Patchwork Prism QAL: Finished!

Blurry patchwork prism, now with FINGERS!!!

I consider myself un-crafty.  Things don't turn out the way I'd like.  I'm impatient unorganized & insist on sewing until 2 am when it's impossible to NOT make mistakes.
Generally with what I make, I just see the flaws.   This quilt has plenty!!!  Few of the hexagon points match up & I did not manage to follow the color gradations (which kind of was the point of the quilt), but it's all mine!
Anyway, I've decided to turn a blind eye to its issues & just enjoy it.  Making it was fun, and a learning experience.

- It's time for the link up party to start for the Anna Maria Horner + Janome Patchwork Prism! Sweet Diesel Designs


My main challenges were (err besides being just about a total novice) were:
1.  Laying it out in a room where cats rampage at will & having to transport parts at a time into my sewing room, trying to keep track of what went where. (This weekend I made a design wall to avoid this in the future.)
2. Issues with areas matching up perfectly due to multiple fabric types/stretches.  There was canvas, cotton lawns and voile.  Some of the regular quilting cotton had really varied stretch too. *honest!*

 

Quilt, at rest

It's nice to see fabrics in it I'd bought way back when to make clothes from because I didn't know better.  I like seeing the bits that I don't have any more of, knowing this is the only place I'll see it again.  I even like the ugly bits from the random fabric.com bundle that I insisted on putting in.
I LOVE seeing how other people have some of the same prints in their quilts too, it kind of makes me feel a sense of community.



I found it unreasonably hard to get clear pictures of the finished quilt that showed good detail of the whole.  I think this is one of those projects that looks better in person.  (So many other people seem to get amazing pictures of larger projects.)  Nevertheless, I've seen some really beautiful versions other people have done of this, and I wish I'd managed them, but I am content.  I certainly feel much better prepared for my next QAL!

Patchwork Prism QAL - Finished Back

 Phew! after a good amount of hand stitching (NOTHING compared to what a lot of quilters do, but more than my poor wrists & fingers wanted to handle), I feel sufficiently content switching this quilt's status to finished.  I'll post the front closer to the linky party for the quilt, otherwise I might run out of stuff to talk about (if you're reading this honey, don't laugh at that :( ) This might be the closest I get to modern quilting. It's Kona Coal and Snow.




Originally I was going to do a white border around the whole thing, but I decided a bit of asymmetry would be 1. more fun 2. less pressing!

I stitched different sized circles in a variety of neutral threads.  I decided against using perle because I didn't want it to be noticeable on the front of the quilt, and I think it succeeded in that.  I'm not as sure that the circles worked with the hexagons but I was feeling dangerous so I went for it.

I'd ordered some hug snug seam binding  in a few colors and chose teal for the edges.  Now it's billed as unravel proof.  I'd been meaning to get some of it for garments for awhile, but I can't particularly recommend it for quilts.  It was difficult (aka I really had to pay attention) to sew it on.  It's only 1/2" wide so I first sewed it onto the front of the quilt very close to the edge.  I used teal thread in the spool & the bobbin.  When I folded it over to sew on the back I had to use teal in the spool and white on the bobbin or the teal would've shown on the white of the back.  If I use it again I'll probably only use matching hug snug, so I don't have to be so careful.


Secondly, it might not fray on the edges, but it sure frayed on the ends. I've used pinking shears to cut it for a garment I made a couple days ago - not sure if it will hold up better.  I had to hand sew the edges of the quilt down with a ton of thread at the beginning and end of the binding so it would stop unraveling.

Eww enough boring stuff.  I would've posted this a couple days ago but after washing and pressing it, the sun refused to come out so I could get some final pictures. 99% humidity in June?!?!?  Bah!

Patchwork Prism QAL Progress: Quilt Back

I've managed to finish the quilt top, and it's basted to the batting waiting for me to get the back done.  I wanted to take the easy way out and do a solid back, but since I am ahead of schedule, it seems wrong to not try to make something a bit more creative.  I know I could go MUCH more creative but I'm taking baby steps!
I decided I would do a white and grey Kona Cotton (I think the grey is slate), with a few hexagons in it.  As I couldn't put down any of the hexagons down to test the placement for more than 60 seconds without a cat laying claim to it, I'm sure I could've come up with better choices but I gave up ;) I'm looking into making a design wall at some point in time to help me out with the kitty issues!
Now I'm just waiting for some more Kona Snow cotton from Fabric.com to get here so I can finish the back and put it all together.

