Diamonds - Girl's Best Friends

Meet my first finish of 2016 - Diamonds in the Rough!!!

Diamonds in the Rough

Diamonds take a lo........ng time to make.  This quilt is no exception.

I started this quilt in 2014.
One day, while shopping online for a sweater, I noticed the argyle pattern.
Immediately I thought - how would that look in a quilt?

I had never before made a quilt with diamond shapes.  So, this was going to be a new experiment :-)

What is the worst that can happen?
I'll ruin some fabric.  I have plenty of fabric to ruin.

Sew and Cut

So, I started with a few 2.5" wide strips of fabric and started playing.
First, I stitched two strips together and cut them into diamonds.  If two is good, won't four be better?
Only one way to find out.

Of course, I cut one strip set this way and one strip set the other.

Design wall 

And then I started playing with them on my design wall.

I played and played. I could align them vertically or at an angle.
Like these peaks and valleys.

What does that remind you of?
Rise and fall of the waves? Or does it look like the rise and fall of the ECG line on the heart monitor?
Obviously, I had forgotten all about the Argyle by now.

Seams to Match

Before I proceed further, I decided to stitch a few of those diamond strips together. 

Oh boy, that was fun.  I quickly realized that I need to pin 1/4" from the edge of the fabric, on the stitch line of both pieces if I wanted the points to match.

Pinned Properly

I hope these pictures convey what my words fail to do.

Matched Points!!!

In the end, I decided on this layout. Eight simple (may be) diamonds, arranged in a staggered layout.

Final Layout

All I needed to do now, was to fill in with a background.

That was more challenging than I thought. Oh well.

Adding the Background

I proceeded in angles. Not the best way.

Next time, I will take each diamond and place four triangles in background fabric around it - something like an economy block.  That way I will end up with a rectangular shape. Much easy to piece.

Nevertheless, I managed to finish the top!!!  Sorry, I forgot to take pictures at that time.
I took the left over diamond blocks to make a pieced back and I am very happy with that.  I am kicking myself now for not taking more pictures along the way. Grrrrr.....


Let's try something new in quilting. Shall we?
How about using a charcoal thread, instead of a beige/cream one.

Hate the charcoal thread

Quilted a few lines and hated it.

Rip it out

Proceeded to rip them out.  See, I told you it takes a long time (many ups and downs) to create a diamond.

Tweezers to the Rescue

Seam ripper and a pair of tweezers, followed by a lint roller.

Finally, a Lint Roller...

Finally, it is all gone.

Can you believe this? I have pictures of the disasters, not the accomplishments.
Guess you just learned what not to do.

So, now the good news.  I have plenty of pictures of the finished quilt and the back too.

Finished!!!

Since Paul was not around to hold the quilt, I placed it on my design wall, secured with a few pins and took it out for a better daylight picture.  The finished quilt measures about 40" by 57".

I love love love this grey background fabric. But I cannot find it anywhere. It is grey hatch by ModKid. Have you seen it anywhere?

Hello Beautiful

The quilting is wavy lines using just my walking foot.

Love the Blue-Greens on the Grey Background

Yes, I know the diamonds are not uniform. Hence the name - Diamonds in the rough!!!
It does not have to be perfect to be pretty.
Besides, this one quilt taught me several lessons in piecing!!!

Speaking of piecing, are you ready to see the back?

Pieced Backing

I like it  a lot.  And here are a few more pictures.

Wavy Lines Quilting

 I used the same grey for the binding, hoping to create an artsy look to the quilt.
At one point, I considered naming it Desdemona's Jewels!!!

Imagine large shimmering earrings dangling from the princess's milky white earlobes.
What? I have a fertile imagination.

Walking Foot Quilting

Labelled

Girl's Best Friend!!!

I am so proud of this one.  I tried something new. I learned a few things. It is my original pattern.
It is not perfect but I love it.

On Tuesday, I took it to Show & Tell at my Guild Meeting. And, Jennifer asked me to submit it for the Quilt Show.  I was speechless.  But, I want to hear from you.  Your comments make me smile :-)

I will be linking up with favorite linky parties.

Grape Salad

So, you are busy sewing when the needle breaks, or the thread tension is off. Did you notice that 1/4" seam is not consistent? Oh, by the way did you accidentally sew the wrong pieces together? And those folded seams - do not even get me started...

When two or more of those things happen to me, I decide it is time for a break.

It was the long weekend of New Years' Day and I was determined to make some solid progress on Joyce's Quilt which is already delayed. And then the frustrating things began to happen. I turned off my machine and went to the computer. Let's check email.

Baby Shower!!! In four days!!!

This was a perfect distraction. So, I put away Joyce's quilt and got started on a baby quilt.
Shall I make a whirlygig? No, too many pieces
What about a D9P. Hmm, No. I have made too many of those already.

And then I remembered Sherbet Strips. It was a fun fast project with a lot of pizzaz. I decided to replicate Sherbet Strips in green and purple.  And here it is - meet the first finish of Fifteen...

I used strips from two different strips sets - one green and one purple. Added a white strip in the middle and cut into squares.

Placed four by four in a rail fence fashion and we have ourselves a quilt top!!! I wish I had taken more pictures, showing the strips and the piecing process.

As I pieced the top together, I began thinking of a name. What shall I call this little gem? That is when Paul walked into the door carrying the grocery bags. 

I got you grapes to put in the chicken salad, he said.

GRAPE SALAD, I screamed, scaring poor Paul. 

Yes, it is purple and it is green just like grapes. Mixed together they make Grape Salad!!!

I wanted to make sure that the backing matched the quilt top. Fortunately, I had this soothing green fabric in my stash. Alas, it was not wide enough. May be it was time to make a "creative quilt back"

I used my favorite warm & Natural batting and quilted it simply (super fast) with straight lines using a scallop stitch on my Janome. 

The binding is a purple chevron fabric. It was just perfect - it matched the front and the back and brought everything together!!!

And here  is the label.

All right, just one last look at it and then I must wrap it up. The shower was on Sunday, the 10th!!!

A quick finish is so gratifying. I felt terrific. In the week that followed, drunk on my success with Grape Salad, I finished piecing the quilt top for Joyce's Quilt. Where are the pictures, you ask?

Now, THAT is a separate post!!!

How is the new year 2015 coming along for you?  I'd love to hear from you!!!