Celtic Solstice Clue #4 - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Yay!  This week is 4 patches.  I will have a chance to get caught up.  Wait a minute -- 300???  Seriously??  I am not complaining, but boy howdy one would think you could make an entire quilt with that many.  Guess I'd better get going.

I managed to get the strips cut, but then had to put this on hold while I finished part 3.  Now I am able to get back to this, so let's start running strips.

A quick press and I am ready to cut into my halves.  Somehow in my strange little mind, I think I have enough strips cut and sewn.

WRONG!

This first batch nets me 100 4 patch sets.  Yep, only 1/3 of what I need.  Back to cutting strips.  Will I have enough this time?  Who knows.

Well I have to cut an additional 5 green, but I finally hit the magic number.  Whew.  We are cut.

Let the strings begin!

Annie is very busy working away at these.  I have strings hanging above my head in several places and the colors are so much brighter and cheerier than these pictures show.  I have no idea what I did to my camera.  Ugh.  Let the next stage begin.  I have over 300 of these little buggers to press and trim.  Help!

Mister shows up in the studio!  Yes!  I put him to work sliver trimming as I press.  He is a great help, but informs me again that he will never be a quilter.  The repetitive nature of doing 300 of anything is more than he wants to call fun.  He just doesn't understand.

We are finished.  Woohoo.  I am officially caught up.  I have 8 hours to spare before the next clue is released.  I just barely got this linked to Bonnie before it was no longer available.  You can link back to her here.

Piece count so far:   Step 1:  1,140 required (although I made extra blocks)
                                Step 2:  1,464 required (again, I made extra blocks)
                                Step 3:     976 required (yep, you know it -- extra of both units)
                                Step 4:  1,200 required (")
Total:  4,780 at this point.

300 bright and cheery 4 patches.  I'm betting we use blue next -- how about anyone else?  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas -- I spent most of Christmas night working on these and finished tonight.  On to New Years and 3 wonderful classes with Bonnie in Plano.  So excited.

Celtic Solstice Clue #3 - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Last week's assignment - that's right I have changed the wording as clue just doesn't seem to fit for me - was twofold.  We had to do half-square triangles up the wazoo and then half of them are sewn into pinwheels.  As you can tell by the date of this, I am still behind but working on catching up this week.  We were pretty busy last week with preparing for Christmas, family activities, and a wonderful sew weekend with my daughter and granddaughter.  That day deserves a post all of it's own and I will have that up shortly after this one.

I had managed to get these cut while I was working on the chevrons in assignment number 2.  I did use the easy angle ruler and strips to cut the triangle pairs.  So let's start putting these puppies together.

I am using "Annie" for these.  She is my wonderful 301A and she zooms through these like they are nothing.  Within no time, I have strings of half square triangles everywhere - over 500 to be precise.

As you can tell from this picture, I had two whole strips of oops --- cut with right sides up on both strips.  Now I have to go and cut more strips and I must cut the wrong on purpose in order to use these triangles.  Grrrr.  Well, I have extras now in case I run into color duplicates in too many places.

Every cloud has a silver lining right?

Once the strings are complete, the new triangles cut and sewn, and a sample pinwheel made, my squares get pressed and then it is off to the office to sit with my sweetie and watch some television while trimming dog ears.  Yes, I am sitting on two different quilt, but they used the same material.  Years ago -- and I do mean YEARS -- I bought a kit BOM from JoAnn's and you had to purchase the fabric on your own and cut, not like the kits of today.  Well, somehow, following the supply list netted me enough leftover fabric to do a log cabin quilt out of the scraps.  Quite the scraps, huh?  The BOM quilt was hand quilted and is hanging over the back of the futon I am sitting on.  The log cabin quilt was tied and is under my -- you can see it a bit better in the second picture.  We keep both quilts here as that way we can both snuggle up while watching television.  (Oh, I say that loosely as we do not own a television.  We simply use our computer to watch what we want and have a tuner that runs through it.)  Goodness but I digress a lot.

It is time to head back out to the studio again and the first task is to make 1/2 of the half square triangles into one half of a pinwheel.  (Say that really quickly:  half, half, half, lol.)  This goes really fast and within an hour all are sewn and pressed.  I can feel the end in sight.

I run the two sides together in about an hours time.  Yes, I pinned each pinwheel at the center in order to "attempt" to get good center.  It still doesn't work well for me -- sometimes I think I have little point gremlins that are inside my machine and gently slide the lower piece of fabric as it passes the needle hole.  They do this just to aggravate me.  BUT -- I am winning the battle -- it's just not as important to me as it used to be.  I make my quilts to use, not to show --- therefore, my points do not have to be perfect.  It alleviates a lot of stress and after all I am pretty sure I do this because it is enjoyable.  Stress is not enjoyable period.

Let's get these opened and pressed.  Hopefully I will love them.  I know I love the orange and yellow together.  That is just full of sunshine to me.

Next up --- sliver trim to make sure we are the right size.  Perfect!

And this step is complete.

As I said in part 2:  I love how they turned out.  They are truly scrappy and make my heart happy.