Patchwork Prism QAL Progress & Preview

I have finished my top!  I had more problems than I could count, and if I had it to do again I'd do so many things differently.  Time after time triangles got turned around and scattered (often by rampaging kitties).  I didn't take enough care in assembly and with having to move pieces to a different room to sew them I did indeed lose track of which way was up and which was down, therefore some of the prints with pictures face totally different directions (Why YES indeed, that did cause some problems and required rearranging my design). 

the ugliest little hexagon of all

I'd gotten a Free Spirit half yard bundle at Fabric.com which I posted about earlier.  There were a lot of shall I say "less than awesome" fabrics in it, but I figured if I didn't use them in this, where the heck would I?   Of course that was before I realized I was going to fall in love with my Patchwork Prism...the truth is I didn't think this particular quilt pattern called my name, I just got excited because it was the first QAL I wandered across since I started quilting, and I'd seen a few past QAL's that I wish I'd been around for at the start, and still hope to make. (Hi you sexy little Bottled Rainbows.  I don't mean to be too vulgar but - I'd like to get you into bed with a Stained QAL quilt and snuggle both of you all night long.)

 Of course the other reason I decided to use those fabrics was $$$.  I was at the limit of my fabric budget, and as such a new quilter I didn't have a lot sitting around the house to choose from.  I was stubborn and didn't want to use too many repeats of the same fabrics so I wanted to throw at least one of everything I owned into the mix.

So I have some of the bundle strewn throughout the quilt, but that picture there at the top is the hexagon area that is the most cringe-worthy, a gorgeous Valori Wells fabric surrounded by random bundle fabric.  The truth is though, that every time I see that part of my quilt I will have fond memories about my first Quilt-a-long, and the lessons I learned from it.

white focal hexagon

dark focal hexagon

 There are parts of my quilt I love though.  I know it could've had better movement from light to dark, more attractive fabrics, lovely dainty prints incorporated into it, or a cohesive color scheme.  Nevertheless,  I have it laying out on the living room's hardwood floor so I can look at it when I walk through the house.  Usually I walk in and find it crumpled into a pile of sorts, showing that the cats were having their fun.  In those times I see this gorgeous mess of blues, greens and yellows, and I get excited for when it's ready to all go together.

I've seen some beautiful progress on other people's quilts, but I've decided there's no reason being envious of their skill and color sense when I have my own je ne sais quoi!

Working on the Patchwork Prism QAL

Tzatziki stalks my quilt

 I have three cats.  That means if I leave the room for five minutes and there's fabric on the ground, when I come back everything has been mysteriously rearranged on the hardwood floor during a game of slip and slide.  After a few days of this I finally moved the furniture off my living room rug and put my triangles there which helped some.  I weighted the quilt pieces down with plates, jars, boxes, ANYTHING to keep things where they were, and the little buggers still moved anything that wasn’t nailed down.

Ponzu stalks my quilt

 That might explain why I actually didn’t make sure everything was in place before I started sewing things together.  I didn't really even get a look at it in it’s entirety so I could tell just how it was going to end up. In fact all I saw when I looked at the floor was that fact that I better hurry up and start putting things together if I wanted to have anything to eat dinner off of this week.  I tried taking pictures of sections so if things got scattered around I’d be able to figure out how to put it together.  When I was sure of an area I’d sew anywhere from 3-6 pieces together so they wouldn’t get shuffled around anymore.

Wasabi knows better than to stalk while I'm in the room

Patchwork Prism QAL

Sweet diesel designs is doing a quilt-a-long that starts today.   I am going to do it - why, I don’t know (oh I do, it's for the really unlikely chance that my quilting skills trump a couple hundred more experiences quilters and I end up with an amazing quilt that wins me a new sewing machine that can actually be used for quilting).

The quilt that is the focus of the QAL is a pattern made by Anna Maria Horner for Janome

The schedule is the following

• april 24: choosing your fabric
• may 8: making templates and cutting your fabric
• may 22: laying out your quilt and sewing
• june 5: quilting
• june 12: wrapping it all up and then the party begins…linky party that is…
• june 26: submissions are due for the grand prizes!

I've got a jump on cutting some of my fabric.  I complained in the past that I've no idea how I'm supposed to make amazing quilts without a stash of great (and coordinating) fabrics. Luckily with my fabric order for an upcoming quilt I'm working on gave me more options, but I realize that there is a big flaw in my purchasing.  I am irresistibly drawn to bold and bright prints, both in fabric and clothing.  I can pick solids, but I overlook buying coordinating smaller prints -  the only reason I really have any at all are because some came in the fat quarter bundles I got.

If I was in doubt of this, it was confirmed when I started browsing around to check out the "storyboards" of fabrics I have bought.  One example is above. I purchased the two larger scale prints from the Stork Maman line, and it wouldn't have occurred to me to get any of those other seven fabrics because they don't scream "I'M SO PRETTY!!!! I am going to have to really pay attention to this in the future.

I'd just buy bundles but:

1. they are more expensive per yard

2. there's always a couple fabrics in them that I don't like

I can tell this will be my biggest challenge with this QAL. That quilt is nice to look at partially because it is made up of so many lovely subtle designs, and most of my fabrics are going to be fighting for attention with each other.