Behind Again?

Well now, how'd I get so far behind?  And I haven't said Happy New Year?  And here I thought I had, but haven't, even over on D.O.O.W..  So, Happy New Year!

Actually, I think I was distracted by a very good quilting reason, as Bonnie Hunter surprised us ... and don't most of you in blogland already know that? ... with the reveal of Celtic Solstice at midnight of New Year's Eve (east coast time), so at 11:30 p.m. Pacific time, I noticed that but was on my way to bed - yeah, a real party animal here, hah!  I vaguely recall being roused from sleep by the sound of firecrackers and just a couple boom-booms, before then sleeping soundly until morning.

It then took several hours to get my act together, browse blogs, check email, eat breakfast and have coffee and drive over and tend my friend Panda's kitty, before getting home and begin working on Celtic Solstice.  I was glad I had all the components done to that point so that I could jump right in and start sewing units together to make the blocks.  

 I chain pieced through my stacks of units to make the 54-40 or Fight block rows.

 Callie was very happy at this point.

 I also chain pieced the units for the Birthday Girl block.  For both blocks I'd meticulously (that's a word my daughter said describes my quilting) laid out each block as I stacked them prior to chain piecing.

 I then pinned two rows together of each Birthday Girl block, and this is where Callie's smile turned upside down!  My fingers are so sore from pinning, but that's how I get accuracy.  There were a number of 'ugh' spots where things just didn't quite line up as they should, and some unsewing and resewing took place.  I know I pressed in the directions Bonnie said to, but it seemed that those seams just didn't play well together.

Then Callie just gave up in exhaustion after spending 8.5 hours on New Year's Day.  I was ready to toss this project into a box and leave it for my descendants!  And now it's Jan. 4th and having spent another 8.5 hours over two days after deciding I'd push on, I have discovered that the rows are fitting together much better.  I don't know why that first set of blocks was giving me fits. 

At this point, I have 54-40 or Fight sewn into three rows for each block, and I have rows 1 and 2 of each Birthday Girl block sewn and pressed, and have pinned row 3 onto 15 of them.