Piece count so far:   Step 1:  1,140 required (although I made extra                                           blocks)
Step 2:  1,464 required (again, I made extra                                                    blocks)
Step 3:     976 required (yep, you know it -- extra                                       of both units)

Total:  3,580 at this point.

244 Half Square Triangles and 61 pinwheels

Here is the link back to Bonnie's blog for more on this stage.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah or any other special time for you during this holiday season.

On to four patches.

Three Generations Sewing Together - Such A Memory

While talking to Jen last week, she mentioned that she hadn't had a chance to work on her quilts at all since Thanksgiving and neither had Bekah.  I told her to come up and spend a full day and night here and we would sew like wild women to get them done.  She said she'd think about it.

A few days later, I received a call saying that Bekah needed to be in Arlington on Saturday for a soccer clinic and so the two of them would come up Friday as soon as school was out.  Yay!  They arrive around 7 and after a quick dinner, the three of us go to the studio and soon the place is humming with the sound of sewing machines.  Jen and I set to work on the Minecraft quilts and Bekah starts in on her borders.  She is doing a solid orange one first and then randomly putting her extra squares together and  piecing an outer border.  Believe it or not -- it comes out exact for her.  Amazing.

Jen and I are busy playing with bright green and black squares.  I am hoping with each stitch that I haven't gotten anything out of order or the "creeper" won't show up.  Woot woot --- it works for me.  Here is my top.  I do one in the time that Jen does 3 -- not sure how much help I am.

Bekah takes her quilt into the house so we can cut the backing and the batting.  Soon she is back out in the studio attaching the whole thing in order to turn it and tie it.  After two sides, she is shot and needs some sleep.  One of the corners is giving her grief and at midnight it is definitely time to call it.  Off to bed she goes as she has her clinic in the morning.  Jen and I work a bit longer and soon all the tops are complete.  Time for bed for us as well.

The next morning Jen and Bekah are up and gone before I even wake up.  On the way back from dropping Bekah, Jen's wipers stop and it is raining like crazy.  She limps to the Shell station near us and drops off the van.  Drat.  Just what everyone needs at this time of year --car repairs.

Once back home, a small breakfast and it's off to the studio for the two of us.  We have borders to make and attach.

Here is my top.  I do one in the time that Jen does 3 -- not sure how much help I am.















When those are complete, we decide to go watch Bekah for awhile before picking her up.  She is at UT-Arlington and they certainly have a great facility.  Wow.  Bekah is playing in an alternate gym and we arrive just in time to watch her for one minute before she is pulled and the game ends.  Ugh -- waiting on the van to get fixed and $400 bucks later screws many things up.

On the way home, we make a stop at JoAnn's for yarn and somehow discover other goodies to do together.  This is a really bad store for me sometimes.

When we get home, Mister has dinner almost finished so while we are waiting, I take Jen down to Tuesday morning to look for a gift for Josh and Bekah heads to the showers.  We score big time at the store and soon return to a wonderful ham dinner.  I am absolutely starving.

As soon as we finish, Bekah and I start working on fixing her corner of her quilt and we are all three soon pinning it for her to sew.  Jen and I also discover that the backing fabric is not wide enough so we quickly cut it into sections to make giant 4 patch backings.  That works for 3 backs, but we run out and are left with just a few strips.  I take everything out back and start making the backs while she cuts batting.  As I complete each one, I return to the house with it and she cuts it to fit as well.

A couple of hours later, Bekah has finished making her sandwich, turned her quilt, and is ready to tie.  I tell her to take it into the house and her mom can help her.  Little did I know (and darn that I didn't get to see it in person or in pictures) but Mister sat down and helped tie it too.  What a great guy he is!

Here is her finished product:

Didn't she do an awesome job.  This is her first time doing anything like this and it is entirely her vision -- colors, fabrics, pattern, etc.  I am so very impressed and certainly hope her girlfriend will be also.

She finishes watching her episode of CSI (yep, that has been going the ENTIRE time out here) and soon heads to bed, leaving Jen and I to put the other 4 quilts together.  We each do two, close the openings, and call it another night.  Jen is staying a second night since the weather is crappy and we didn't finish until almost midnight again.  All she has to do when she gets home is tie them.

I am beat! BUT BUT BUT --- I have loved every  minute of this time with my daughter and granddaughter.  It has been the best Christmas present I could have had and wouldn't want to trade those memories for anything.  Please let it happen again.  Please.

Celtic Solstice Clue #2 - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

Wow!  Chevrons!  This clue almost beat me.  It seemed to take forever for me to complete it, but I also keep forgetting that regular life, shopping for Christmas, shipping Christmas, doing cards, etc. all need to take place.  For some reason, I am unable to accomplish those things while sitting at my sewing machine.  Drat.

