Another mystery

Oh dear, these mysteries are a bit addictive. I just discovered a free online mystery that takes place on New Year's Day called Merry Mayhem mystery. You can google it or hopefully find it here. I am trying to figure out how to add links but I am struggling so it may not work.

It sounds like a fun day of sewing and my SIL and I have decided we will FaceTime during the day to keep up with each other's progress. Apparently a new clue is released each hour and by the end of the day you will have a quilt top. But first you need to pull fabric and then do some prep work which involves some cutting, marking and sewing. Since this a just for fun project I pulled from my stash and came up with this selection of 20 med/dks and 20 lights using the large floral as my focus fabric.

Well, I better go start getting ready for Wednesday!

 

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Celtic Solstice Part 5

The work continues on Bonnie Hunter's mystery Celtic Solstice. It has been so fun working on this project and I find that I am also learning a lot. This week we made a split triangle unit that I think I saw someone call birds in flight of something. Lots of bias edges to sew but they came out fine. I find it much easier to only chain piece in groups of ten. It helps me keep track of the numbers and I don't get bored with any one step. It also saves me from lots of unsewing when I make a mistake. Yep, twice I realized I had sewn triangle to the wrong side but at least I only had ten to fix.

I included my inspiration fabric in this photo. When I started pulling fabric for the mystery I was decorating for Christmas and thought a new Christmas quilt would be nice. Hopefully I can use the inspiration fabric for borders but I will have to wait for the reveal to see if that will work.

 

 

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Celtic mystery part 4

With Christmas just a few days away I have finally finished the last of the Christmas gifts. And I have been able to grab a few minutes here and there to work on Part 4 of the CS mystery quilt. So happy that this part has been easy and with my color changes it has felt very timely to be working on units in green and red. I am not quite finished but I should be done by the time I head out of town to celebrate Christmas with my middle son and his family.

And I finally finished this little embroidery project. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it and ended up just making it into a pillow. As much as I love quilted wall hangings, it is often difficult to find a place for display so hopefully this will be better. I actually love how this turned out and may need to make myself something similar next year. In the meantime I am enjoying it in my livingroom until it gets wrapped. I guess that is cheating but I am sure the recipient wouldn't mind.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season.

 

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Celtic mystery part 2 and 3

I am still working away on Bonnie Hunter's mystery, Celtic solstice. This weekend I finished part 2 and 3 which puts me up to date - for now. Lots of little pieces and units including chevrons and pinwheels. I have changed several of the colors and right now I am seeing a lot of tan. Eek, I hope the next clue brings in more of the green or teal. :)

I decided to try Bonnie's method of making half square triangles using the Easy Angle tool. It is always great to try a new technique and I have had this ruler for years and had no idea how to use it. This picture gives you an idea of how it is used and Bonnie gives a great explanation on her blog. I am not sure if I got as accurate results as other methods I have used but I think it would be a great way to make HST's out of Jelly roll strips.

Looking forward to part 4.

 

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Quilting with my SIL

This year my SIL, who lives many states away from me in Texas, and I had fun completing a project together for our In-laws. It was fun for both of us and when we finished we decided it would be fun to continue quilting "together. Our first project was the Aiming for Accuracy Quilt along and it was great fun sharing each other's progress each week. She finished her project on time and even has it quilted! Unfortunately my back surgery delayed my progress but I am almost finished. Just borders to add now.

So once we finished that project it was time to find another. Though I have never participated in Bunnie Hunter's mystery quilt alongs before I had read about them and wanted to give that a try. My SIL was in and we decided to start the Celtic Solstice Mystery in Jan. But the allure was too strong for both of us and we instead began yesterday. The quilt along started the Friday after Thanksgiving and you can find the details through Bonnie Hunter' blog Quiltville's Quips & Snips. Wow, there is lots of cutting and sewing in these blocks and my rulers were slightly different than the Tri Recs rulers that Bonnie is using so I am hoping that my blocks are OK. I am using Marti Michelle's rulers and they recommend cutting off lots of corners before sewing. Seems to be fine but I am not loving all the extra cutting. So, I finally have 20 units sewn, out of 188 and about 2/3 of the cutting done. I worked almost all day and this is only part one so lots more work to do. Sure hope I like the quilt as I have also changed up the colors from Bonnie's recommendations.

So is anyone else working on this mystery? I actually am having fun and if this quilt is as interesting as Bonnie's previous mysteries, I should love it!

 

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A Pretty Pillow

As the mother of three boys, I have waited years and years to have a little girl to sew for. I think I even started quilting when I realized that making pretty little girl clothes and accessories was not going to be in the cards for me. So now that I am the grandmother to a wee little girl I am so excited to be able to stitch girly things at last.

The last couple of days I put this together. This is a free pattern and tutorial that I got from the "Don't Look Now" designer's blog. My Viking does not like to free motion quilt for me so I have to get out a big heavy machine when I want to do any small free motion projects (which is why I rarely do these type of things) and in this project the appliqué and quilting is done at the same time. The appliqué is fused down and then just stitched leaving the raw edges. It is a fun technique but I think I will only use it on small projects.

I used this for a pillow but because the edges are bound it could easily be used as a little was hanging if the pillow form was removed. I have not finished a pillow edge this way before but I will certainly be doing it again as I love how the binding looks like piping on the pillow.

Just for fun here is a close up of the stitching.

If I have confused you I will try to explain better in my next post as I did not take helpful pictures along the way but I have another pillow coming up and will try to remember to take photos!

 

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A little holiday Stitching

Well the house is tidy and on the market and since my back is feeling a bit better I decidedt to try a little stitching.

First a little embroidery that will be turned into a Christmas gift. Three of these snow people were free patterns from the Bird Brain Designs web site and the little girl snowman was my own design in the same style as I wanted to make a little family.

I found the pattern for these owl pillows online as well. Just Google Snuggly Owl Pillow pattern and you should find it. They were fun and easy to whip up though I did not have enough fleece sitting around and had to go shopping. These will be little grits for the grandchildren as I want to give them some handmade gift each year.

Finally a finished block from the Rachel Meyer quilt. I am adding embroidery to each block and like the added detail it adds. The original quilt had embroidered details as well so I think I am on the right track.

Now that I am back in the sewing room, I hope to get back to a few projects that were abandoned during the time of my surgery. I especially want to get back to LE but that will have to wait as I have few more gifts to make first. I am so happy to be sewing again but really wish we were having activity on the house so we could get moving!

 

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