Tea Towel Challenge, PPV and Celtic Solstice updates!!

It has been a quite productive holiday time for me! At least from the point of view of crafty things :)
I delivered all the Christmas presents (all handmade item) and I will share them with you later on this month... because now I have to update you on 3 QAL that I joined: Tea Towel Challenge, Paper Piecing Vintage BOM and Celtic Solstice Mystery!

** Tea Towel Challenge update**
As mentioned before, my tea towel will be the center piece for a wall hanging and it will be surrounded by blocks from the PPV (see later). January would have been the "fabric selection" time for this challenge but I actually already finished my center piece and it looks like this:

The fabric that I will use is going to be scrappy... in dark blue, white and aqua (see later for the whole design). I cut out the main design on the tea towel and I reproduced (in paper piecing) the little geometric motif in the lower band. I increased that in size and I put them on the side of the tea towel. I added some blue and white strips to reach the right size (12'' x 18'') to be coupled with the 6'' blocks of the PPV.
I am pretty happy about this center block, even if I doubled the white fabric (because it was too much "seeing through" for my taste)... this made the little pieces a little bulky and not "perfectly matching" but I like them anyway! :)


** Paper Piecing Vintage update **
The first pattern was released few days ago!! And this is my block:

And I needed three of them, because of my Tea Towel Challenge design :) so this is how the PPV and Tea Towel Challenge looks right now:

I am pretty sure that I will change the greek top/bottom border... and I will probably replace it with a bigger version of the motif I already put on the sides of the tea towel... I think that will be a more cohesive choice... but we will see... I have one year of blocks to make before adding that border... I may change my mind a thousand times more :)


** Celtic Solstice Mystery update **
And the Celtic Solstice was revealed on Jan 1st!! :) I still didn't complete step 5 at that time, but now I not only completed that but I also put together my blocks!!!
Step 5 picture (again I created the paper piecing pattern for the split triangle unit) :)

And these are the finished block on my design wall:

I have just few blocks because for each part of the mystery I just did one fourth of the small quilt blocks... I will add the missing one later on, since I want to make this as a baby quilt... but let me tell you: I really like this design!!! I love patterns that made circles appear without any curved seam!! :) I love the color I choose, they are very bright even if I cannot take a good picture of them now because it's cloudy :( I will when the top will be done! And I love the scrappyness!!

As a final note: the official name of this quilt will be "The perfectly unmatching points"... so if you are a member of the quilt-police, let me tell you that every unmatching point is a design choice against the search of perfection that causes nothing but stress :) during the assembly process I decided to put pins here and there to force some points to match, but not everywhere because I prefer to admire a finished block than stressing about points and using my seam-ripper all the time :)
And Pumpkin (who has been recently being spayed :( this is the reason for the cone) checked them and she gave me her approval, as you can see below:

So if SHE approved them, who can tell me that they are not ok???
And if you want to check everybody else's progress, you can find the link-up party here!!

And that's it for now...
I wish you all a crafty 2014!!! :)

P.S. Actually I also made some progress in the As You Wish QSAL because I am one of the designers so I have access to some patterns before the official release ;) I did one PP block and two embroidery blocks!! I am very proud how the embroidery blocks turned out because I never did "serious" embroidery work (i.e., with stitches different from back stitch) before... but I think my blocks are pretty good for being my first experiment using stem stitch, satin stitch, brick stitch, french knots and lazy daisy stitches ;)
I am sorry but I cannot share pictures of the blocks because they are still secret :) but I will do it as soon as they are officially released on Fandom In Stitches!! ;)