Monday, December 30, 2013
blue Santa
A few years ago I saw this panel at a quilt show, love Santa, love blue, and well, it came home with me. Then, I needed to get around to make it. One day when I didn't have a lot going on, I pieced the top, it was very simple, two borders. And it went back into its tote. Then this last November I ran into it, and thought it would be nice to decorate my office at work. Thinking that will be next year, since I just got the binding on it. You might have seen it peeking underneath all of the Celtic Solstice units. It was hard to quilt with the layers on it (smile). So tonight I finally just did it.
Celtic solstice - or in my case Autumnal Equinox
For the first time I decided to do Bonnie Hunter's December mystery as it was happening (or at all). I don't normally do mysteries, at least quilt mysteries. I like to have more control I guess. Bonnie's colors were based on the Irish flag. I based mine on the colors in the Bittersweet fabric collection, but pulled fabrics from stash (so I can still use my Bittersweet fabric in something else!) It was a Fall grouping, hence the Autumnal Equinox name.
Bonnie put together directions for a small (lap) and a large (king) quilt. Originally I thought I would make enough units for the king, and did that for step 1. Then I had second thoughts (after cutting all of step 2, and piecing more than half, but not all of the units).
By step 3, I thought I would just do enough for the small size, then add more for a queen size.
Meanwhile, I have been playing around in EQ, mostly to help me with how many units I would really need. Based on past mysteries, I figured it would be two blocks, set in an alternating style. Step 3 was only 25 units for the small size, so it was likely a center of a block. But only one of the two, or both? Don't know. I played around with blocks set 5 units by 5 units, 9 patch based blocks set side by side, and 9 patch blocks with sashing. I still don't know what Bonnie has planned, because none of my guesses uses exactly the number of units she is having us make. But I figured I should make a few more of each step, just to be on the "I won't have as much to do when I do find out her plan" side.
I figured there might be a block made with steps 1 and 4 and a different block made with steps 2, 3 and 5. I still have a lot of step 1 units leftover, so waiting to see what Bonnie has come up with.
Using that logic, I made 41 pinwheels, might need more, might need less.
And there is a ways to go on the last step (these are piles of 10).
I've been having fun playing around with possibilities, some of which might actually get made sometime in the future.
Bonnie put together directions for a small (lap) and a large (king) quilt. Originally I thought I would make enough units for the king, and did that for step 1. Then I had second thoughts (after cutting all of step 2, and piecing more than half, but not all of the units).
By step 3, I thought I would just do enough for the small size, then add more for a queen size.
Meanwhile, I have been playing around in EQ, mostly to help me with how many units I would really need. Based on past mysteries, I figured it would be two blocks, set in an alternating style. Step 3 was only 25 units for the small size, so it was likely a center of a block. But only one of the two, or both? Don't know. I played around with blocks set 5 units by 5 units, 9 patch based blocks set side by side, and 9 patch blocks with sashing. I still don't know what Bonnie has planned, because none of my guesses uses exactly the number of units she is having us make. But I figured I should make a few more of each step, just to be on the "I won't have as much to do when I do find out her plan" side.
I figured there might be a block made with steps 1 and 4 and a different block made with steps 2, 3 and 5. I still have a lot of step 1 units leftover, so waiting to see what Bonnie has come up with.
Using that logic, I made 41 pinwheels, might need more, might need less.
And there is a ways to go on the last step (these are piles of 10).
I've been having fun playing around with possibilities, some of which might actually get made sometime in the future.
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