Celtic Solstice-Wrapping up Step one, On to Step Two (Chevrons)

Today I am thankful for a winter storm watch and a "caring" DH who insisted I take a vacation day today rather than chance driving in ice and snow. 

I spent the first morning hour sitting on the couch, drinking coffee. The tree and fireplace were on. It was delightful.

The perfect place for morning coffee

Having the day off was great. I have extra vacation days to use. Plus  I was behind on Step One of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt, Celtic Solstice. It was the perfect time to catch up. Since no one was stirring at six AM and my sewing machine is in the basement below a bedroom, I delayed sewing and decided to go ahead and cut step two. It went quickly. I have a nice selection of greens, but am rather limited in my yellows. My neutral is constant through out the quilt.

Step 2 fabric

Before I started to sew Step 2, it was Back to Step 1 to finish. Last week I pieced my orange background blocks individually. I was learning how to use the TRI-RECS ruler and it was the first time I made that particular block. After a dozen blocks I had the hang of it. Still for some reason I keep doing these blocks individually.  Why I did not strip piece the orange blocks after the first dozen I don't know. As a result it took me most of the week to do my blocks with the orange background. It took a few hours to do the neutral blocks, which I strip pieced. Lesson learned!

Strip piecing

Strips waiting for the left side.

Mixing up the blocks

Another change I made with the neutral blocks is to randomly piece the blue. My orange background blocks had the same fabric on both sides. It was faster to piece randomly and I think they turned out nice. I merely stacked my left sides as I strip pieced the right. When it was time to piece the left side I just just picked what was next. I think keeping my values close to the paint chips helped because there is not too much variation and there is no one fabric that seems to shout above it's neighbor..

Sample of blocks with neutral background.

Step 2 is Chevrons. I am familiar with this block. Bonnie used a block pieced the same for the Easy Street Border. The only different is this is two blocks sewn together to make the Chevron. I decided to make kits for my blocks. I made 10 at a time. I can have an assembly line to sew the block, but not so many pieces that I get disorganized.

Chevron kits, ready to assemble

This time I am doing each block individually, but I think it is actually working and I feel I am efficiently assembling the blocks. I sew my bottom and top 2 inches squares on. The block stays together and nothing can be placed backwards. When both sides are done. I trim my corners and sew the two sides together.

Sewing on the squares.

Initially I planned to use the same yellow on both sides. I thought this would work best because I had so few yellows. However after experimenting with the yellow I decided to randomly pick my fabrics. I was pleasant surprised now nice they worked. I have about 20 done, and I still have Saturday to finish up. I might have this entire step done before Bonnie's next linky.

Sample of Step 2 Chevrons

Thanks for checking in. Happy sewing to all.