

I quit cutting those blue triangle pairs when I lost count, somewhere after 300.  I began stitching the 3.5 inch blocks together, but added a little twist to the challenge for myself...   

I am using my 1921 Singer Red-Eye treadle to sew this project!  I've had her for a while, sitting and looking beautiful in my quilting room; but I have never sewn on her.  I've watched Bonnie treadle away on Quiltcam and decided it was time to put her to work.

I used Bonnie's seam guide and a hotel key card to mark my quarter inch and got started.  I've had a few problems lining up the triangles properly to make the blocks end up the correct size.   I discovered that the flannel shirts I used are fraying a bit on the edges and that little nick on the blue triangle that is to be used to line up the fabrics is a bit fuzzy and difficult to line up with some of the fabrics.  I also discovered that some of these flannels are a bit stretchy and don't sew as nicely as I would like.  

I'm glad I didn't jump in and just sew through the whole stack, sewing all 300 on one side then the next.  I did a few at a time and checked them for size.  I had to do a lot of frogging  and restitching at first, but now I believe I have figured out how to line these things up and am making some progress. 

I've completed 100 of them so far... half white and half orange.  Now that the quilt has been revealed and I know the white ones are for the block and the orange are for the border, I've decided to sew just the white ones for now so that I can move on to the next step and work toward getting some blocks made.  I'll finish the orange ones later when I am ready to add the border on the quilt.  

I am really enjoying sewing on my treadle.  There's a rhythm to working on her and I love the sound of her beat.   I've got the added bonus of a bit of exercise as a treadle along.... maybe I will treadle away a few extra pounds this year as I complete my projects!

Be sure to check out the other bloggers and their progess here on Bonnie's blog:

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2014/01/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6.html

Celtic Solstice Update...

I've made a little more progress on this new mystery quilt by spending Quiltcam time cutting more blue triangle pairs!   

I've got my plan and am checking them off as I cut five of each pairing.

Here is my progress after my first cutting session

Last night during Quiltcam I marked off another 90+

This puts me at about half-way done cutting these blue 380 triangle pairs  needed for this king size quilt!  

My sewing time is very limited this year, so keeping up is totally out of the question.   I know Bonnie suggests doing whatever amount you can of each step as clues are revealed, but I find that too confusing... and I don't want to have piles of assorted parts scattered around the room... for who know how long it will take me to complete this.   I think it is much easier for me to work only one step at a time. 

Celtic Solstice ... A little progress

Not much progress has been made on Celtic Solstice.  I'm still working on cutting Step 1... I've got all the orange and neutral base triangles cut and just a few of the blue triangles.  I couldn't wait to cut all 380 pairs... and began by  sewing a dozen blocks together... just to see what they would look like.  I'm glad I did.  I had trouble keeping the points and getting them to the correct size. I did a lot of frogging... multiple times!   I watched and read then re-watched and re-read the directions and finally figured out that my problem was that little notch.  My blues are mostly flannels and the notches weren't as obvious as they could be with a crisp cotton shirt.  Once I figured out that they were my problem, I was more careful about aligning the edges and the blocks went together smoothly.

Since then, I've been busy on the weekends with both grandsons (7months and 4.7 years) and again after school with the oldest grandson... crawling along playing cars and zookeeper and keeping him happy while Mom works.

I spent most of today baking cookies with Matthew.  Pfeffernusse (German spice cookies) and gingerbread men.  Tomorrow is my grandson's celebration of Christmas around the world and we are bringing these treats and will read the Gingerbread Man story to the class .... it was Matthew's favorite book when he was young!

I have also been busy working to complete customer quilts.  I finished this beautiful Orca Bay for Sara and I am almost done with her modified Trip Around the World.

Just two more customer tops must be quilted for Christmas and I will be able to get back to working on Celtic Solstice... or even quilt my Christmas quilt for me!... a swap made in January 2012 that has been patiently waiting it's turn on the quilter.   I love the Christmas dolls in the border fabric... representing my friends that contributed to this quilt.

Wishing you Merry Christmas and happy holiday season with friends and family.

Monday Linky

Monday was the day to link your blog to Bonnie's and report in on progress with Celtic Solstice. You can view and check the links to other blogs here:

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up-1.html 

I haven't made any progress since some cutting on Friday (see my last post     here... http://madakamom.blogspot.com/2013/11/black-friday-play.html

But that's because I drove to Indianapolis this weekend with the family to see the Colts vs Titans game.  Unfortuantely for us, the Titans lost again.  But it was a fun trip spending time with family.

We did make a couple of very important stops...

First, on the way to Indiana was a stop at the Goodwill in Bowling Green, KY where I snagged another handful of blue plaid shirts for my backing, one yellow, one green and a couple of neutral shirts for my stash.

But, even more exciting... on the way home we stoped at an antique mall boasting over 600 booths! (exit 76B off of I 65)  I promised I would just make a quick run through to see if there was anything of major interest. An hour and a half later I hadn't  seen even half of the booths, but I did spy many antique quilts and sewing machines... several Singers.. some in bentwood cases, 3 treadles, one iron Singer treadle table, a Morse, several Whites and.... be still my heart... TWO featherweights!  They were both in excellent shape and locked behind glass doors.  I thought long and hard, consulted with hubby and finally decided one just had to come home with me!

