Celtic Solstice 2013

Celtic Solstice from 2013 is the next mystery quilt I am showing this week.

 Of course it is a Bonnie Hunter mystery again. 

I have all the blocks done but they are not put together into rows yet. 

I have notes that say I have one block turned wrong, and marked with a pin. You see the first row is together but one block got rotated. I have a little ripping to do to fix it. 

Then I should be sewing the rest together. 

I used black as my neutral and really love it for this quilt.  

I am looking forward to the Good Fortune Mystery again this year. The first clue comes out Friday. I hope to work on a few of the old mystery quilts while I also start the new mystery. 

Mystery History

This is my Allietare Mystery (2015) so far. I have a small handful of blocks done. I thought as Bonnie Hunter has released the fabric requirements for her next Mystery quilt En Provence (2016) that maybe I better work on the last one. I get eager to start a new quilt but I have quilt guilt that I did not finish the last one and I want to sew! So I am digging it out and hope to get more done. You can see I made a lot of changes to the colours. Now this years mystery has so many of the colours I used here (no Yellow). 

Quilt guilt has kept me from pulling fabric out for En Provence. I love the colours she has picked out so far, so I am sure I will do it with the rest of the Bonnie Hunter Fans. I have a big enough stash and love the colours so I do not think I need to shop for more. Maybe next week I will pull fabric.  

I have started 5 of her mysteries and many are UFO but one. I have one fully complete - Easy Street (2013). I did change the colour just a bit. I used pink instead of the grey. My grey was too light and I really do not like Grey. I am so much happier with this quilt. 

Grand Illusion (2014) is a quilt top that needs to be quilted. I made another change and used a magenta print in the center of the blocks and not the yellow and blue four patch units. I think I like they way the block is a more striking. I had to do some ripping to fix that as I had half the blocks done when I changed my mind. 

Celtic Solstice (2011) has all the blocks done but needs to be a top. I really changed the colours around. I used the black as my neutral. I started to work on the rows and got lost so I have some ripping to do to fix it. So it is back in the box and needs help. 

Orca Bay (2010) is a top but needs the boarders pieced and put on. It is also in a box waiting. This quilt is a ton of little bits and pieces. 

Step 1 Grand Illusion

The mystery quilt Grand Illusion by Bonnie Hunter got underway on Friday. I had to work this weekend so I did not get all of step one done but I still did well. I am sure I will finish this step before next Friday. That is when the step 2 comes out. 

Today Bonnie is hosting a link up party, so I have linked up too. 

I picked out my fabric about a week ago. I did not buy a single fabric, it will be  quilt from my stash only. I want the pink to be very bright and darker coloured. My Aquas or Turquoise are light like the ceiling of the old building. 

I make a cute little yellow booklet to record the number of triangles and units I have. I also have a black binder to print off Bonnie's instructions. 

Part of the time I quilted on my old singer machine. It sits in the family/ living room next to a window so there is great light to sew by during the day. We have so little sun now that sitting in the sun for an hour a day is a treat. 

Here is my box with some parts and pieces. I have done my triangles a little different then Bonnie said. I was cutting from yardage for my Triangle units, so I cut 3" squares and drew a line on the diagonal. I then sewed  1/4" from that line and cut the two triangles apart. I then have to iron and trim the triangles to 2 1/2" square. I love how the triangles are so perfect. 

Here is the design wall with the first little batch of units. There are measuring perfect 4 1/2" square. 

Here is last years mystery quilt. I still need to sew the blocks together. I was hopping to do that last week but it did not happen. The pattern is asleep now but should come out in Bonnie's next book. I had made some big changes to the colours last year. his year I am keeping much closer to Bonnie's colours. 

I have also linked up to Design wall Monday at Judy's

Drop in Retreat

Last weekend my friend Laural hosted and quilting Retreat in her Garage. Her sister and 1 friend came from far away and stayed in her home over night. The rest of us ladies were local and went home to our own beds at night. Mom and I traveled together, the roads were bad as we got our first real snow. We had lunch and dinner together, and wow there was lots of good food. So we called the retreat a drop in retreat. I think she is doing it again after Christmas. 

I took my units I did last winter for  the Celtic Solstice Mystery by Bonnie Hunter. I want to do this years mystery but thought I needed to get more done on last's years mystery. I only had one block done and all the units for the smaller quilt. 

Here is another Scrappy Trip around the world being worked on.

Some Christmas projects were worked on.

You can really see we were in the garage here. We were told to bring a lamp as the lights were not great in the garage, We every had one with a shade, made the place classy. 

Here is another great project in the works. Threase was working on it but did not want to be in the photo so Elizabeth is holding it up. 

After the weekend I got really busy and did some more blocks at home. 

I now have all the blocks done (plus 1 extra). I am hoping to get the top together this week. 

Bonnie is planning to start the Grand Illusion Mystery on Friday the 28th. I have not picked fabrics out yet. I am sure by the end of the week I will have a few fabrics in mind. I was worried I would have to buy some Yellow but I found one that I have about 2 m of. It is bright so I am sure the rest of my quilt will be bright too. 

No Wining

So I have been working on my Celtic Solstice Mystery quilt step 1. It is a Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt. You can find out about it on Quiltville. 

This photo is from Saturday night. I sewed and was having a few drinks as I sewed. Well it did not go all well. I spilt my Wine. I kind of made a bit of a mess. I reached for my pins and the taller wine glass fell over. It was White, so I just ironed it dry. 

I got my Easy Street Quilt top done. This was last years Bonnie Hunter Mystery from last year. I got the top done before I started the next one. 

Do you see the one patch I have to fix?

I hope to get it quilted early in the New Year. I am a little busy doing customers Quilts right now. 

Here are my Celtic Solstice Mystery patches. So far so good. I am using the black as my Neutral, Blue were Bonnie said Blue and Pink batik were Bonnie has Orange. I just love some of these Batiks. So bright and clear. 

Oh Yes, Bonnie has a linky page, to see more Go Here. Others mystery quilters have shown off their work. 

Fabric Picked for the Mystery

I have picked out my fabric for the Bonnie Hunter Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt. I have done the last two as mystery's and I did the Roll Roll Cotton Ball after I found them all over the internet over Christmas 2010. If you do not know about the mystery go check it out. I have a few friends and family that are also doing the mystery with me. I think I may have my mom hooked too. She will be a few days behind as she is not home to pick out fabric, but she will catch up by step 2. 

My fabric is all Batik. Some are hand made soy wax batiks, like the top pink fabric. I hope the orange and pink are not to close together. I may pull a pink with orange one yet. I have also thought it would be cool with Black instead of the light neutrals. I will think about it over night. 

I did not make a post about the soy wax I made this Sept. Here is my stash of soy wax batiks. Not all will be used in the mystery. But some will. Like the Greens, Blue, Pink and Orange.

Here is the set of dots made with a mini Ice cube tray. I love these little uneven dots. 

I love using the old metal potato mashers. They hold the heat so well and the wax moves nicely into the fabric. The best part of soy wax Batik is I can wash out the wax with hot water and soap. This is so much easer that the bees wax or other waxes. The other kinds of wax need heat and ironing and solvents to remove the wax. Not soy wax. I may never do the other wax batiks again.  

More and different potato mashers. 

This fabric was a pink dyed fabric that I used soy wax on and then dyed blue to get a purple. The pink remains pink were the wax was. Love this little basket weave pattern. 

Well back to work so I can start the mystery on Friday morning with every one else.