Grand Illusion mystery step 2

I am happy with the progress on this years mystery quilt, I slightly adapted Bonnie's 3rd instruction. I used the accuquilt value die to cut my pink and brown triangles and then sewed them onto the 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" rectangles. I do not get the bonus half square triangles this way but have a pile you will see in the picture below of neutral triangles. I can use these for Wild n Goosey or as corners when string piecing.

The brown triangles ready to sew to rectangle after the pink triangles have been sewn and pressed and then background triangle trimmed ready for pressing.

30 completed of the 50 I need. I am doing half of the units which I think will make an approx 60 " quilt-this is a size that I find very useful.

Here are the completed units; the pieces for the rest of the units and my pile a scrap bonus triangles.      

This is step 2 of Bonnie Hunter's current mystery quilt  :   For more information please see http://quiltville.blogspot.ca/p/grand-illusion-mystery.html

Grand illusion clue 1.......done

I don't think I have ever finished a clue this quickly. I am only doing half but I hope this is an indication on how the rest of the quilt will go.
This is even with a few mix ups:
1st - I cut about half of the HST and sewed a dozen or so. Decided to make one block to see how it looked and OH NO my HST were all too big. I had used the wrong accucut die and they were 2 1/2 " finished instead of 2". At least they aren't too hard to cut smaller :)
Then I sewed all the pieces together and thought Wow that was fast....I'm done. Why do I have so many yellows and browns left over.....must have got carried away cutting squares. I laid them out to see how they looked and I have 25 - see picture. They are sure pretty but I need 50.
Back to the cutting board and more sewing and TaDa. I love these so far.

Here is all 50 and the extra HST we are to set aside plus there are still a few extra yellows and browns, hopefully we will need these somewhere else in the quilt.

If you don't already know this is the Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt from Quiltville.blogspot.com compliments of Bonnie Hunter.

Thanks Bonnie.

Weekend progress

On Saturday my husband  and I spent some time rearranging furniture, I have been sharing my studio with the living room that we never use. We decided we don't need the living room as we never sit in there; it is not done yet as we have to find a new home for the couch but we arranged so I have much more room in my studio.
Then I cleaned and put away leftovers from a number of projects and scrap cutting I've been doing. There is still lots more scrap cutting to do but all the pieces are in a tub under the cutting table.
Finally time to pull out Celtic Solstice and see where I got to; after sewing some Sat and quite a bit today here is a picture on my design wall. I am making it a bit smaller I think as I really don't need another bed size quilt(not that I need  any quilts but that's beside the point).

Thanks to an idea someone posted on Facebook it was suggested you put up all the pieces you have made and then you can see what is left to make - which is chevrons and corner triangles. There is hope I can have this top completed before the new mystery starts.

I was also slowly working on the baby quilt below; I am machine blanket stitching around the animals but I find that hard on the shoulders so do an hour at a time and then work on something else. I think I only have cow, zebra, raccoon and rooster left to do.

Back to sewing.........................

Introducing Micah - My New Favourite :)

Introducing our first grandchild       

 

    Micah John David Swift

         Born Oct 29 2014 weighing 6 lbs 1 1/2 oz

Andrew and Victoria Swift with Micah - day 1

Micah - a very happy baby - 1 week old 

Micah being bundled in the Burrito baby wrap made by Grandma - it is quite big but he will grow into it - should keep him warm this winter.

Curtains finished

Well I did get some time to sew, feels so good. The pictures are of curtains I made for our newly renovated guest bedroom inspired when a quilt was temporarily pinned over the window so someone could spend the night during the reno. I really like how they turned out but a lot of work for curtains so they will probably be there a long time.

You can see the inspiration hanging on the rocking chair next to the window.

Here you can see some of the amazing finishing details Dave did on the ceiling and the window trim which matches.

These will be open most of the time probably with tie backs.

I have also been slowly working away on Celtic Solstice(a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt). I have a lot of pieces complete are they are slowly coming together. Here is a couple of completed blocks on my new design wall(in above mentioned guest bedroom)

The other quilt on the design wall is the beginning of the layout for the split 9 patch that has been in progress since last summer. I think I will put sashing between the windmills with maybe a pinwheel corner block.

These are very scrappy and were a lot of fun to make.

Spring time Update

Seems like I only post about every 2 months :) so right on schedule. Spring seems to be arriving here and I hope it does everywhere else soon. The following photo's are supposed to make you smile and know spring is coming; that's all.

Now I better get some work done so I can do some quilting later today before the weekend is completely gone.

Celtic Solstice progression

So I've been plugging away at pieces in no particular order. I have most of the parts made but quit counting. I'm starting to put blocks together and I will take a break and make more pieces as I need them.
For those who commented at the start when I couldn't decide if I wanted to use blue or brown I ended up using brown which I am very happy about.
Here is a picture of parts:

And here is the first 2 blocks - I had to do 1 of each just to see how they look

And then I had to try one with the chevron's in the star formation......I think I will do what I have seen a lot of people doing with doing half squares and half stars but will see how it progresses.
Here are the three so far

I am really excited to see what this quilt will look like, I have absolutely loved all the ones I've seen in all the different colors and can't wait to see what mine will look like. No more time to sew tonite.....will maybe do a little during the week but mostly it will wait until next weekend.