Category: Celtic Solstice

What have I been up to…

Posted in Celtic Solstice, Retreat, Sassy Sixteen, Swaps, UFO ChallengeTagged 1 Comment

If I don’t write a post soon, it will be March. In the past couple weeks I actually have moved a couple of quilting projects forward in between all my knitting adventures.

This is probably one of my oldest UFOs. I call it Asian Splendor and I finished the top in 2007. It’s made up of a bunch of Asian F8ths I received in a swap.

It’s quilted now and yesterday, my dgd picked out the binding fabric for it.

This little pastel quilt is made from the left overs from a larger Sassy Sixteen quilt I made a few years back. It’s quilted now too and has binding chosen.

On the long weekend in January, my friend and I went up to Sea Ranch (Northern California) for a mini-retreat and I finished this top made from Breath of Avignon. Have to find a backing fabric for it to keep this one moving.

I’m getting ready to head out for Indianapolis on March 1 for our annual Danville, IL retreat at Threads of Time. My plan is to keep moving on Celtic Solstice. But Jennifer threw out a new challenge and some of us will be making Missouri Star’s Disapperaring Pinwheel Quilt with layer cakes from stash. I’ve got my fabrics chosen but not yet cut. Need to get busy!!

Headed out to my Monday KAL group now!

Celtic Solstice Part 3

Posted in Celtic Solstice, Mystery Quilts, Quiltville QuiltsTagged Leave a comment

Since I’m using one tan for my yellow and only a couple of oranges, I decided to make my HSTs using the printed templates and strips of fabric.

I had 64 sewn and sliced in less than an hour. I’ll pull the papers off in front of the TV this week and press them open. And make 136 more.

But this weekend was busy finishing up Christmas Gifts.

Linking to Bonnie’s Part 3 post.

Easy Chevrons for Celtic Solstice Part 2

Posted in Celtic Solstice, Mystery Quilts, TutorialTagged , 52 Comments

Just took a look at Part 2 of Celtic Solstice Mystery. After all the units like these I just made for Lazy Sunday, I am not looking forward to making more of these.

UnknownLight bulb moment!

Why can’t these be strip pieced? The answer: They can!

I did a little math and it looks like I can make these with strips as follows:

  • 1 5/8″ strip of green
  • 1 5/8″ strip of neutral (the green portion needs to be 1 1/8″ wide for the corners to come out right)
  • 1 5/8″ strip of yellow or in my case tan

Sew together the three strips with the green in the middle. Then cut the strip sets at a 45 degree angle, some in both directions to get opposing chevron pieces.

photo 1

Cut your 45 degree angle slices every 2″ to get the right width. I used my 3.5″ square to measure the 2″ inches and I line up the 45 degree mark on my 6 x 12 inch ruler with one of the green/tan or green/cream seams for accuracy.

Then line up your 3.5″ ruler with the side and the two green points.

photo 2

Slice off the excess tan and cream and you have a perfect 2″ x 3.5″ unit.

photo 3

Sew together and press the seam open. A perfect 3.5″ square.

photo 4

I still have waste triangles of the tan and cream, but no waste green triangles. So I figure I’m saving some amount of fabric and loads of time with this method. My waste triangles are now in my box for the Wild and Goosey paper pieced blocks.

Update:

To save even more time, take two strip sets and press seams in opposing directions as Bonnie suggests. Then sandwich the strip sets together before you slice on the diagonal.

photo 1

Then you can slice the opposing directions all at once.

photo 2

Trim by lining up your 3.5″ ruler on the 2″ mark at the end of each seam line where the points form, and you’ll have your units nested together all ready to sew.

Tried this again today and it works perfectly to get your 3.5″ chevron unit with no trimming required.

I’ve added a link to a printable version of this post here.

I’ll hook this up to Bonnie’s Monday Progress post when it goes live.

Enjoy!

PS: Someone asked about the border units for Lazy Sunday. Use three 2″ strips, cut diagonally at 2.5″ wide and it works.