The day the clue came out, we were hit with an ice storm here in Dallas and Mister deemed it too cold and dangerous for me to be out in the studio, so we brought in the cutting implements, mat, rulers, and fabric.  I set up a temp cutting area in the office and set to work.  Here is a look at my chevron process:

After cutting, I needed to draw a diagonal line on each square and then a second line 1/4" away to use as stitching lines.  That meant 1000 squares and 2000 lines.  I set up with a lap table while watching a movie and soon Mister was looking to improve my working conditions.  My fingertips were getting sore from picking up the ruler twice with each square.  He came along with his trusty duct tape and hooked the ruler in place along the edge of my tray and then made a little handle to lift the ruler with each time.  It may not look good, but dang it worked well.  Ingenious Mister.


This took all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I was really glad to see this stage complete.  Monday, I bit the bullet and went out to the studio, cranked up the heat and started in on these puppies.   Step one is to attach the neutral squares to the green rectangles on the diagonal and then to stitch again on the second drawn line.  This nets me a bonus triangle when I trim the seam.  Yay!

It does make the pressing process take a bit longer as well though, as I have to press the chevron seam and the bonus triangle.  Lots of little pieces everywhere.  The picture below is the last of this side of the chevron and as you can see, my container is almost overflowing with bonus HST's.  Too fun!

Same process with the yellow squares and the other chevon half.  Yes, I still need to trim all those dog ears off the bonus triangles, but that is a job for a long drive.

Finally, I am to hook the halves together and get chevrons!

Yes, I am getting nice chevrons and the correct size squares.  Awesome.

The last string is off the machine.  Now all I have to do is press their seams open and then tackle my pile of unacceptables.  I have about 20 re-dos but out of 250, I figure that is not too bad at all.

Yep - 249 completed, beautiful chevrons.  On to clue 3.  (I did take time on Friday, when the clue came out to get it cut, but that is for another post.)

I love how they turned out.  They are truly scrappy and make my heart happy.

Piece count so far:   Step 1:  1,140 required (although I made extra blocks)
                                Step 2:  1,464 required (again, I made extra blocks)

Total:  2,604 at this point.

249 Chevrons and 996 bonus HST's --- What to do with them -- what to do!

Here is the link back to Bonnie for this stage.  Enjoy.  Onto to pinwheels!

Mister Makes a Blanket for His Sister! -- I'll Get Him Quilting Yet

I need to go to JoAnn's to enjoy their sale while getting a Christmas gift for Bekah and a few other items.  Mister decides to go along as he needs to pick up a gift for his sister (her birthday was back in October but we haven't gotten together) and for his sister-in-law's birthday party tonight.

As we are leaving, he spots some kits for fleece blankets that are on sale.  I let him know that the fleece on the bolt is also on sale and we go back to it.  After talking and making our selections, we have the supplies for him to make a gift for his sister that is completely  homemade.  We will see her tonight and want to give it to her so he gets busy right away.

First, all the edges are trimmed and squared with the top fabric laying on top of the backing.  Then he runs a tape line for him to use for cutting to make the strips for knots.

He gets out my rotary cutter and mat and cuts his strips 1 1/2" apart and 4 1/2" deep the entire distance around the blanket.

The next step is to tie each set of strips together and this is what holds the top to the back.  No sewing required.

Mister sits and ties away with a little help from me, but I do mean a little.  I sit in a chair nearby and work on the opposite side from where he is but spend most of my time watching him.

He is way more meticulous at this than I am.  Tie the dang knot and move on Mister.  I giggle to myself.

Two hours later --- we have a lovely blanket for Michelle.  I sure hope she likes it -- Mister does.

Irons are Finished - Thanks Mister!

We have a storm headed our way and Mister is taking advantage of one of the last nice days we will have for awhile to finish the irons on the Memphis treadle.  They are looking so very good.  I am thrilled and cannot wait until it is all back together again.  Such fun.

Celtic Solstice Clue #1 - Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt

After taking several of Bonnie's classes this past year (including the Lazy Sunday Mystery on New Years), I wanted to do the online mystery as well.  Like everyone else, I waited patiently for October 23 to arrive so that we could find out what the colors would be.  Once the clue was out, Mister went to Home Depot for me to get the paint chips.  What a great guy!  I then went to my stash (yes, I am finally building one) and this is what I came up with: brights in orange, yellow, green and blue.  I will need a few more for variety, but am off to a great start.  Now to wait for the Friday after Thanksgiving to find out the first clue.

I was blessed with a ton of family around for the holiday and so was only able to read the clue.  On Friday we did have a sewing party in the studio while Bekah worked on her quilt, Jen worked on the ones she is doing for Christmas, and Cassie split her time between the table runner she is quilting and ironing fabrics for me to cut for Celtic Solstice.  I did manage to get the strips cut.



I spent Sunday cutting and was finally able to sit down to the sewing machine on Monday to sew.  Yay!  Although this picture shows my Elna -- this project is being sewn on my 301A "Annie".  Monday left me with chains everywhere and the second "rec" ready to be attached.  There are 32 different blues, 20 oranges, and 30 neutrals.  I am hoping that is enough variety so far.

I spent all day today in the studio and managed to finish clue #1.  Everything is pressed, trimmed, and in stacks of 10.  Now for a couple of days to work on other projects.  Here is the link back to Bonnie's page so that you can check out all the other posts.  Enjoy!

Piece count so far: 1,140 required (although I made extra blocks)