Neutral Prisms

 I am so excited!!!  I just finished sewing the binding on this quilt, taking pictures of it and entering it into the QuiltCon Quilt Show!!!  It has been a whirlwind of sewing around here this week, but I made the deadline!

 Let me tell you about this quilt.  I was inspired to start it quilt as part of the Patchwork Prism Quilt Along hosted by Bianca of Sweet Diesel Designs . The pattern is Anna Marie Horner's Patchwork Prism. A free download of the pattern can be found here.  AMH's quilt features a rainbow of colors, but I decided to see what I could do with neutrals.  Here is the stack I started with in April.  There were a variety of fabric types and weaves so I decided to both prewash (a rarity with me) and use a 1/2 inch seam allowance to allow for any possible fraying.

The  official entry picture!  The quilt measures 53x45 inches.

I was going to start with a dark center and fade to light, but it just didn't look right so I switched it out and went with a light center.

Once the top was finished I decided to experiment with hand quilting - I had never hand quilted a quilt before.  I outlined quilted the shapes with perle cotton.  I wasn't sure about quilting though lots of layers, so I used a layer of muslin as batting.  My husband says it isn't very warm, but I told him that it is a summer quilt finished very early -- not very late.  ;)  I quite enjoyed my very primitive quilting.

Love the tree shadow!

I learned about facing bindings at a Modern Quilt Guild meeting a few months ago and decided to use one on this quilt. A facing binding folds completely to the back of the quilt and is often used in art-type quilts.  Here is a tutorial describing the technique.  I like how it allows the pattern to extend to the very edge of the quilt.

Can I just say, "Yea!!!" one more time?!  :)
Did you entered a quilt in the QuiltCon Show?  Neutral Prisms was entry #539 and Orange Trails was #545, so I know there are a bunch of you out there -- not to mention all of those who are madly sewing bindings and typing up entries before the midnight deadline tonight.  But more importantly are you going?  I am 99% sure that I am and I would love to see bloggy friends for real there.  :)

I am linking up with Finish It Up Friday and At the End of the Hallway.

Work In Progress

This is what I was working on last night as we flipped between watching the latest episode of Castle and election results.  It will be my first hand quilted quilt!  More pictures later.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!

Getting Things Done...Kinda

Orange Wonky Wedge Quilt

On Tuesday I was whining to my husband that I "never get anything done."  He pointed out all of the things that I had gotten done that morning and reminded me that when our first child was this old I was lucky to get dressed by dinner time - sad, but oh so true.

And I had had a fairly productive morning - I even listened to the presidential debate while feeding the baby and making lunches (was it just me or was it pretty lame?).  I realized that when I said, "I never get anything done" I really was saying, "I haven't had any time to sew and I am stressed that I won't be able to finish the two quilts that I want to enter in the QuiltCon Show and the deadline is November 1st!!  Augh!!"

Neutral Prism Quilt

(Oops....I paused here in the writing process to load some pictures and put the kids in the bathtub and while the pictures were loading, I browsed the QuiltCon site and saw that the entry deadline is Nov. 30.  So no worries, although I would like to get the quilts finished and move on to other things.  Plus I just like to sew and regular sewing time is always a good thing, right?  And now that I know the date is farther away maybe I could finish a third quilt?  Got to make my life stressful, right?  Are you planning to go to QuiltCon?)

Anyway...the original point of this story was that we all get things done, they just might not be what we want to get done or they might not get done as fast as we would like, or they may have to be done over and over again (like dishes) but that is the human condition.  It is just a fact of life that work comes before quilting - so sad but so true.  

And yeah, I know I will miss these times with my little ones when they are all grown up and I have more sewing time.  But right now I keep telling Becca-Babe that I need her to print me out a daily schedule of nap/fussy times so I can plan my life/naps/sewing around her better.  But so far she hasn't provided me with one.  Sigh...a girl can dream, right.  :)

WIP Wednesday

I have been cutting a lot this week.  I decided to jump into the Patchwork Prism QAL and this is what I have on my design wall so far.  I think I need a bigger wall...  ;)  I was originally going to have the quilt be dark in the center and fade out to light, but it just didn't look good when I laid it out.  I am rather nervous about starting to sew this one.  I have a huge mix of fabrics: 100% cotton, cotton/poly blends, linens and muslins and some of them are going to be hard to sew with, esp. as they are cut on the bias and prone to distortion.  Let's not even mention the fact that I used a template to cut them and template cutting is notoriously inaccurate (well, at least when I am doing the cutting).

Last night I also cut out a huge pile of white squares to alternate with my vintage eye-spy charms.  I have discovered that I need to be listening to something if I am doing a lot of cutting and I have been listening to the Harry Potter series this week while I cut fabric, do laundry, wash the stacks of pots and pans that have built up...  Somehow, listening to Harry Potter makes everything more enjoyable.

 I also finished these improv. fans last week (tutorial here) and sewed them together.  At last!  Do you think it needs a narrow white border on the sides or should I just quilt it up?  I am very tempted just to quilt it and get it done with at this point.  :)

What have you been working on this week?