Celtic Solstice.......Part 1........and more...........

Hey everyone!

I would like to welcome all of my new blog followers and say THANKS for visiting my blog!

I hope that you all got your fill of blessings and turkey on Thanksgiving day!  May the blessings keep on coming your way!

I thoroughly enjoyed mine spent with my family.

My wonderful sister hosted, as usual, and the meal was super good!  I contributed chicken and dumplings and a layer salad.  We also had fried turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, dressing, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, and rolls.  Not to mention pumpkin pie, and blackberry cobbler.  YUM YUM!  Yes, a great meal and time was had by all.  But, sadly, there were some people missing.  My brother in law's father passed away at the beginning of the year, as did my aunt.  Perhaps you remember me blogging about making some memory quilts out of some shirts for my brother in law's family?

Well, I have two finished and am ready to share them with you.  These will be Christmas gifts this year so the recipients haven't received them just yet.

"Hugs from Howard"

(Of course, the wind was blowing, thus, making this quilt look wonky! GRRRR!)

This quilt will be going to my b-i-l's mother.

My friend Dar of Dar's Patchwork Garden did the beautiful quilting on it.  Dar picked out the perfect panto for it, and my sister and b-i-l couldn't be happier with it.  I am sure it's recipient will really love it.

Once again, I used this tutorial to make the quilt top.

and........

"Dad Loved Cardinals Baseball"

This quilt will be going to my b-i-l's brother.

This quilt is made solely from flannel.  There were numerous flannel shirts to choose from, and I paired them with some of this red flannel I already had.  I am writing this pattern, and will be sharing it from my blog for those of you who are interested?  I couldn't be happier with the results of this quilt, and I truly think it displays the various shirt fabrics beautifully.  My friend Ann of Attic Threads generously let me use her long arm machine "BeBe" to quilt this.  I had a blast playing on BeBe and quilting wavy lines edge to edge!

So, Thanksgiving came and went, and on Thursday evening, I was like a little kid waiting for Christmas!  

Why?  

Really?  

You have to ask why????????

Celtic Solstice Mystery Part 1

I simply COULDN'T wait to dive into the first clue head first!  I even woke up an hour before the first clue went live!  DON'T JUDGE ME! LOLOLOLOL  I was so excited to see which colors we would be playing with first, and what type of units we would be making.  True to form, Bonnie Hunter taught me a new technique using the Tri-Recs ruler set right off the bat.  And, let me tell you, I LOVE THEM!  After watching her very informative tutorial, I went to work!  I have already figured out another quilt I want to make using these tools!

It was so much fun going through all of the scraps I had sorted out for this mystery.  Finding the right size scraps that would work for this first clue was exhilarating!  I love the variety I was able to achieve!

I was all ready to sew when the machine I usually do all of my piecing at home on decided to act up!

:-/

Frustrated, party of 1!

Never fear!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Murna Marita to the rescue!

Bonnie Hunter would be proud that I am using her anyway, (not to mention my Meemaw) so, I have decided I am going to piece Celtic Solstice on her exclusively!

She buzzed through this first step like a champ!

And.....

TA-DAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Part 1 is done!  Now, I have to wait until Friday again!

Linking up with Bonnie's Link Up here.

and

Connie's Freemotion by the River Linky Tuesday.

I would personally like to thank Bonnie for all she does for us scrap quilters out here in the quilting world.  I can't even begin to think about all of the time, heart, and soul she pours into each one of her works of art. Not to mention she is sharing all of the design and pattern to this quilt with us for FREE!  I would also be remiss if I didn't thank her for saluting all of the "guys that quilt" on her Quiltville Facebook Page.  What a wonderful honor it was to have one of my quilts shown with many other works of art created by the few of us men that quilt on her page.  Thus far, Celtic Solstice has already provided me with an amazing opportunity to meet many new friends via Facebook, and learn something new with the Tri-recs rulers.........and we have only had one clue thus far!  I can't wait to see what lies ahead during this mystery!

As always, I want to thank all of you for all of the encouragement!

Happy 1 year blogging anniversary to me! LOL

Kevin the Quilter