Step 4...

Some serious sewing was achieved this week - yes it does help to be on holiday from work.

Four blocks for the Block Lotto for December.  We got a sneak peak at January's blocks and I needed to go buy some white fabric!  Bought a few metres, as I have decided that 2014 is the Year of the Quilt Famine.

My mother was here today and whilst she was sewing on he last border of her log cabin quilt I fixed a pair of C's jeans.  We then laid up the quilt, envelope style, ready for her to sew at home.

 And this is my tally for the Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt (and although there were hours of sewing, the pile seems the same as a week ago!):


All cutting done!
Part One:  371 out  of 380
Part Two:   42 out of 244
Part Three:   97 out of 305
Part Four:  165 out of 300
Plenty sewing ahead!

I love the four-patch blocks, and I think the triangle blocks will create something interesting in the quilt.
Go and look at all the other link-ups on Bonnie's Quiltville blog. There were 143 link-ups at the time of this post.



 

Step 1, 2, 3...

It was a public holiday here on Monday, our Day of Reconciliation, so some solid sewing and cutting prevailed.  The lure of Celtic Solstice called, so managed to sew all the neutral corners on one side of part two, and then cut out all of Part 3.    I'm sure I've cut out more than is needed!  I will wait to the final reveal, but I think I am going to turn this into 2 or 3 smaller quilts - I can't see I really have a need for a 111" x 111" quilt (2.84m x 2.84m).  Especially after seeing how successful other quilters were last year by taking units from Easy Street and making it smaller to suit them.  Go and see what other Solstice creators are doing on Bonnie's link-up.  Last day at work tomorrow, yay! Holidays, yay!

My revised recording :
Part One, presuming you've managed to sew all the units, was:
  Number of pieces:  1140
  Number of units:  380  (my tally: 22)

Part Two: 
  Number of pieces:  2604
  Number of units:  624 (my tally: 23)

And a running total after Part Three: 
  Number of pieces:  3092 
  Number of units:  929 (my tally: 243, with some half completed ones!

(Plus 4 Split Nine Patch blocks!)

We had a work staff lunch last Friday at Forester's Arms and this was the floor of the ladies room, black and white tiles:

My daughter T  has made a couple of baby quilts.  She tells me she can't wait to come home (just for 2-3 weeks in January) to box up and take back to Wales her fabrics that are stored here.  She has been wanting to make more quilts, but reluctant to buy more fabric knowing what's here!

Progress on the Mystery Quilt

I finally decided that if I want to do this mystery quilt, then I must cut out all the pieces as soon as I can after the part is released, even if the sewing gets done later!  I cut down the 3.5" yellow strips into 2" and 1.5" strips.  I thought of cutting new 2" strips for the squares, but was worried that I might be short if need larger pieces of the yellow later.   Go and see how far the other participants have go on Bonnie's link-up

Here is the visual progress of what little has been sewn so far:

I love the mathematics of quilts, so for those who have similar leanings, my calculations of how far we've gone after Part One, presuming you've managed to sew all the units, was:  27.75%
  Number of pieces:  1140
  Number of units:  380  (my tally: 22)


And a running total after Part Two:  63.4%  45.6%
  Number of pieces:  2604
  Number of units:  868 624 (my tally: 23)

Here are all my pieces cut out, waiting  for solid sewing time!

My mother's latest completed quilt top - I love her tenacity in sewing all those narrow strips!  New to quilting only last year and with 3 or 4 completed tops the next thing is for us to get together for a series of lessons on finishing them - thank goodness for summer holidays rushing up soon!  In the past month she has had two successful cataract ops and is amazed at what more she can see!

Celtic Solstice Part2

So, Bonnie releases part 2 of her latest mystery, and it calls for: the LARGE quilt cut: 488 2” X 3-1/2” green rectangles, 976 2” neutral squares, 976 2" yellow/gold squares, and I go, "gulp, OK... maybe I'll just watch, and not continue...".  Mulled over it for a bit,and thought if I don't cut ANY pieces out before the Monday morning link-up, I might never get to it.  So bit the bullet last night and after some thought, wondered if there might be a typo, so just cut enough squares to match the 488 rectangles, thinking that I can cut more later if needed.  Yay!  Didn't think to check yesterday, but Yes, others had picked up the typos, and there had already been a correction to the instructions:  only 488 of each of neutral and yellow squares needed (at this point anyway!!).  Haven't sewn any of them, that still awaits!

Yesterday also another Skype quilt lesson for my daughter in winter-bound Cardiff - this time reminding her of the finer points of laying up a quilt pillowcase method. She has no large table space in her flat, so it's laid out on the floor, and she props up her ipad on the floor so I can see what she's doing!

An emotional day

Just before going to bed last night I heard the news that Madiba had died.  Although today is a sad day, the radio and  the web are full of amazing warm stories about this really great man.   I'm sure there is yet more on TV and in the newspapers.  It still overwhelms me how, even after imprisonment of twenty-seven years for his beliefs, he so loved this country and it's peoples, that he remained humble and gentle to the end.  My heart goes out to his family at this time of loss.

Mystery started....sort of!

At the end of October Bonnie Hunter blogged the requirements for this year's Mystery Quilt - Celtic Solstice.  I had been waiting in anticipation for it for ages, and although I liked the colours she was using, I thought I wanted to do them a little differently (trying to link South African flag and/or Welsh colours, as yes they are also Celts!), and after agonizing over it for the past month, finally wimped out and gave in to doing the colours suggested.  The first part of the mystery was blogged on Friday, so if I was to make any headway, I really needed to pull out some fabrics.  I had decided that I would use only fabrics from my collection.

The first part needs 3.5" strips of neutrals, oranges and blues.  I picked out all the ones already cut, and some 3.5" squares plus any greens and yellows, and, because I just looked at my washed out print of the instructions, thought we were working with yellow (instead of orange), so went gaily ahead and cut more 3.5" strips of yellows... I do hope we get to use them!  Thank goodness I hadn't sub-cut any of them.  It means my yellows might be a bit scarce if we need larger pieces later on, too bad!!

Tomorrow I hope to cut some of the blues and neutrals to add to the strips.  I like to include as many of each particular colour as I can straight away so that there is an even spread of the variety.  I don't think I will get a chance to sew until Saturday.   So this is how far I got tonight:

Now go over to the link-up on Bonnie's site and see what all the other passionate quilters are writing about their progress!