Thank goodness for a holiday.  Today is President’s day.  There’s no work so I get to spend the day not working.  yay!  I do have some errands to run that I’ve been putting off since it’s been raining and I haven’t wanted to go out in the rain.  But other than that I’ll be working on the following items…

Missing Ivy – I need to prep this for my visit with the long arm.  I took the batting out of the package and it is airing out the creases.  I hope to be able to trim it down to the size I need.  I also need to trim the backing and press the top and the back.

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas – Finish the border on this top. This is almost done and I hope to finish it this week.

Zipper pouch – I want to watch the zipper pouch class (I believe this is a free class on Craftsy) and possibly put one or two together.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Check out more at  and  and   and 

Have a great week!

~Melanie

Celtic Solstice – Woohoo!  Finished top!

Celtic Solstice
Finished Top
2/13/2017

This quilt is so big that I can’t get a good picture of the entire thing.  It’s wet and overcast outside so I could not get a picture outside over my wall.  Oh well.  Next step is to get the back in order.  That’s not something I’m looking forward to so I’ll continue working on the border of Have Yourself a Quilty Little Christmas.

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas!
2/13/2017

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Check out more at  and  and   and 

Have a great week!

~Melanie

Celtic Solstice – more progress!  I have 2 sides of the final border attached.  I’m working on the other 2 sides this week and then I can start getting the back together.

Celtic Solstice
2/6/2017

It’s overcast again but as soon as I took this picture and took the quilt back inside the sun came out!  Oh well.  Hopefully the sun cooperates when this top is finished!

I know the next step is to work on the back but I think I’ll take a break from Celtic Solstice.  I will pull out Have Yourself a Quilty Little Christmas and start working on the borders.

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas!
10/16/2016

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Check out more at  and  and   and 

Have a great week!

~Melanie

Celtic Solstice – I know I keep showing this picture….

Celtic Solstice
Inner Top completed
1/22/2017

But the quilt is so big I’m having problems taking a pic that will show the whole thing.  This is as close as I got:

Celtic Solstice
Inner Top completed
1/30/2017

This was taken on the floor of my living room.  The colors show up so much better than the pic above outside by the pool.  It didn’t help that it was overcast on 1/22 but I love how the quilt is coming along.  I’m onto the third and final border.  The pattern I got from Bonnie in 2013 says that the final border should be a neutral.  I have a feeling that that is wrong and was probably corrected after I retrieved the final instructions.  The reason being that the picture of the final quilt on the instructions has the final border as being green.  A quick google search showed me that different quilters used different colors for that final border.  I’m going to have to go through my stash and figure out what to use for my final border.  I’ve got orange, yellow and blue fabrics put away in my Celtic Solstice box and I plan to try those out before diving into the stash bins.  I have a feeling I’m not going to love them but I won’t know for sure until I lay them out to try.

Once this top is done, the next step is to piece a back for it.  Then I can set it aside until I’m ready to rent the long arm and quilt it.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Check out more at  and  and   and 

Have a great week!

~Melanie

Celtic Solstice – I finished the inner top last week and I’m working on the borders.

Celtic Solstice
Inner Top completed
1/22/2017

I’m just working on Celtic Solstice right now and I’ve got one of the steps for Scrapitude 2016 as my leaders/enders.  That’s it and it’s slow because I do not have time during the week to work on borders.  I generally only do them on the weekend.  It’s kind of why I’ve gotten so much done on my knitting.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Check out more at  and  and   and 

Have a great week!

~Melanie

In terms of crafting and making, Dr. King’s words ring true too!  Every step is another step to the finish!  I’m not going to make a to do list for this week.  Here are the projects I want to work on this 1st quarter:

Missing Ivy – needs to be quilted but I am holding off as I don’t want to spend the $80 it will be to rent the long arm.  I hope that this will change in February.

Celtic Solstice – the inner top is almost done.  Then I’ve got the borders to do.

Celtic Solstice
The sides and bottoms are all done and here it is with all the blocks laid down.
11/28/2016

Have yourself a quilty little Christmas! – The top is almost done too.  I just have the border to do.

Raining Cats and Dogs – I’m hand quilting this and I haven’t touched it in a long time.  I want to start working on this again so.

Provence – All the blocks are done so I just need to start putting the top together.  I’m pretty sure there are borders but I can’t remember if that is truly the case.

