Quilting Celtic Solstice

I've been working hard.  I got my borders put on and the backing pieced. The quilt will finish at approximately 85" square.

I spray basted the layers and did some stitch-in-the-ditch stabilizing.  The free motion is driving me crazy, though, because there are so many seams and intersections.  Normally I use a Bernina Stitch Regulator on my Bernina Aurora 440 QE.  It does NOT like white tone on tone fabric, and it does not like seams and intersections.  I quickly went back to using the darning foot.  It's going to be a L....O....N.....G  process!

 

This is the finished top.

 

 

 

This is a close-up of one corner.

 

 

.

 

The pieced backing has colorful hedgehogs and leftover units from making the quilt.

 

 

This is the center of the backing.  I plan to make the pieced unit my label, and I will write the pertinent information into the lighter parts of it.

 

 

 

Here the pictures show that I am trying to add some curves to the blue units that form the large circles.  My stitching gets bumped out of line at almost every intersection!!

 

 

 

 

Fortunately, I've learned from experience that once all the quilting is done, those small mistakes rarely show up to the casual viewer. :)

 

 

To check the progress of other quilters participating in this mystery, click here.

 

 

 

 

The design is revealed!

Bonnie Hunter surprised us with the reveal of the mystery quilt as the New Year rang in.  Of course, being of a certain age, I was sound asleep and didn't find out about it until mid-morning of New Year's Day.

First I gathered all my units and stacked them in order to make the blocks.  Then I made one of each just to be sure I understood the directions, and was ending up with blocks that were the correct size.

As of nighttime on Jan.2, 2014, I had made 9 of the blocks and although they are not stitched together in this photo, you can still see the beginnings of the final design.  As of this morning, I have 17 of the blocks put together, which is approximately 1/3 of them.

 

 

 

Click here for more progress from others doing this quilt.