Thursday, December 12, 2013

Playing with Celtic Solstice 2.5

This post comes in between clue #2 and clue#3 in Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt, thus the '2.5' identifier.

For Clue #1 we made these V-blocks in two color combinations:


Can you spot the 'Ooops' block?  ;-)


For Clue #2 we made chevron units:


All the units have a cut size of 3-1/2" x 3-1/2", so once they're sewn into a quilt, they'll measure 3" x 3". I've got no idea what other units Bonnie is going to have us make, but let's see what fun we can have with just these...

 
The V-blocks do lots of fun things, including making harlequin diamonds:
 
They also make star blocks ─ and are especially striking if we add some of those chevrons around them:



But we have two colors of V-block, so what else can we do...?


Whee!! OK, I admit that I had to add some red scraps on to some of the chevron units to make this work. I think that if Bonnie said that the next step was to make 100 more chevrons in another colorway, she might have a mutiny on her hands. LOL! A lot of people are finding these little units pretty challenging. I feel very fortunate that they've been coming together without much difficulty for me. Going now to knock on some wood...
I haven't made all of my units of each type yet, but this starts giving me some fun ideas. Based on the numbers Bonnie told us to make, I could get 24 of the stars with the black backgrounds, 23 stars with the red, and 25 of the orange stars. I suppose the above pattern could be in the running, but... It's a Bonnie Hunter quilt, so I'm sure there are yet a few more surprises for us to discover!

Here's something crazy for the person who loves Y-seams...


I love the movement in this layout, but I'm not sure I want to be dealing with Y-seams yet. I mean, Y deal with them, if you don't have to, right?  ;-)
How about a flashback to a block that was popular before World War II. According to Jinny Beyer's book, "The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns," ( I LOVE this book!!) this block was originally known as 'Whirligig' or 'Patch Me If You Can.'
On page 403 Jinny writes, "The Swastika, a symbol of good luck, was used in ancient cultures and religions for thousands of years before it was adapted as the emblem of the Nazi flag. The name comes from the Sanskrit svastika, 'su' meaning good and 'asti' to be; in other words ─ good luck. It is a sacred symbol in the Buddhist, Hindu and many other religions and can be seen as design motifs in many cultures including Turkish, Tibetan and Navajo rugs. It is a shame that such a sacred symbol of well-being has become so hated because of its use by Nazi Germany.
"The Swastika was also a popular quilt design, and several blocks depict the symbol in various ways...

"The latest date I have for any of the Swastika blocks I found was in June 2, 1935, when Moon and Swastika appeared in the Nancy Cabot column. For obvious reasons after that time, quiltmakers no longer considered this symbol one of good luck."
  Whirligig is such a pretty pattern. I share Jenny's sentiment of what a shame it is that it was stolen from us. Do you think it's time that we can start stealing it back? Too early? I can never tell with these things...

Of course, one drawback to making a quilt full of chevron units is that you get four pairs of waste corners for every unit that you sew. Fortunately, I'm not averse to small pieces! Pinwheels are an obvious way to use the waste corners:


Aren't they CUUUUUTE!!! And they're only 2" across, so they'll finish at only 1-1/2". They're like little Japanese SD characters, except, well... not really. If I do this with all my corners, I'll end up with 50 of each color pinwheel, or 100 pinwheels total. I wonder if that would be enough for the band on a coordinating pillowcase? Or just sew them into a 10 x 10 grid and make them into a coordinating throw pillow. OR wait to see what other scraps Bonnie leaves us with and try to put it ALL together!

Well, that's it for me this week. Next up will probably be a post on Celtic Solstice's Clue #3. I also need to write up an 'All About Me' page and a snapshot of many of the other projects that I'm working on now. So what's it to be? What would you like to see?

Happy sewing!
Meredith

1 comment:

  1. I laid out whirligigs with my clue 2 pieces, also. And, I also wondered if the pattern will ever lose the Nazi stigma. Probably not in our lifetimes.

    Barbara in MD
    www.stashoverflow.wordpress.com

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