Celtic Solstice: Finished!

 

It's done!  My Celtic Solstice quilt is finally done!

I made the smaller version of the quilt, but it wasn't quite large enough for my needs so I extended it a bit.  I added the checkerboard border to the top and bottom of the quilt to lengthen it a little, and I also added a border all around the quilt, using a grey print that was too perfect to pass up.

I mean, look at that print!  It really mimics the effect that the pieced blocks in Bonnie's quilt achieve.  This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I went looking for a border fabric, but it fits the bill perfectly and I'm glad I used it.

I quilted it with a simple meander, which will be fine for a bed quilt.  The meander gives the quilt texture without being too complicated, plus I didn't have a pantograph that really seemed to "go" with the quilt.  I used white thread for the quilting, I really had wanted a light blue but none of my blue threads looked right.  That's OK, the white worked just fine.

Thank you Bonnie, for once again writing and sharing a fantastic Mystery Quilt project.  You can see other folks' finished quilts at her last Link-Up of the project.

My Little Labels

I have decided I'm going to try selling some homemade items at a Holiday Bazaar next year, which means the time to start making those items is NOW.  :)

I want my items to have a  professional look to them, so I decided I wanted some labels to sew onto my projects.  Not big huge tags, but little ones like you see sewn onto the hemlines of some shirts, or sticking out from the trim on a bag.  Then I came across a link on Pinterest that talked about exactly the kind of labels I was wanting.  That blog writer recommended this Etsy shop, where she had her labels made:

Worldwide Label

This shop is located in Hong Kong, and I guess they must deal with large volumes of label making because (to me) the communication was pretty slow.  I'd ask a question, and it might be 2-3 days (sometimes more) before getting a response.  Of course, I'm always on the computer and I'm very much a now.Now.NOW kind of person, so to me a response time longer than a day is "slow".  So take that into consideration LOL.  However, despite my impatience, they were very professional, answered my questions well, and the end result blew me away.

Finally, after much anticipation, my labels arrived!

Aren't they just too cute?  They turned out beautifully, exactly what I was wanting.  And they're the perfect little size to add on to my sewn projects.  Of course, I had to try them out as soon as I got them out of the box, so I made some rice-filled neck ice/heat packs and sewed a label into each one.

Here they are!  My first items with my tag sewn on.  How cute did they turn out?  Oh, I'm so excited!

I have 300 of these little labels to use up, so I'd better get cracking with making my items.  :)