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!