I am so blessed - Life is Good!

My Husband is the greatest!   After 29 1/2 years, I think he's getting the hang of giving gifts.  Crazy man that he is, he went out yesterday afternoon to do his Christmas Shopping.  Now mind you, he only has one person to buy for, but still he waits until the very last minute!

Hubby is so supportive of my quilting habit - he bought me a 5 pack of rotary cutter blades, and 10 yards of Red and blue fabrics.  How cool is that?  He knows I want to do more quilts for soldiers, and figured that red and blue would be safe.  He picked it out all by himself from my favorite fabric stores.

My Mom also got into the act with several fat quarters of red and blue and cute pirate cats,  a rotary cutter blade, template and scissors.  She was so cute - she wrapped all our gifts in these wonderful snack boxes.  I asked her to save me a few from Dad's favorite snack.  I use them to put parts of my quilts in to keep them organized.

Right now, I'm using several to keep my Celtic Solstice parts organized...

Speaking of Celtic Solstice - Check this out!  I have to date made the following:



Clue 4 - 2 patch Segments for my 4 patches

Clue 1 - Tri-Recs Triangles: 90 of 380 total. Long way to go yet
Clue 2 - Chevrons:  70 80 of 288.  Long way to go here too
Clue 3 - Half Square Triangles:  420 440 of  488 - Almost there!
Clue 4 - 4 Patches:  I don't have any finished, but I'm almost finished sewing the 120 sets of  10" x 2"
strips and cut them up into 2" segments of 2 patches.

Clue 1 Tri Recs have been put aside to work on the others.  I'm about ready to get them out because I'm kind of bored with the Chevrons. 

Clue 2 Chevrons

Neutral Squares for Chevrons

Clue 2 Chevrons are coming together, and I'm getting the hang of getting the stitching lines to work out right so I have very little trimming to do.  They are very intense though so I'm finding it hard to do more than 5 at a time. 

420 Half Square Triangles

Clue 3 and 4 are all cut and I'm using them as leader/enders for the others.  I find that I'm making steady progress.

My favorite tools right now are the little red wonder clips to hold my parts together in groups of 10,  my Bloc Lock HST ruler which is getting quite the workout, and my shape cut ruler which is helping me cut multiple strips at the same time.

Linking up with Bonnie Hunter's Linky Party over at QuiltVille. Take a look at all the other's progress.  Even a few guesses at what the block might look like!

Squeaking in under the Wire - Clue 3 Celtic Solstice

I've been pretty sick this week - a miserable time to be sick really - just before the holidays.  Darling Hubby's cold caught up to me and I've been laid low.  He was laid up for a couple of days just before Thanksgiving - this has been going on a week for me - it settled in my chest, and I think I've pulled a couple of ribs from coughing. Ouch!

I was able to get the 2" strips cut for step #3 of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery - Celtic Solstice, a few triangles cut and sewn (about 40).  They're working out pretty good, with only about 1% having to be tossed in the slush pile for another quilt.

 

I also finished a few (about 20) chevrons from Step 2.  All pieces are cut and marked, just need to feed them through the machine.



 

I'm linking back to Bonnie's Linky Party.  You should see what the others are doing.  I'm hoping to be caught up by the end of next week

Gatitude & Appreciation - Finished!

 Last week I was able to finish the Red White & Blue quilt for my client's son.  She commissioned me to make this back in July after their wedding.  It was a real labor of love, since it turned out to be 69" x 79".  Big enough for both of them to snuggle on the couch with. 

I added words of encouragement in the inside border, love, family, freedom, peace, country, courage, grateful, etc.  I hope they are as pleased with it as I was to have it finished.  It is winging its way to Mom to be presented as a Christmas Gift this year.

I'm still working on the Bonnie Hunter Mystery Celtic Solstice.  You can see my progress in Part 1 and Part 2.  I have yet to start part 3 since I still have some Christmas stuff to do.

Linking up with Can I get a Whoop Whoop from Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Well, It's still a Mystery - Celtic Solstice Part 2

This week is Part 2 of Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt.  I was able to finish about 50 Neutral and 40 Orange triangle units from Part 1.  This week it's Chevrons!!!  So I am practicing smiling when I say this because 'flippy corners' are not my favorite thing to do.

