Oh dear, Bonnie!

Now, Bonnie Hunter is a great quilter, and her quilt mysteries are always enjoyable.  So I have encouraged lots of people unfamiliar with Bonnie's style to try her new mystery, Celtic Solstice.  I even made up little 'taster kits' of Linus fabric so that people could have a go and then donate their block components to Project Linus.  'Don't worry, ' I said.'  Bonnie's instructions are clear and straightforward.  You'll be fine, as it'll be make so many four-patches one week, then half square triangles the next.  You can do it easily!'  So what does Bonnie start with?  Tri-rec squares! 

I know they're only square flying geese, but they look more difficult than that!  Especially since her main instructions are using a speciality ruler!  I know that's the best way to get accuracy, but honestly Bonnie, why couldn't you have started with something very straightforward and not made a fool of me like this!  (Only joking really.  It's all fine!)

So for those people new to Bonnie who have been pressganged by me, here are some simpler instructions.

Scroll down Bonnie's instructions till you get to the bit where she says you can use templates.  Click on that and print out the templates.  Cut them out carefully. Cut a 3.5" strip of neutral fabric, lay the  big template on it and cut.

 

Turn the template round and cut the next one without wasting fabric etc.

Then cut a 2" strip of blue fabric (or use one from your 2" box) and cut one of each small triangles.

 

then sew a small triangle onto each side of the big triangle. 

 

Make about five with a neutral centre triangle and five with an orange centre triangle.  Sorted!

 

Red it is!

I had two suggestions as to colours to border this Linus quilt, and sorry Nik, purple would have been great, but I didn't have any, and I had red, so red it is! 

 

  

 

It's probably not a competition winner, but I think it's looking good.  I have been doing other things - I've even got my 'Dear Jane' out again.  I felt the need of some hand sewing, and this fit the bill.  (Can you see the yellow flower-headed pin on the right hand block?  That's a reminder to myself that this block is a little small, so needs special consideration when being joined up!)

 

I've also added the autographed blocks onto DD and husband's wedding quilt.  In the end I decided they would be best as a simple blue frame, and with a little judicious trimming, all the ones with names fitted round the quilt.  The others (with general good wishes) will go on the back. 

 

here is an example of the kind of thing people wrote.

 

Mind you, some people exercised their creativity.  Here is Will, aged 8.  Fighter planes are perfect for a wedding.

 

And here is Ada's attempt.  She's two and a half, and wrote on the table as well!

 

Here she is in the Dalek dress knitted by her mum.  So cute!

 

You can just see her mum with open arms in the bottom right hand corner of the shot.  Even cuter!

Thank you, Emily

On Saturday I held a workshop to make free-pieced houses a la Gwen Marston.  We had a lot of fun, choosing creatures for the windows, angles for the roof and ways to make blocks larger or smaller as required.  Emily had lots of success, but stupidly kindly decided to give me her houses to make up for Project Linus.

 

 

They were so gorgeous that I couldn't stop myself playing with them this afternoon.  I looked in the Linus orphans drawer and pulled out the 6.5" bag.  I made Emily's houses 6.5" wide (by adding a bit on or cutting a bit off) and then had a play.

 

Here is my first arrangement, which includes various orphans, and some attempts at unification by having a red diagonal strippy in each corner and four yellow star blocks to add interest.

 

Then I decided to add the letters LOVE which I had made as part of the workshop.

 

Now it's all joined together, with a bit of adding and cutting off to make it square.  I think it looks great!  Thank you, Emily for the inspiration!  Now to border it.  Red?  Blue?

 

 

Sorry

I know the shops have been full of Christas stuff for months now, but I hadn't thought I'd be adding to people's angst about preparing for the big day.  However, my local group is having a challenge to produce a Christmas wall-hanging, and I thought I'd show my effort so far.

 

I love doing free pieced letters so used those.  I'm not completely satisfied with the 'y' - I should have made my usual cursive style one - but I haven't got any more of the background fabric, so can't redo it.  I'd forgotten how much fabric free piecing uses up, and didn't choose my background wisely.  I needed to frame the letters, and decided that a contrast would work.

 

So much for that idea!  It looks awful - the letters look as if they're in prison!   Back to the stash to see if there is anything which might blend in.

 

Hooray!  I found some fabric with handwriting on which is almost exactly the same colour and value as the background fabric.  Now the final border.  Red? Green?  Yes, one of those.