I'm back to working on Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery.  In addition to the units, I took time to play in EQ.  I came up with some design potentials for the finished project -- one of which I will share at the bottom of this post. 

I find playing with the possibilities reenergizes me to keep going on the project.  It is a bit like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.  You have all the pieces (maybe), but don't quite know where they all go.

The block this week was a variation on a shaded four patch.  I chose to use my Tucker Trimmer 1 for this unit.   

I started by finding 100 neutrals that we at least 2 x 3 (but not more than 2-1/2 x 3-1/2).  No need to resize them at this point.

I sewed each one to the right of a 2" half square triangle from Part 3 - lining up the bottoms of the pieces.

I took two of the units and placed them right sides together.  There should be about 1/2 inches between the corners of the gold half square triangles.

After sewing the pieces together, finger press the midpoint between the half square triangles and clip down to seam allowance.

Press toward neutral.  The clip will make this very easy to do.

Center on a 4 x 5 inch blue piece.  Draw 45 degree angle (this is parallel to the blue seams on the half square triangles).  The line needs to go through the seam intersections of the half square triangles.

Sew on drawn lines and cut 1/4" beyond the lines.

Press toward the blue triangles.

Use your Tucker Trimmer to trim the units to 3-1/2" x 3-1/2".  Use the diagonal lines on the ruler to help with placement.

My finished unit.

Now for my playing with the various Celtic Solstice units in EQ.

I'm pretty sure this isn't correct as the # of units don't add up -- but definitely a fun option.

Happy quilting.

Kari Schell

On Point Quilter

For this post, I decided I would share a compilation of my Christmas quilts.  I finally took the time to photograph all of them this year and have been posting them on Facebook this month.

Below is a compilation of the photos.  The music is a piano solo from  Louis Landon that I obtained from Feels Like Christmas.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas.

Kari Schell

On Point Quilter

An update on my progress on Celtic Solstice mystery from Bonnie Hunter.  This was an easy step -- four patches.

I was able to get them done while watching Miracle on 34th Street tonight. 

I thought I would share how I organize my fabric collection to make cutting scrap quilts easier.

I typically buy fat quarters if I don't know how I will use the fabric.

I fold each fat quarter as follows:

I have four bookcases that have slots that are 12 inches wide.  They were purchased from Office Max.  I store by category (reproduction, batiks, plaids, taupes, general) and then by color within each category.  The shelves are actually two deep with stacks of fabric.

When I need to pull for a quilt, I will grab a stack from the color/collection that I am interested in and pick fabrics that I would like to work with.

I then unfold 2-3 pieces (iron the last few inches if necessary) and cut the strips needed.

For the Celtic Solstice, I decided I needed 24 cuts of the brown (Bonnie Hunter's orange) and 24 cuts of the green.

I then cut the strips in half so they are a little over 10 inches long and strip together, cross-cut using my Shape Cut Ruler and finished sewing my four patches.

I'm hoping to get caught up on some of the earlier steps next week.

Happy Quilting.

Kari Schell

On Point Quilter

Each year I like to find a small quilted item that I can fairly quickly produce.  This gives me something with a personal touch to gift to friends and family. 

This year I saw a quilting design by Christy Dillon from My Creative Stitches that involved stitching out ornaments onto fabric.  With my Intelliquilter on my APQS Millennium, I was pretty sure I could produce quite a few of these ornaments, so I purchased the design.  I made a ton of these.  I'm hoping she adds an ice skating ornament next year -- my numerous skating friends would really enjoy that.

I thought the six inch seemed a little big, so eventually moved to between 3.5 and 4 inches in diameter.

My biggest challenge was how to finish them.  After a number of different attempts I decided I liked the rickrack the best.  Here are a few of the finished products.

I started to think about a design that quilters could more easily do without a computerized machine.  One of the easiest Christmas designs to produce is a holly leave.  It is a series of arcs and they don't have to be consistent.  Check out this video which shows my holly wreath being stitched out in Art and Stitch.  The background music is the Marine Army Band. 

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

Kari Schell

On Point Quilter