Since I'm using the scrappy look, I had many fabrics to cut into little 3 1/2 x 2 rectangles for the green part.  I dusted off my previously unused ShapeCut ruler and went to town

 See the purple painter's tape - that's so I only hit the correct slots for the 3 1/2" strips and the sub-cuts of 2".  This made cutting these strips and rectangles super fast. 

 

 

The Greens and Neutrals are all done

 

 

And Hubby was kind enough to help me with drawing the lines on the squares for the neutrals.  Now I only have the yellows to do!

In other news, I finished quilting a quilt for a solder-son of a client.  The binding is on, I only need to finish hand-stitching it down before I get it in the mail this week.

Join me at Bonnie's Linky Party and see all the progress others are making on their quilts!  I'm loving some of the alternate color combinations.

It's a Mystery! Celtic Solstice Part 1

I'm excited to participate in my very first Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt.  When the colors were released back in October, I started gathering up fabrics that I thought would work. It was fun choosing fabrics from my stash, but I had to do some shopping as well, since my colors tend to run towards the more muted country colors.  Any excuse to shop right?  I'm still lacking in the blues so I'll have to shop some more. Yaaa!

 

Last Friday, the first clue was released!  If only my smart phone would have loaded the page, I would have been in heaven!  We had to wait until we checked into the hotel before I could see it.

 

Since I was out of town until yesterday, I wasn't able to make as much progress as I would like.  So far I've cut all the orange triangles, some of the blues and a few neutrals.

 

 

 



It's a good thing I have all week to work on this step because I have a long way to go!

 

Thank you Bonnie Hunter for being generous and sharing your creativity with the quilting world!  I am excited to see how this is going to turn out.

Linking to Quiltville's Monday Linkup.  It sure is great to see so many other quilter's progress, colors and styles.

Today is Veteran's Day - A day for reflection and gratitude

I have a soft spot in my heart for Veterans.  My Papaw was a veteran of World War II, my Dad is a

veteran of Viet Nam, my husband is a veteran (though he wouldn't agree with me) of the Cold War and the first Gulf war; my Son is a veteran; my cousin is a veteran; and my nephew is a veteran.  I am proud of these men, and honored to know them and call them family.

I used to think veterans were these old guys who would swap war stories and sometimes jump at loud noises. But I look around me and I see all these young guys and gals who are 18, 20, and 30 who are veterans! 

I am honored that these fine young men and women volunteered to serve our country.  When called to service they go willingly, sometimes excitedly.  These sometimes nameless, faceless patriots face unspeakable conditions with grace and courage. Their service and sacrifice humbles me.  I am profoundly grateful that they stand for the freedoms we all enjoy; stand up for the weakest among us and stand between us and the evil that lurks in this world. 

Veterans past, present and future have seen and done things most of us cannot even imagine in our worst nightmares. They pledge their loyalty and service to our great country, sacrifice holidays, birthdays, and witnessing the births of their children to do their sworn duty.  Their families miss them as much as they miss their families.

I once heard the term veteran described this way:  A veteran writes a blank check payable to the United States of America, for all that they have up to and including their very life.  It is a sobering and humbling reality.   Too many of our service members have wounds we cannot see.  Still others are undeniably and irreparably harmed.  Far too many have paid the ultimate price.

So I'll leave you with these thoughts - where would we be without our veterans?  Would our lives be better or worse? 

If you know a veteran, thank them for me.

I never really thought about it before....

What would it be like to Quilt in Space?  In a weightless environment where your needles, pins, fabric, scissors will float off... Oh my goodness!

NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg talks about Quilting in space, what it's like, the challenges she's faced, and shows off her own hand pieced star block.  I know this has happened to me, gone on a trip with a project and forgot a key piece of equipment.  How easy is it to pop into a LQS or Wal-Mart for pins or a rotary cutter blade?  There doesn't seem to be a plethora of Wal-Marts in space, however, and like our pioneer ancestors, she had to make do. 




She's also inviting quilters to contribute a star block to bee included in a quilt that will be exhibited at the 40th International Quilt Festival in Houston.  See more information at Quilts.com about this awesome opportunity.  Deadline for entries is August 1, 2014.  It will be here before you know it!

Her block is awesome.  In my book it is a masterpiece.

You can read more about Karen Nyberg and her amazing journey here. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this.

Kathy