Celtic Solstice Part 5

Wow! I am so glad I made Chicken Tortilla Soup today. Not only did I get to smell it cooking in the crock pot all day, I got to sew without worrying what I was making for dinner. It has also gotten very cold outside... well, at least for this south Texas girl it is very cold. The soup hit the spot for dinner.

I finished Clue 5 of Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice today. I worked on these units in bits and pieces this weekend. I try to sew for about an hour and a half and then take a break for a while. If I go much longer, I find I get careless with seam widths and have to trim or rip out. Seems like the older I get the shorter my attention span. It helps to break things up.

Tomorrow, I am going to begin working on some skirts for my daughter. I used to sew clothes for both daughters all the time when they were little. Not so much any more. I was surprised when she asked me to do them. This ought to be fun.

Check out the progress of others on Bonnie Hunter's blog.

Celtic Solstice Clue 4

Clue #4 of Celtic Solstice is done! I wanted to get it finished before Monday, so I did not have to work on it during Christmas week while I have company. I am also trying to keep up with each clue as we go along because I do not want this to become a UFO!
So, 120 four patches are ready.



To see others progress on Bonnie Hunter's blog, click here.

Celtic Solstice Clue 3

It is time to link up Clue 3 of Bonnie Hunter"s 2013 Mystery quilt Celtic Solstice. The units this time ate 2 inch half square triangles with some of those being made into 25 pinwheel units. I used the Easy Angle ruler for most of the HST and then tried a different method that I found on Youtube for the others. The second method involved cutting larger squares, marking the diagonals, sewing on either side of the diagonals and then cutting them apart.



Follow this link to the Youtube video.

You get 8 triangles from each square. I must say that this is faster than using the Easy Angle ruler, but I like both ways of doing it. With the second method, I had to sliver trim every HST, with the Easy Angle ruler, I did not, unless I didn't make my seams the appropriate size. I may try to figure out if I can adjust the size of the square in the second method so I don't have to sliver trim. It really was faster to do them this way, even with the trimming.



All of my pinwheels are different combinations of the fabrics. No two look exactly alike.

The see others progress, check out this page on Bonnie's blog.

Soy Ginger Chicken

Ingredients

1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
5 cloves garlic, sliced
2/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1 piece ginger, cut into strips
5 scallions, sliced diagonally
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 chicken drumsticks or thighs, skinned
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Cooked rice for serving

In a 5-6 crockpot, stir together first 9 ingredients, add chicken and carrots and stir to coat. Cover and cook on low for about 6 hours. Skim, discarding any fat. When ready to serve, put 1 cup of liquid from the crockpot into a saucepan. Whisk together 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water, stir into liquid to thicken by boiling for a minute. Pour back into the crockpot and mix well. Serve over rice with additional scallions and cilantro.

Celtic Solstice Part 2

The second clue for Bonnie Hunter's 2013 mystery quilt was posted on Friday. It is a chevron unit using green, yellow and neutral fabrics. This is the first time I have made this type of unit. All of the cutting done on Friday and I began putting the units together on Saturday. I did mark the diagonal line on the squares, but chose to clip the corners off directly into my crumb bag instead of making bonus triangles. These have not gone as quickly as I had hope and actually take more concentration then the triangle units. I prefer to make sets of ten and then ten more to combine into chevrons. As with the triangle units, I get more accurate the more units I make. The first few that I combined were done wrong, at least I caught my mistake quickly.

To see the progress of others, click on the following link here

Celtic Solstice

Earlier this year when I first began reading Bonnie Hunter's blog, I decided to do her mystery quilt this year. Celtic Solstice, her 2013 Mystery Quilt began on Friday, Nov. 29th. She had given information about colors and yardage in October, so I had already chosen those. I decided to use the Tri Recs rulers to cut triangles since I have never used them before. I want as many new experiences as possible to learn from, it keeps my brain busy. Friday, I cut and cut and cut. Saturday and Sunday, I sewed a lot, ripped a few, trimmed a few and got better the more I sewed. By the timed I finished, I didn't need to trim at all. Nothing was off much, I think it was my own "it has to be perfect self" getting in the way. The colors Bonnie chose appeal to me, so I will be using them too.

I will be making the smaller size quilt, so 188 units are finished and waiting.

Ready for Clue # 2 this Friday. Keeping up and finishing each step as we go will be a challenge, but I am sure going to try. You can read all about the first clue on Bonnie's blog, just click on the little green bear on the right side of this page. To see others progress on step 1, follow this link here