Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt

My Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt is taking place very slowly. This is all that I have done so far but at least it's a start! Too many other UFO's that I'm trying to get finished. Hopefully that will happen soon. One of them has to be done by next week. After that I will have a little more time to get back to this project! I am enjoying all the various quilters all over the world who are sharing their progress on this quilt. It is an awesome class that includes people from both sides of our Planet Earth!

Grand Illusion!

• It's been a hectic week but I have finally begun the Grand Illusion! So far only one block to see how things would look. Plus I had difficulty finding my ruler as I had put it away and forgot where I put it! But that's the way it is when you are a Senior! The fabrics I have chosen are Batiks. Guess I should change my needle to Microtec  for Batiks. I hope to do this at a slower pace than I did the Celtic Solstice!

Grand Illusion!

Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt is Finished!!

• Now that I have the blue binding framing my Celtic Solstice, I really love it!. My quilter, Cathy Lexvold did a fantastic job of quilting it. She used a swirly ocean wave on the body of the quilt, a shamrock on the white inner border, coils on the orange triangles made them appear to be trees and the green outer border has Irish flowers.
• Bonnie Hunter designed this quilt and offered it on her site free of charge. It was a Mystery Quilt which means that those making it didn't know what it would look like until the very end. It is still available to the public at this address:  http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/celtic-solstice-mystery.html
• Bonnie's class turned out to be a global class with classmates from all over the world sharing their progress, ideas and suggestions on Bonnie's Blog. It was a fantastic learning experience unlike any other learning experiences I've ever had. Bonnie will be doing another Mystery Quilt next year. She announces it on her Quilt Ville site on Facebook. The Celtic Solstice pattern will be available free of charge until June 1, 2014.

Celtic Solstice is being quilted!

• My friend, Cathy Lexvold is quilting my Celtic Solstice. I have decided to leave the outer border as shown and frame it with a blue print binding that is used in my quilt. Hopefully that will tone it down a notch. Cathy does excellent work and quilts for a reasonable price. As I've said previously, this mystery quilt turned out to be a fantastic global class as our classmates were from all over the world and were wonderful about sharing ideas and giving helpful tips. 
• The price was right, too. Bonnie Hunter designed this quilt and published it free of charge with access through Facebook. 
• Every once in a while, Bonnie goes 'live' on the internet and it is called Quilt Cam. These are also archived and can be watched later if you can not watch it at the time it is 'live'. She always does Quilt Cam on one of her vintage machines and tells a little about each machine. 
• Many of her patterns are free on her Quiltville site. Bonnie is the ultimate scrappy quilter and teaches her techniques for saving and organizing scraps. Bonnie is full of energy and somehow manages to juggle a very full schedule. She's booked solid through 2016!
• Check her out at this site:   http://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/celtic-solstice-mystery.html

• It's a little bright but it is finished! I finished it at a retreat. I love it and received a lot of wonderful comments about this quilt and the pattern Bonnie designed. I have learned so much from Bonnie and others who made this mystery quilt.
• This has been one of my most memorable quilt classes. My classmates were from all over the world and gave each other great feedback along the way. Not only did Bonnie give us this fabulous pattern for free but helped assist us in learning how to set up our own blog and attach it to her blog.

• I'm considering using a different border as this one seems so bright. Maybe a dark blue would be a better choice.
• The backing is a similar green print to the green border.
• I plan to bind it with the green border fabric unless I decide to change the border.

Three done and four to go!

Three rows assembled but not sewn together! All my blocks are finished so I expect to finish the top in the next 2 days at the Quilting Retreat at Bridge Creek Cottage. If you see anything that needs correcting, I welcome your comments. Also tried to put the Celtic Solstice Logo on here and ended up with computer language instead. Would like your comments as to how to fix that problem!

Celtic Solstice in progress

• I'm making steady progress on this interesting quilt. I can't quite decide what I want to do for borders but will probably go with the white and green shown here. I am going to alternate the rows as shown above using 16 of the square blocks and 9 of the star blocks which have the Chevrons reversed. You have probably already noticed some of my screw ups. The most glaring of which is that some of my pinwheels are going one way and others another way! This has been a great learning experience for me as Bonnie is such a great teacher and explains the why of everything she asks you to do. I love the secondary designs that are created by her pattern: the large circles that appear pieced, the orange and green Irish chains and shapes formed by the neutral areas. I fully expect to get this finished this week at a Retreat I am attending at Heart to Hand Retreat Center here in Wisconsin. 
•    The high today was -15 degrees Fahrenheit and that doesn't take into account the wind chill factor. So it is a great time to stay inside and quilt! Those on the opposite end of our planet are having to deal with extreme heat!
•    I have mentioned this before but I don't know if everyone saw it. It is as though over 200 quilters have been in the same room working on the same quilt thanks to Bonnie getting us to all link up in cyberspace. I have met so many interesting people all over our planet. How is that for togetherness!!

Other Celtic Solstice Quilts

The Big Reveal of Celtic Solstice

quiltville.blogspot.com

Now that I have the first 4 blocks assembled, I am really excited about getting the rest finished as well. I think I might use a green inner border instead of the white that is suggested. It has been so much fun working on this quilt with so many people all over the planet. It sometimes feels like we are all in one huge room sharing our ideas, helping each other and doing a little Show and Tell. Our weather in Wisconsin is conducive to staying at home and working on this quilt. We are expecting a high of -12 degrees on Sunday and a low of -25. Luckily, I filled my car today when it was-2 and sunny. Hopefully I will have the top finished soon so I can share it in our big classroom-cyberspace!To see all of our participants quilts, click on the quiltville link above.