Scottish Celtic Solstice Clue 5

I was very excited to do clue 5 of Bonnie's (Scottish) Celtic Solstice Mystery because I have done these blocks before and although I knew a pretty easy method I wondered what Linda Franz of Inklingo had up her sleeve for this clue.
WOW!  So very easy compared to cutting all the little triangles and having to sew them on bias!  I am just even more impressed how adaptable Inklingo is to all kinds of quilt blocks.  I will admit that on my own I probably wouldn't have figured out this method so kudos to Linda and Monkey too.

One hundred blocks done!

Now, the bad news.  For some unfathonable reason my HP 1502 printer has gotten dementia or something and instead of printing on command just sits there and blinks at me.   Sigh...
I have done everything I know how to do...rebooted the computer (multiple times), unplugged and plugged in the printer itself (multiple times), uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers (multiple times), banged it on the top hoping to loosten something that might be causing it to bind up (one time) and nothing!
I have two other printers but one is a laser and one has to have the paper (with the fabric fused) stand upright and it doesn't allow the sheet to go through at all so....
I am guessing that I will have to find a new printer.  I need a simple one but from the messages on my Inklingo group, it seems that the new HP's don't allow for custom or user defined sizes which I need for Inklingo use and they have been the more cheeper printers.
so....
I will have to think about this for a day or more but need to decide for the future of my Inklingo use

Visit Here if you want to see some other amazing Celtic Solstice Mystery projects in progress.

Pineapple Blossom at Last!

Well...it's about time!
Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple Blossom blocks were the one I chose for my President of New Friends departing gift...I asked the ladies to make at least one block using my favorite color green.
I got an over abundance of wonderful blocks to play around with however they sat in limbo for ummmm 5+ years... sad to say!
anyway
I thought this would be the perfect time to get them out of the box and just put them together.  I had to do a bit of squareing up, which took some time but...it's working out just fine.
Thank goodness the quilt Queen Carmen reminded me that I would want to sash them anyway so I could square up (actually down) and even though the corner triangles were different sizes it was going to look great!
Hopefully I will have the whole quilt top together in a couple of days...Christmas should be a kind of quiet one and a perfect time for some sewing.

Scottish Celtic Solstice Clue 4

With Christmas less than a week away Bonnie was kind with this clue.  Four-patches!
To do mine I didn't use Inklingo but just cut strips sew them into pairs then used my June Taylor Shape Cut to cut the strips into segments of 2 inches which I joined into pairs and then I had four patches.

So in the Art Bin Satchel you see all the clues so far

 While I was stitching away outside we were getting snowfall.  The birds were busy at the feeders  mostly Finches although I get Buntings, Chickadee and Gross Beak on and off. 
Stay warm birds!

Scottish Celtic Soltice Clue 3 with Update

It's the day for clue 3 in Bonnie Hunters' mystery and I was pretty happy to see this clue to be pinwheels from HSTs
As usual I am using Inklingo for my quilt and Linda and Monkey have a great way to make them easy peasy!  You are able to print a page 7.75 x 10.5 and get 24 HSTs so by printing 8 sheets plus a small 5.25 x 5.5 sheet for 8 more and you have the 100 needed by layering the printed fabric with an unprinted fabric and stitching a grid.   No special rulers, no drawing lines and no removing paper!
Genius!
So after binding a Christmas present lap quilt and making a special pillowcase I started

 Fabric printed and ready to stitch

 After stitching, cutting into triangles and ready to press

Pressed and ready to trim dog ears and create 25 pinwheels and the rest we are to save for later...
I love that things went so well today although I need a major clean up of the bathroom and floors of the kitchen and living room but in my defense Mr Creative has been hard at work creating a train display in the living room for our tree and I have put off disturbing his "stuff" until he is done but that is going to have to happen as the floors are atrocious!

Monday Dec 16
Clue 3 Finished  with a couple of rejects...sew-er's error...Not as much contrast with my sandy tanish brown and yellow/gold but looks good to me

Scottish Celtic Solstice Clue 2 Finished

Yep, clue 2 is finished...this one took some brain power for sure!  
There are 100 chevron blocks that measure 3.5 inches square.  Many aren't even close to perfect  but I will make a few extra now that I am much better at making the blocks after making 100.
I think I have plenty of contrast so far and Bonnie says that is more important than colors.

Update on Belle she did well but is scratching at the surgical site so I had to tape a sock to her rear foot so that her nails can't cause more irritation.  I will post a picture soon.

