Prismatic Garden

Quilt top done, triangles cut........

I decided I liked this fabric for the outer border and cut it and sewed it on.  The right side is a little dark because I didn't turn on the light on that side of it last night.  A hint when you are working with dotted fabrics: cut the longest edge of sashing strips on the lengthwise grain and it will look straighter.  In this case it was 4.5" x 8.5" so I cut a strip 8.5" and sliced it into 4.5" sections.  If I had cut a 4.5" strip on the crosswise grain you would have seen the dots running crooked across the sashing strips.
The art quilters group is coming on Monday so I am cleaning off the tables in the basement.  The strip sets for Prismatic Garden were laying there waiting to be cut so I finished them up, 104 triangles to go with the 88 left from previous quilts.

Playing with blocks....

I had 3 sets of blocks on my little design wall.  Some were all dark, some all light, some diagonally half light/half dark, and some darks and lights across from each other in the block.  I had sewn those groups to use for a demo at a guild program I did in May.  I decided to try all 3 types of blocks together and see if they would play well together.  I think this might be interesting but I really won't know until I sew a bunch more blocks and transfer this to a larger design wall.  I don't design my quilts in a computer program because if I knew what it was going to look like, I wouldn't need to actually make it.  For me the thrill is seeing the patterns emerge on the design wall.
I stayed inside all day yesterday.  It never got out of the 50s and turned cold again by evening.  I had to empty the dehumidifiers and put them away for the season.  There were a few other maintenence jobs and then I worked on the pillowcase kits for Monday's church sew in.  I have 20 kits ready now.  Today my cousin and his wife are in the area and are stopping by to see me and then going to see Dad. 

A fun day......

It was so much fun yesterday morning meeting another blogger.  I can't tell you who it was until she gets home from her trip but I can tell you we had a great time talking 'quilt'.  Her husband checked out the fair and was impressed with the size of our fairgrounds.  After they left I got out my helpers, super sliders and started moving furniture away from the next wall to be painted.
I'm going to show you why I hate my carpeting.  I had it put in 17 years ago and painted the walls the same shade of taupe and was very happy with it.......until the carpeting started changing color.  The pink area is where furniture was sitting. The carpet has a green cast in some areas and some areas are still taupe.  The dark area near the wall is the rust from the bleeder leaking earlier this year.    The only good news in all of this is that furniture will always cover the rust, and the carpet doesn't look as sick with the new contrasting paint color.  I got the ceiling line taped on 20' of this 30' wall and I need to move the roll top desk before I can finish it.  I will have to take all of the drawers out and then I can lift the corners just enough to stick the sliders under.  I have moved the desk before so I know I can do it.....it's not fun, but I can do it.
My reward for prepping the wall was sewing the 5 strip sets that I chose the day before.
Here is the reward I will have after painting on Saturday and Sunday.

Prismatic Garden 13 portrait......

I finished the last side of the binding and sewed down the hanging sleeve last night on Prismatic Garden 13.  This has been my best selling series over the years.  I will have 3 from the series in my show in NC.
I was hoping I would have time to finish this newest colorwash for the show too.  Since I changed my shipping date from Thursday to Monday I put the extra days to good use.  I got it quilted last night.  Today I hope I find a binding I like right away.  I have embroidery club in the afternoon and computer club tonight so I need to get a lot done in the morning.  I made 3 more mug rugs with African fabric but didn't get their bindings done.  I will show them tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is another of my antique Valentine postcards. They are so different from today's cards. This is a repeat that I showed last year when I showed a series of heart quilts in February. If you are interested in its construction, click on Prismatic Garden on the Label list on the right side of the blog and it will take you to the whole series I have made as well as some in progress pictures of some.
It's just another day for me, cleaning the house for the company on Monday, continuing to make blocks for my next project. We got a coating of snow last night which should melt today. Hurray, no shoveling!

Fixed label, another Prismatic Garden

I hadn't sewn the last side of the label down in the picture yesterday so I decided to see if I had a piece of light colored fabric with wonder under already on it and if I did I would insert it under the label to cut down the show through of the backing and seam allowances. Luckily I did find a piece because I probably wouldn't have fixed it if I had to start from scratch. I'm happier with it now. I really love the Prismatic Garden 12: Heart and I'm going to wait one more day to mail it out. I'm still trying to get a picture that is perfectly square.

The only one in the Prismatic Garden series that I have been hesitant about is the one below. I don't usually add borders to them and on this one I did. It has been waiting 4 or 5 years to be finished. Boy, time flies when you are having fun! I have had a hard time deciding which way is up on it but I think this is the way I like it, if I like it at all. Decision time: is this one going to get finished this year??




Heart Quilt finished

It is finished and ready to ship to the IL Artisan's shop! If you have been reading my blog for awhile you may recognize the strip pieced triangles as something I have used before. If you don't know what I am talking about, click on Prismatic Garden in the labels column on the right side of the blog. This will take you to others in the series. This one is called Prismatic Garden 12: Heart. I was so close to and involved in creating the center red heart that I missed all of the other hearts that start appearing in the background until my daughter commented on it.

I made a label and made the decision to not line it and to let the hearts from the backing show through it. Where I should have been more careful was that the seam allowance turned under should have been the same on all sides. That is not something I would readily see if I were looking at someone else's label because I would be so busy reading it and looking at the embroidery to notice it. I could still loosen one side and get in there and trim it but.........do I really want to?

Here is a picture showing how I make the triangles.

A Really Long Time Ago...

I made this little quilt top shortly after I bought my first pieces of Melody Johnson's hand dyed fabrics. This was around the time that Judy Hopkins had her first book on Original Quilts published. It talked about taking simple blocks and some shapes and piecing them together into something original. This was in 1990 I think. I have never come up with an idea of how to quilt this one so it sits in the big bin of unfinished projects.

I think maybe this one just needs another border and it would make a nice card table tablecloth.

I have just one more side to finish on the binding so I should be able to show this piece tomorrow.