Weekend Progress on UFOs

If you are in the US, hopefully you are enjoying your Labor Day holiday. Being retired, it's just another Monday in our schedule. Though we do usually skip our normal chores if it's a holiday, so we feel like we've celebrated. Which means I get a three day weekend in the sewing room.  

My priority this weekend was to get Squared Away (Soscrappy) ready to go to the long armer this next week. If I want it back before Christmas that needs to happen.  First job was to press and then cut the wide backing to size.  

That was an all day deal as I had to fold the fabric two different ways to get it cut to size.  But that's ready to go. Yesterday I started prepping the quilt top. 

The first four rows are pressed and de-threaded. That leaves just two rows and the bottom border to take care of today.  Unfortunately the black fabric that I used in the sashing unravels really easily, so there were a lot of black threads to remove. 

That's a pretty good pile and I'm not done yet.  But since most of the blocks have white/light backgrounds, getting those black threads off is important.  

There wasn't much progress on Celtic Solstice (Bonnie Hunter), but there had been good progress earlier in the week. All the 4-patch chain alternate blocks were finished at the end of last month.  The main block has lots of parts, 52 pieces per block. I had enough of the centers and corner units for 5 blocks, but needed to make the chevron units before starting to assemble the blocks. That meant I needed to cut fabric, so I cut all the parts needed to make the rest of the components. 

I had enough of the orange/teal HSTs to make the block centers, but I still need some for the corner units.  I've made a good start on the chevron units, had enough to finish up two more of the main blocks. So this is what was up on the design wall by the end of the weekend. 

 

One block is sitting at the sewing machine partially assembled.  Still lots of block components to make. I definitely won't finish all the main blocks this week, but I should make good progress. 

Sewing time can be dangerous because it gives your mind opportunities to wander while you are sitting at the machine. My version of Celtic Solstice has been 13 years in the making. I started wondering if anyone else had waited so long.  Looking that the Quiltville Open Studio page on Facebook, I found two quilters that just finished assembling their versions in February and August of this year.  So I'm not the only one that didn't get back to her version very quickly.  

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts and Sew & Tell Monday.