I do want to focus on getting some of my UFOs and WIPs done this year but I’m not going to have my goals listed out each month like I did last year.  I am keeping it simple in that I’m going to work on one project at a time.  Right now I’m working on Celtic Solstice.  I think I could get this top finished in January.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Celtic Solstice
chunking in process
12/5/2016

Check out more at  and  and   and 

Have a great week!

~Melanie

Celtic Solstice
chunking in process
12/5/2016

Last week’s to do list:

• Celtic Solstice – attach pairs of the 4-blocks together. There will be 12 of them.
  • done
• Scrapitude 2016 – continue working on these as my leaders/enders between other projects.
  • done
• Provence – piece pairs together.
  • done
• Area One 2012 Mystery Quilt – now that Bonnie’s mystery started for the season, I’m putting this project on the back burner.  I probably will not get started on this again until after Bonnie’s reveal in January.
• En Provence –  Bonnie’s 2016 Mystery – work on the first clue and play!
  • done!!!
• Have yourself a quilty little Christmas! – work on the borders.  I picked up the kit when I came back from Colorado but haven’t gotten around to actually doing anything with it.
  • not done!
• Missing Ivy – I still need to do this but I have to call and schedule time on the long arm.  So that’s the next step.
  • not done

So this week, here’s my target:

• Missing Ivy – schedule time on the long arm, press the front, back and prep the batting.
• Have yourself a quilty little Christmas! – finish up the border.
• En Provence –  Bonnie’s 2016 Mystery – work on the second clue and play!
• Celtic Solstice – piece quadrants together… There should be 4 of them.
• Scrapitude 2016 – continue working on these as my leaders/enders between other projects.
• Provence – prep the side triangles and piece them

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Check out more at  and  and   and 

Have a great week!

~Melanie

Celtic Solstice
The sides and bottoms are all done and here it is with all the blocks laid down.
11/28/2016

As I get going on this year’s Bonnie Hunter mystery, I’m also finishing up the top from her 2013 mystery quilt.  This still has a few ways to go since I’ve still got the borders to do.  But I’m going to try to make this my first finish of 2017.  Of course, that means I have to do what I plan to do in December. ;0

Last week’s to do list:

• Celtic Solstice – attach the right sides (5) and the bottoms (4) and the odd one in the corner (1)
  • done!  woohoo… I can feel the finish coming… 🙂
• Scrapitude 2016 – Okay so I’ve been very good at getting the first step done as my leaders/enders for Celtic Solstice but since I’ve been back I’m slowly running out of one of the needed pieces for the first step.  I’m not sure if I put away the baggie with these pieces (and I’ll need to look around for them) or if I just didn’t cut enough originally (totally possible) or if Charlotte didn’t tell us to cut enough (I don’t think so because she did make updates throughout the progress and I don’t remember seeing her say anything about this particular piece.  So I need to do some research on this one.
  • Okay so I found the little baggy with the missing pieces.  They fell off the side of my sewing table!  I continued to piece these on as my leaders/enders while I worked on other things.
• Provence – I need to figure out what the next step is.
  • done!  I laid out my blocks and was wondering how I was to cut my side and corner triangles.  I didn’t see the instructions.  I found them with the cutting instructions (so obvious, right?)!  Anyway I posted about my progress and issues here and now I need to piece the rows together and buy another yard of fabric for the side triangles.
• Area One 2012 Mystery Quilt – do one of the kits
  • done!  I’ll post an update with pics tomorrow.
• En Provence –  Bonnie’s 2016 Mystery – Retrieve the first clue on Friday and hopefully have time to get started on it!
  • done!  Well, I haven’t finished the clue but I retrieved it and I got started on it! 🙂

So this week, here’s my target:

• Celtic Solstice – attach pairs of the 4-blocks together. There will be 12 of them.
• Scrapitude 2016 – continue working on these as my leaders/enders between other projects.
• Provence – piece pairs together.
• Area One 2012 Mystery Quilt – now that Bonnie’s mystery started for the season, I’m putting this project on the back burner.  I probably will not get started on this again until after Bonnie’s reveal in January.
• En Provence –  Bonnie’s 2016 Mystery – work on the first clue and play!
• Have yourself a quilty little Christmas! – work on the borders.  I picked up the kit when I came back from Colorado but haven’t gotten around to actually doing anything with it.
• Missing Ivy – I still need to do this but I have to call and schedule time on the long arm.  So that’s the next step.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

Check out more at  and  and   and 

Have a great week!

~Melanie