Sunday, December 7, 2014

My Version of Celtic Solstice

The brilliant sunshine glints against the snow's crusty icy layers. My driveway is a mess, but I was able to hump through the snow around the front of the house to get to my clothesline. So here are the photos of my version of Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice. Yes, it's finished!!!

Thank you, Bonnie, for yet another great design!


My dear friends, Grace, and Nann, both concurred that the deepest indigo (it was a Judie Rothermel Party of Twelve from Marcus Brothers) would be the best choice for the binding. I'm so glad that I did listen to them because it looks marvelous now that it's on there! Thank you for your input, my fellow Stashbusters.


Angela Walter's Paisley Feathers (link) was what I quilted into the borders. Thank you, Angela, for the free video that gave me the confidence to try feathers on a big important-to-me quilt. I did plain old free hand spirals quilted into the body of the center.
Many thanks also go out to Ellen Peter's for her wonderful quilting studio where I was able to rent some time on her longarm to do this quilt.


I think that the quilting works nicely to compliment the piecing without overpowering it.


I had intended to take more pictures of this quilt, but my batteries ran out, so this is it for now, LOL!






I'm a wee bit behind in the current Bonnie Hunter mystery, Grand Illusion, due to all that hand-hemming on the Celtic Solstice.

When the new yellow Renee Nanneman for Andover fabric arrived yesterday, I jumped in and tried a little shortcut on the piecing of step 1 of Grand Illusion.


Instead of cutting out individual squares of the yellow and sewing them onto the HST's, I carefully oriented the HST's onto a strip of yellow and then sewed down the strip. Then I cut them apart. I first learned this technique doing Log Cabins and it may have been Subee who taught me, not sure now.


It worked so well that I did it for the black squares too.


If you try this, be sure to feed the turquoise or aqua part of the HST through first or your pieces will not be oriented correctly.


I pressed them open and clipped them apart very carefully. Soon there were stacks ready to join into Unit 1 pieces.


Don't you just love chain-piecing? In they go, under the machine, and then the next one, whee! Chain pressing is fun, too!


And here are the Unit 1's so far, about 32 made and more in progress.


Now I'll try to do a few of the Step 2 Double Diamonds to stay current for the Monday linky party over at Bonnie's blog, http://quiltville.blogspot.com/. Don't miss it on Monday!

Happy sewing!








7 comments:

Auntie Em said...

Celctic Solstice came out beautifully, from piecing to quilting to binding. Well done!

Feathers in my Nest said...

Love your CS! Beautiful..hope you're keeping that one for yourself..I'm having my LA'er Baste mine [king size 120 x 120] There's no way I could possibly do it with my back..then I'll hand quilt it, because I'm an awful machine quilter...That sewing tip is BRILLIANT! I must try that...boy, does that save a bunch of time...Hugs & kisses all around..

Helen in the UK said...

Wow, congrats on a brilliant finish! Your quilting looks wonderful and the overall quilt is beautiful :)

Needled Mom said...

Your Solstice is gorgeous! It looks fabulous in the bright sun too.

Jen said...

Celtic Solstice is very nicely done and I am still figuring doing this quilt also some time in my future, especially after seeing all the recent pictures again after a year. I am participating in the Grand Illusion mystery this year, and for your tip on the chain piecing all I can say is - DUH!!! Why didn't I think of that too?! Thanks so much for posting that - I am going to try to remember that for the future since I already have all my yellow and black squares cut.

cityquilter grace said...

a gorgeous finish vic.....

Elaine Adair said...

So pretty, love the variety of scrappy colors - you sure do a wonderful job with color choices. I am proud to "know" such an artist! 8-)))

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