Finally I have a quilt top.

At long last, after much thought and umming and aahing, I have finally put together my blocks for Grand Illusion. For those of you who were wondering what I was going to do with the larger green/neutral 4-patch blocks - well I did use them.

As you can see from here I put them in the centre of the main block and then cut down a number of them and used these as the cornerstone blocks in the sashing.

These are the blocks up on my design wall (without any sashing).
It looks quite different from the original that Bonnie Hunter designed, but I am happy with it.  Although I do have a lot of blocks left over - but these will not be wasted - they will be sewn together, somewhat a little different again and given to my local Monday night group - Regent St Stitchers - for their charity quilts that go the local hospital.  I think the bright clear colours of the quilt will be loved by one of the older children.

And here we have the top with the sashing - as you can see the green/neutral as the corner stones.  I chose the same blue as in the blocks - had plenty of that particular piece of material.  Then I put a dark mottled grey as the framing border.  Not sure if I want to go further - I think it needs more borders, perhaps a wider one.  What do you all think?  I don't have quite enough of the green/neutral blocks,but could still make more., or I could add some of the other blocks that have been left out as I haven't made it as big.  That is the corner blocks with the yellow/dark blue - there could be enough to go around.  If not I will make some more.

Grand Illusion Step 4 now completed

This was quite an interesting one to do - although there is a lot of sewing and trimming to be completed.  In Bonnie's instructions she suggested to do an extra step not included in the actual mystery step.  That is, when sewing squares onto an oblong or larger square to make a half-triangle in the corner, to always sew another seam just a little over 1/4" away from the original seam and then cut between these two seams - you then get an extra "1/2 square triangle square" - I have always done this - it is surprising how many extra squares one gets.  I finished up with 96 pairs of pink/neutral and 96 pairs of blue/neutral spare half square triangles.  I plan to do a 'half square triangle quilt one day......hmm, planning that is....

These were sewn individually then sewn together in pairs.

I chose not to complete Step 3 at this time as it involves the green/neutral squares.  If  I decide to use them I will complete Step 3 then.

Steps 1 and 2 completed...for Grand Illusion

I have been cutting, cutting and cutting;  plus sewing, sewing, sewing all those 2 1/2" blocks that Bonnie loves.  I have to say here, that I also love cutting and sewing lots of small blocks.  I would rather make a quilt with a zillion small pieces than one with just a couple of dozen large blocks.  I love the process and often wish it would go on a lot longer.

So - here is Step 1 - 2.5" finished pink/blue triangles, with the navy and yellow 2.5" squares.

 Here they are sewn into their blocks - they don't look very scrappy - that is because I didn't have many actual small scraps to use, I only had larger (fat 1/8th or bigger) pieces in my chosen colours.  Also the different materials are very much in tune with each other colour/hue wise.

 Step 2 was supposed to be 2" green and neutral 4 patch squares, but I made them 2.5" squares. My reason for this - I wont be making many of these as I'm not sure if I will actually use them and if I do I can cut them down;  if I don't they can be used in other projects more effectively if they are 2.5".

Back to the sewing room for me for Steps 3 and 4.