Week in review and Diamond Daze

Update: I'm entering the Diamond Daze quilt in Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side, in the Baby Quilt category.

http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/05/17/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2013

Lots of fun, but not a lot of quilting action this past week because I've been getting sick (pretty sure it's another sinus infection) and yet managed to get some hours at work. When I work swings and graves, it is hard to get a lot of quilting progress done, because I'm working during children's sleeping times, which are my most productive project times and "me" time.

1--Got the borders onto my Starburst. (www.happyquiltingmelissa.blogspot.com )  I didn't like how they looked. I should not have strip-pieced the borders, but should have put each border on one at a time. I have picked out the corners and I will redo them.

2--Binding for the fire truck quilts is almost ready....I just need to press the strip in half and roll it onto the Binding Buddy.

3--So very excited! My latest obsession is Cuzco by Kate Spain for Moda, and I finally was able to order my favorite prints in fat quarters from www.IntrepidThread.com . Really want to do a Starburst with them. I picked up the mail on my way home from my graveyard shift this morning, to find my Cuzco! So gorgeous!

4--I knew my coworker was coming in this morning, so I could surprise her with her baby quilt: the yellow and gray quilt! Presenting quilty gifts is almost as much fun as the process of making them. She loved it and so did the nurses and techs looking on. Her baby girl is such a cutie and I'm proud to have put a quilt together for her.

This is "Diamond Daze" by Quiltmaker's "Quilts from 100 Blocks Volume 2" Fall 2012. My coworker wanted the yellow and gray color palette, and I fell in love with the palette and the fabrics I found. I used some yellow and gray from my small stash, and found this gorgeous yellow/gray paisley at Joann Fabric. This is my first quilt with mitered corners on borders. I had to tweak them before I quilted them because a few of the corners weren't laying flat with all the layers. The most difficult part of the whole pattern was cutting the large squares, and then having a ruler and an arm reach long enough to cut the squares in half diagonally. And yes, I quilted the whole thing on my little Bernina 1090, with the walking foot, and darning foot for the free-motion borders.

I watched the free Craftsy class "Creative Quilt Backs" to piece my backing...the quilt was 48x48 which is more than a standard WOF. I wanted something a bit more than adding a strip of self-backing vertically. I split the backing fabric vertically off-center. I pieced a four-patch strip using scraps from my top fabrics, then sewed it to both sides. I learned from the class that if you are working with multiple strips, match centers and pin outward. That way, you won't get as jagged ends if you're working with strips of different lengths. You have less waste and more usable fabric at the centers of the quilt, where you need it. Very cool advice, and it worked great.

So even though I don't consider myself a modern quilter, I found I could still learn some tricks. There's no right way to do things; you learn all you can and apply knowledge and techniques that work for you, that you're comfortable with, and apply in a particular project.

And yes, I hand-embroidered the label !