Yesterday, I mailed by Maker's Birthday Bash present to my partner! I am so excited to share my process on how I made the diamond quilt I posted a few weeks ago. Diamonds are the birthstone of April babies, so what better quilt to make!
The Diamond is paper pieced from a sketch I made on graph paper. I drew and redrew the diamond until I found the proportions to be correct for what I wanted.
I then exploded the figure to the two different paper pieced parts. If you notice, I numbered the pieces in opposite directions so the seams would lay in alternate directions. One of my pet peeves with paper piecing is when all the seams are to one side. It makes sewing the pieces together a little harder to have the points align. I also designed this block to have a strip of fabric down the edges of the block after the pieces are sewn together to stabilize the block.
Progress photos!
I decided to reverse the background in my 9th block because I was using gray as the diamond color. Once I got all the blocks done, I quilted the mini with my walking foot!
I posted a paper piecing tutorial a few weeks ago that shows you step by step how to do the technique. Now with some graph paper and some ideas, you can design your own paper piecing patterns! I think designing paper piecing patterns are fun and quick to do. Some can get super complex and others can be used to simply extreme angles.
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Also the Giveaway winner from last week is Cecilia who commented on the post with my blocks correctly identified! Please use the contact page to email me your details so I can get the giveaway prize to you!
An update for the Quilter's Planner blocks from the last few weeks. First up is Due North By Abby King of Hashtag Quilt. This is a paper pieced block. One tip is that the A6 and B6 pieces from the cutting instructions are unnecessary. A5 and B5 are plenty large to cover both sections.
Last week, the block was Intermingled By Bernie Kringle of Needle and Foot. There are some corrections to the downloadable tutorial instructions. Use the block labeling on the third page rather than the second. There are a few blocks labeled with the wrong number. Also piece #8 should be 2"x9" not 8.5" I wish I knew this before I started piecing because I definitely realized these errors as I was making it!
This week's block (I'm early!) is Spanish Tiles By Diana Mattoni of Red Delicious Life. There is one little typo about the trimmed size the flying geese. The correct size is 4.5"x2.5" not 4.25"x2.5".
I also finished up the Megaman quilt for my husband. He was so happy to have it finished because I definitely have a knack for starting projects for him, but never finishing them! Megaman is my finish #7 for the year and is updated on the Completed Quilts page.
Last but not least this week, the 2017 New Quilt Bloggers blog hop is kicking off this week! I am a part of the Better Bloggers Hive run by the awesome Beth Sellers of Cooking Up Quilts. My week is May 1, but there are giveaways every week from some amazing sponsors. So check our Beth's blog for the list of people participating in the blog hop this week!
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4/11-4/18 Weekly Goal:
Available time for quilting:
??? - traveling for work internationally!
Projects I want to work on:
MQG Fabric Challenge
Birthday Mini
Goals for the Projects:
MQG Fabric Challenge: Finish the applique
Birthday Mini: Finish the binding