Grand Illusion Top Finished

Hi all -

Since Bonnie announced a couple of weeks ago that today would be the deadline for the final Grand Illusion link-up, I decided that I'd better put my nose to the grindstone and get the top finished. It actually didn't take long since I just had to put the borders on it. Here is what the final top looks like:

It really feels good to have that finished!

One thing that I've started doing when piecing is pressing my seams open rather than to the side. When I first learned to quilt, I was taught to press my seams to the side so I've been pretty stubborn about doing that except in places where many seams come together. But I keep hearing professional longarmers talk about how much nicer and flatter tops are with the seams pressed open so I decided to try that on a couple of quilts. This is my second large quilt with most of the seams pressed open and I have to say, it really is nicer and neater and everything goes together better for me. I've still be pressing things like 4-patches to the side so I can nest the seams, but I'm not sure that's necessary. I've had no trouble nestling the seams even with them pressed open and my intersections are looking great, if I do say so myself.

Since I was pushing through to finish the top, I decided that I needed to get the backing and binding ready as well. I decided to use the greens for the binding and got that whipped out pretty quickly:

Since I'm not going to quilt this quilt right now, I've wound the binding around an empty spool to keep it neat until I'm ready to use it. I'll store this in a ziploc bag so it doesn't get knocked around too much. The backing took a bit more time since I pieced it out of a lot of the fabrics I had pulled aside for the front. I just got it finished this afternoon, just in time for the link-up deadline:

Sorry the picture isn't great but I had to lay it out and run around to get a picture before the wind blew it around. I'll get a better picture of it down the road after it is quilted. But I have other things I need to work on, so I'll have to put this one aside for now.

I've also been needing a little wallet for holding my grocery store and Costco cards and stuff like that, so I decide to take a break from piecing the backing to make this little wallet:

It's just a little thing that has pockets inside for the cards:

It turned out cute and I've found it very useful. The pattern is "The Wallie" by Silk Road Creations. I've made a couple of patterns from them and I've found the instructions to be very clear and easy to follow. This one was no exception.

Well, that's it for now. I need to get this post linked up before the deadline....

Nancy