Celtic Solstice - Reveal

New Year's Eve those of us participating in Bonnie Hunter's Celtic Solstice mystery quilt along were gifted with the big reveal. For the most part I had managed to keep up with each clue as they were published. The only one I didn't finish were the 4-patches of clue #4. Since I had changed my colors from Bonnie's, I knew I was in trouble when this clue had me putting together my reds and mossy greens into 4-patch units. They started giving everything a Christmas look which is not what I wanted for this clue. So, I put them aside and continued on with the rest of the mystery.

Once the final quilt was revealed, I tested a couple blocks. Here's what my original color choices looked like:

I didn't like the red and green surrounded by the brown. First it has too much of a Christmas look to it. Second, I felt the circles formed were too dark and heavy. The green squares are almost washed out in one direction. So, I mulled things over, discussed it with a friend who is also doing the mystery and settled on a new option. Replace the green in the 4-patches with more of the yellow/gold from the  alternate blocks. 

Here's what the result looks like: 

Much better! The overall look is lighter and brighter and doesn't scream Christmas to me. So, now I'm plodding along putting more blocks together along with making more units of all the clues as I want to make this larger than Bonnie's small size but not as large as her king size. I'm hoping that I can keep with this and finish it up before I get bored with it and put it aside. Considering the amount of ufo's that I have reacquainted myself with during our recent moves, I'm hoping that should be sufficient motivation to keep me plugging along. 

I've enjoyed quilting along with everyone else and love seeing all the different color combinations and ways people have tweaked things to add their own special twist to things. Quilters are a very creative bunch.