Scottish Celtic Soltice Linky Day 2

Here it is Clue 2 Linky day for Scottish Celtic Solstice
Friday was clue 2 release and of course it ended up being a busy busy day so Saturday was the first day really get

to going and then DH Mr Creative needed help on and off Saturday with his Christmas train set up under the tree so not even a real sewing day for me.
So by Sunday night I managed to finish a bit over 40 units.
I am hoping to get them all done before Clue 3 but who knows.

Took our dog Belle to the vet for some surgery this morning so I will have time while waiting to hear when I can pick it up.

Stay safe little girl!

Scottish Celtic Soltice Clue 1 Finished

These are my original choices but I took out a few and added some others as I began.
My theme is Scotland, where many of my ancestors came from
to
North Carolina, where my family (except me ) live now and I did much of my growing up.
Yellow for the Gorse in Scotland and the sunshine of NC
Green for the trees and bushes of Scotland and NC
Blue for the Flag of Scotland, the St Andrew's Cross and the beautiful blue skies of NC
Tan for the peat that kept my ancestors warm in Scotland and the wonderful beaches of NC
White for the sheep that give the wool for kilts of proud Scotsmen and women and the Dogwood flowers at Eastertime in NC

So clue one is finished!
That is 92 units with sand colored triangles and 96 units with white triangles and the same green smaller triangles...I think Doreen Speckman called the smaller triangles Spike and the larger triangles Peaky.
I finished the last 36 or so on my Singer 27-4 treadle and it was a good way to get some experience.  I am not a very smooth treader and hope the more I use it the better I will get.
Now the wait is on for Clue 2 next Friday morning!
Oh, and the Inklingo part went smoothly it's the sewer who is at fault for the mistakes! LOL
You can see many other quilters who are reporting in on Monday Dec 2 for the first Linky Party at Bonnie's Blog
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up-1.html

Scottish Celtic Solstice day 2

Too tired to upload my finish last night so here it is as of Sunday Dec 1, 2013
I ended up printing some extra fabrics since I think I had discarded a fabric or two because the lines just weren't very visible...not because the fabric was too dark all over but because the backside had too much of the colors showing.  Lesson learned look for backs that are less busy!  LOL
I have about 36 more to finish up with clue #1. 
I tried a few on my treadle but I am not experienced enough to control how the pieces feed when I have to stop add the next pieces and then start again.  I think maybe the belt has stretched again and Mr Creative will need to shorten it once more. 
I am hoping to get the last bunch done today because I may be called to babysit my grand daughter since my DIL has a newly broken bone in her foot and maybe hand too...sigh it must be very hard to be about 6  1/2 mo pregnant and dealing with a toddler and a broken foot.  Luckily she's had her DD C there to give her a hand this weekend but she will need to go back to school on Monday.

I'm Back!

Been so neglectful of my blog for months and months but because I need to do a link to a blog for Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery I am repenting for now!  LOL
It's just too easy to post pics and comments on Facebook these days but I do miss my blogging world so I will really try to do a little of both now.

Thanksgiving was Thurs and we had D's family at our home for dinner.  I is ready to bite into the turkey!  LOL  D says we should make it a tradition to do the outside Christmas lights on Thanksgiving day so I told them GO FOR IT!  As you can see the Moravian star is up and the simple tube lights are around the house.  Now I need to get the timer set correctly.
We ended the day with a game that big A taught the kids and it's nice that I can play the games  with everyone since he is now 6. 
A wonderful family day

necklace test pic

 

Dance Festival Time Again

It's now been 31 years that Mr Creative and I have been attending the yearly Dance Festival and field day at Forbes School.  Starting with oldest DS D and now his oldest child I.
With no knowledge of where I would be dancing I tried to find a central spot to take a few pictures.  Yeah,  didn't work out so well  LOL  He was way on one side.
So...do you see him?

OK maybe this will help...

The kids danced to Under the Sea and Who Let the Dogs Out and did quite a bit of choreography.  They had lots of fun and looks like with his little sister only one yr old, we will be attending this event for a whole bunch more years!

Time to Mow

Actually I don't mind mowing the grass as long as it isn't too hot and today was the perfect day for that.  I wish someone could fix the auto-start LOL

Outfit for Today 5-12-13

Doing a bit of experimentation with my "look" 
For today I went for the brown/khaki/ combo with a cute polka dot scarf for my yuck-o hair.