I paid a little more than I would have liked, but it was in excellent shape and I've been wanting one for some time.  Her serial number is AH 435380 which indicates she is a model 221-1 born January 1948...she looks real good for a senior citizen!

Black Friday Play

I was up and at it early Friday morning...No, I didn't get out in all that shopping madness!  I have more sense than that!

I had set a goal at the beginning of the month to complete Orca Bay to the flimsy stage before starting Celtic Solstice.  I had all the parts completed and pinned and Wednesday was supposed to be the day to stitch it all together.  Instead I spent the day taking care of some church business and made sure that a local family would be housed, warm and fed for the holidays. 

 

So this morning I spent about 2 hours getting the first half of my Orca Bay stitched together.  I decided to cut myself some slack and when the first clue for Celtic Solstice posted I set Orca Bay aside and got started. 

First I need 140 orange base triangles.  
I have six different orange shirts and some quick math told me I should cut 24 triangles from each shirt so that I had an even variety of prints.

Next I need 240 neutral base triangles
Again I have six different neutral shirts and the math says cut 40 triangles from each shirt.  I've only gotten half (120) of them cut so far.

My grandson came over for the day so I had to split my time between playing with him and getting some cutting done. 

We had lots of fun driving and crashing cars all over the living room floor!

Then it was time to make lunch.  And while I was preparing it,I suddenly found myself tripping over lizards and dinosaurs that kept flying out from under the kitchen table!  

We were about to call for an exterminator when my grandson the zookeeper arrives and sets up a fenced in zoo in the corner of the dining room.  The lizards and dinosaurs had to be fenced in their own separate areas.

This was the first time he showed us his active imagination and it was a fun filled day for all.

After a plate full of Thanksgiving leftovers, I'm heading downstairs to finish cutting the remaining 120 neutral base triangles.

The last bit of cutting for this step is 380 blue pairs of triangles.
I have 7 different blue shirts.  With some help I determined that they can be paired into 21 different combinations.   Some additional math tells me to cut 18 pairs from each of the 21 combinations... but that cutting and the sewing will wait for another day.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Setting Decisions

I think I am finally ready for the new mystery, Celtic Solstice, to begin.  I now have all my colored shirts (and a couple pair of pants) and a handful of neutral shirts deboned and ready to work with.  With two more Wednesdays before the 29th I will stop back at Goodwill to see if I can add to the variety, but I think I have enough.

Please pardon the bad photography.  I dropped and broke my camera (I got the phone call yesterday that it will cost more to repair than it's worth) so I have to wait until Christmas for a new one from my hubby.... unless he, hopefully, feels sorry for me and brings one home sooner!  In the meantime, I am trying to take pictures with my kindle.  The pictures are a bit off centered, blurry, and the color isn't quite right, but this will give you a rough idea of what I'm doing.

While I wait for the mystery to begin, I have been working... on and off... to finish up my version of Orca Bay.  Today, I got anxious and decided to lay out all the pieces to see what I have.

But as I sat looking it, I thought, what happens if I surround the purple blocks instead of the yellow blocks with the blue?  WOW!  A totally different look and a decision to make, which way do I go?

Treadle

 I'm getting ready for the new mystery and since Bonnie loves antique machines I have decided to do some practice stitching on my treadle.
 

According to the serial number she was made in 1921! The stitches are beautifully even for such an old girl! 

I can't wait to get my camera back from the shop so I can get some better pictures to show you.   

Now I need to develop some coordination skills if I am going to use this for the mystery.  Going to practice this week with some mindless stitching of strips.  We'll see what I end up doing with them later.


 

Some fabric choices

My new kindle arrived this week!   This one has a camera feature, but there is no viewfinder.  It was a bit of a challenge for me... there must be some techniqe to taking pictures with it, but I found it very difficult to use.  If I was into taking "selfies" it would be perfect... not so good at taking pictures of something else.  There were multiple failed attempts before I finally came close to centering the picture.   I can't wait for my camera to return from the repair shop!

I had some free time today while waiting for my grandson to arrive so I sorted through and organized my Goodwill shirts by color. 

I've got a bunch of neutrals deboned and ready to cut to size. I didn't bother to try struggling to take pictures of them!

I picked up my  paint chips the other day so now it was easy to go through the boxes and pick what I needed to match.  Some of the colors are too dark or too light, but it's the best I could do for now.  Hopefully these will work.

Tomorrow is $.99 day at Goodwill so I'll be stopping by again in hopes of finding more and better matches.  

My spare time for the rest of the month will be spent deboning these colors, and maybe some extra neutrals too.... Bonnie says you can never have too many neutrals.

 

Mystery Time Again!

It's that time of year again!   Bonnie has just begun the release of her mystery for 2013.... Celtic Solstice!




Pictures and colors on screens don't always show the true color, so Bonnie uses paint chips to show us the colors that she is using!  What a clever idea!  

Read all about it on her blog here:

Quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/10/2013-mystery-time-introducing-celtic.html

I am off to Lowes to get my paint chips and then sort through my stash!