Progress on Celtic Solstice

I am very pleased to report in on my Celtic Solstice progress because I feel I actually have progress this week. It is down off the basting wall and under the quilting needle of my Janome. But wait there’s more….I have three rows of quilting done!

Here’s a shot of the quilting from the back. The line running through is a basting row I took . Well, actually I was going to do diagonal lines and this was the first one. Turns out I didn’t like where it was going and changed the quilting plan but left the two diagonal lines in for stability.  Once all the quilting is done I will  take these out.




This is the front. The little flecks of white are bits of tissue left from the quilting pattern. I am using one of the long rolls of quilting patterns I bought on our visit to Keepsake Quilting in New Hampshire last fall. This is the last of it and I am making it go farther by tracing the pattern on tissue paper and sewing through that.



It takes a little longer to do this way. I have to tape the tissue in long strips and then transfer the pattern. I've  been using a Crayola Washable marker to do it as I like the way it marks and any transfer to the quilt will presumably wash out.   Last time I did this I put a layer of glass to protect the original pattern from bled through of the marker but not as worried this time as this will be the last use of this roll. When I get down to the last row I'll just use the paper pattern.  The first time I tried this tissue paper technique I used pins to hold it to the quilt top. Now I spray the back of the paper with basting spray to hold it in place. It is not a 100% adherence, you possible can see in the picture places where the paper has lifted when I moved the quilt. But it is working better than anything else I have tried so far.
Grand total of 3 rows quilted so far with the fourth under the needle. A cold snap this week has spurred my efforts to get this done as I have decided this will be our quilt.  The only thing preventing me from doing more will be my work schedule.

Now to do the link  up with  Jo's Country Junction  and see what everyone else has done this week.

A UFO Challenge

Always up for a challenge, and when it dovetails with what I was planning to do that is kismet. Jo Kramer  at Jo’s  Country Junction issued a UFO challenge to finish something while waiting for the Grand Illusion Mystery and that is what I have been trying to do this week.
Number one for me was to get last years mystery completed. Well, so far I have it up on the basting wall and have sprayed it with basting spray. Just need to get some safety pins in it before taking down to living room to quilt .

Second was the Pfefferneuse that has been languishing for months. The string blocks were done, I got stalled on the hourglass units. As it happens one of the fabrics I looked for during summer vacation was red. At the time I was thinking about the Double Wedding Ring I had planned to work on during vacation, needing a few more reds and yellows for ends. So I pulled out the new reds and some neutrals and started cutting and sewing. Finished the hourglass units last night while watching Quilt Cam and started putting them together with the string units today. Grand total of 5 done.

Above the Pfefferneuse blocks are the three other blocks I have been working on. Some Split 9-Patches, a few Scrappy Mountain Majesties and at the far left a single Holy Toledo block. Those three will be the third item. The Split 9-Patch is an actual UFO that has been hanging around for over a year, the other two have just been started. I came back from vacation with a couple bags of shirts and started cutting them up
And cutting and cutting, a lot of cutting.  Then it came time to find a place to put all the cut fabric, the bin I had for small bits of plaids had a stack of pieces already cut for the Scrappy Mountains. It seemed perfectly logical at the time to cut a piece from all the new fabric to add to the stack, and while cutting the 8.5” piece, to also cut a 6.5” piece for the Holy Toledo that has been on my Bucket List
It is such a slippery slope into starting a new project, I slide down it with very little effort.
Now to link up with Jo's Country Junction and see what UFOs everyone else is working on.

Done, Done, (almost) done

The two baby quilts are done, hooray. Only one picture as I had the opportunity to drop one off to it’s destination and jumped at the chance.

 Here is the I Spy in all it’s finished glory. I’m really happy with the border.

With these two crossed off the must-do list, the next items were borders on the two mystery quilts that are still hanging around. I’m determined to get them done before starting another mystery. 
They now have borders and backs are in the works. Celtic Solstice has it’s back, that is the blue plaid hanging behind it. And Easy Street has fabric hanging beside it that will have to be seamed. That quilt is huge, 96” last time I measured. If I don’t get it off the banister soon it probably will stretch another inch.

A New Year, A New Beginning

Today we start a new year in the Jewish calendar, a time for a fresh start and meaningful renewal.  So my resolution, at least one of my resolutions, is to make a fresh start at my blog.

One of the others, is to finish more quilts. I have been unfocused and flitting from project to project. Maybe if I post a list on here it will keep be on track.  As a start, today I am going to tackle the two quilts that have been sitting for at least two weeks waiting for thread clipping and washing. Time to get’er done.


This one is the second Strip Twist I did, better picture will come after washing

This one is another I Spy for my girlfriend’s newest grandchild












So now that I’ve said it, I have to go do it.