Celtic Solstice: A Bonnie Hunter Mystery

I had a lot of success with last year's mystery quilt (still unquilted, for those keeping score) that Bonnie Hunter provided, so what the heck -- I'll give this year's a try too. I really like the cheerful color palette that she chose:

Although the instructions specify a mix of print-on-white fabrics as the background of this quilt, I don't have a lot of those shirting-style fabrics (and I don't particularly like them), so instead I'm using a 2-yard cut of a great multicolored dot; all four of the paint chips looked really nice sitting on it:

The first "clue" came out this morning, and it was a doozy. I have been spending most of my time making quilts with really BIG pieces that showcase the awesome contemporary prints on the market these days, but this was the exact opposite. I'm considering it a chance to clear out some space in those ever-deepening scrap bins. Cutting all the little pieces for the first clue took over five (!) hours, and I still haven't started stitching the 188 units.

92 3.5" orange triangles -- so pretty in the morning sunshine!

These ones took forever - 188 pairs of blue side triangles

All 564 pieces fit neatly onto my little mat. The stacks of sorted blue triangles are fairly precariously balanced.

 Anyone else stitching along on this project?

Color Journals: Harpa for Sue (finished)

After my previous post about starting Sue's journal page, I decided to wait until after our group's meeting to post more photos -- it's more fun to do the "Big Reveal" in person! These meetings are very exciting -- Lisa made a glorious orange dahlia page for my orange hexagon book...although I had a chance to look at it, I can hardly wait (over a year!!) to get the finished book back here so I can just sit and pore over every page for hours and hours. In the meantime, my next assignment is to make a rust-colored page for Anna T's "Country Music" journal.

"Memories of Iceland" for Sue K. (14 x 15.5")

Piecing and quilting detail

I made some runes with Sculpey -- these are the runes that say "Iceland" (at least according to the T-shirt that we bought!).

The Vegvisir is a magic symbol that prevents the wearer from becoming lost. I hand embroidered this on a scrap of Belgian linen.

For the back of the page, I made a Metropolis block using a very pretty selection of map and Celtic-inspired fabrics in the gold/teal/green colors that Sue requested.

I used a light strip for the last segment so I had a place to sign the page.

Slapdash project

We spent the last week repainting the family/sewing room, so my supplies have been largely out of reach and out of commission. I'll post some photos of the new setup once we get it a little more back in order -- it's a really fantastic space to spend creative time in!

I done had a powerful hankerin' to make something new, so late last night I started whacking up some fabrics to make a Crime Wave quilt. Love the name, love the free-form concept, love her samples in the American Quilter magazine article that I picked up at Lisa's yesterday. I stayed up until midnight making the chunks, then left everything sitting on the cutting table overnight.

After the requisite amounts of readin', ritin', and 'rithmetic this morning, Cedric helped me arrange the segments on an ersatz design wall (actually just a fleece blanket hanging over the back of the couch), and this is what we ended up with:

Not too bad for a first try, I think. Linus really likes it because he's partial to autumn colors; Cedric is particularly pleased that I let him sew some of the straight seams to put the pieces together. He wants to call it "Slapstick Spectacular" or something like that. I thought he meant slapdash, but no -- he wanted to make a reference to the kind of humor where people hit each other. Ah, those boys...

Petticoats and Polio

This pattern goes together so quickly...maybe two evenings to cut the pieces, a few more to piece the blocks...Voilà! Gotta love those lucky ladies with all their fancy modern conveniences!!

"Petticoats and Polio" (60 x 72, Avalon pattern by Elizabeth Hartman)