Four rows to go!

2013-07-02 23.01.54 2013-06-29 18.18.35I managed to get the 5 diamonds finished for the next row pretty quickly.  Only took about 10 days to get the 5 diamonds put together. I love the colors in this row!  I think my favorite is the rainbow stripes. The picture of the full quilt isn’t the best, we took it at night and the hubby wasn’t holding it right.  I’m working on the next row and hope to have it done pretty quickly.  I HAVE to have the top completed and quilted before the end of September, so I can enter it into the guild quilt show.  I have 2 others I’m entering, but they are ones that have been completed for years.  Hubby will be out of town next weekend, so I’ll have PLENTY of time to work on it! 🙂

Design Wall Monday

2013-06-21 08.25.53 2013-06-23 15.19.31Well I was able to get 2 diamonds finished this week. I have my baggies ready for the next 3, and need to get working on basting them and putting the diamond together.  I was going to work on hand quilting my first hexagon quilt so I could put it in the guild quilt show, but with everything going on this summer, I know I just don’t have the time.  I’d rather concentrate on finishing hexagon diamonds and get it quilted for the show.  I took a break yesterday though and decided to do something different.  I pulled out my Cleveland Cavaliers cross stitch piece and worked on it for awhile.  I haven’t worked on it since January, but it was quite easy to pick it back up and work on it.  There’s a total of 15 pages and I had finished 1 in January.  So I started working on page 7, there’s a lot of solid color so I figured it’d be easy!  So when I need a break from the hexagons, I’ll work on my cross stitch.  Hope to have more diamonds finished this week so I can put it all together this weekend.2013-06-23 22.49.54
Linking up to Design Wall Monday at PatchworkTimes

Hexie Diamonds

2013-06-18 16.11.32I managed to get the 4 diamonds attached today while Alex was napping. There are now 5 rows left to add before this is completed.  I am really liking how this is turning out, even though there are a few fabrics I don’t like.  But since they are such small pieces of them, it doesn’t matter too much!  I’m going to sort through the rest of my baggies tonight and figure out which diamonds are going in rows together.  It’s also a way to make sure I have everything I need to finish this quilt.  I have a LOT of black hexies to make to fill in the top and bottom, not sure if I’ll leave those for the end or do them before I finish the rest of these rows.  I’ll decide later!  Time to watch the Heat beat the Spurs (Game 6 of the NBA Finals) and sort through the hexie baggies.

Hexie Diamonds Update

2013-06-17 23.12.432013-06-03 12.28.33Oh my goodness does my arm hurt!  I wasn’t feeling well this weekend and decided to take it easy today.  So while Alex played (and napped) I spent the day working on my hexie diamonds.  I got all 4 put together that I need for the next row. I’d start working on attaching it all to the main piece tonight, but I think my right arm needs a rest – too much repetitive motion!!  Hopefully tomorrow I can start putting it together.  I have 5 rows after this one and then the filling in of the top and bottom with black.  Then I’ll be able to baste it and quilt it.  I had intended this to be done before we went camping the first time, but now my goal is to have it done and ready for the guild quilt show in October.  The colors aren’t too good in this picture, I took it in the family room and it’s a little late at night for good pictures!  I like almost all of the colors in this row, except for the money fabric.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I bought that fat quarter, but at least I’m figuring out a way to use them!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at PatchworkTimes and HeLP for Hexies at Sarah Did It.

Design Wall Monday – June 3, 2013

2013-06-03 12.28.33I did it! I finally got the next row added on! I added the half diamonds to the next row since they were already done, now I need to get the 4 diamonds ready to finish off that row.  Total of 6 rows and this will be completed, I am looking forward to being able to put it on the bed in the trailer!  It’s getting harder and harder to get a good picture of this, I will most likely need to start taking multiple pictures and stitching them together in photoshop – that’s the problem with large quilts though!  I am hoping to work on this solidly until it’s done, but I know that my plans always change.  I will most likely rotate between this and the sampler that I’m hand quilting.  I do still want to get that done and not have it sitting around collecting dust.  As soon as I get the hexagon quilt done I can concentrate on hand quilting my first hexagon quilt for the quilt show.  That has a deadline too!

Diamond Hexagon Quilt Update

2013-05-24 22.32.31So I’ve been working to try and get the next row of diamonds finished so I can add them to the main piece.  I managed to finish the last one in the row today while Alex napped.  I’m planning on starting to add them on tonight while we watch tv.  2013-05-31 15.47.09 The hubby had one of his friends from California come to town over the weekend and I got the 2 half diamonds put together for the next row. Hoping to add those on as well. 2013-05-31 11.19.31 I love how this quilt is coming along and can’t wait to see it all put together!  I need to get a lot more black squares cut out so I can work on more diamonds, plus I need black for filling in at the top and bottom.

Shopping

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I know I shouldn’t be spending money on fabric and notions, but sometimes you just can’t help it ya know?  I needed batting for a couple of quilts so I went to Joann’s last week.  I need some more pins for hexagons, so I can prep more for basting.  I think I’ve figured out what blocks I want to do for the guild block exchange and I needed a 3″ finished half square triangle die.  Unfortunately I’m a dope and forgot that I already had that die, now I need to take this one back.  You know how when you have a 60% off coupon, you HAVE to use it?  Well that’s why I bought the jelly roll, absolutely no clue what I’ll do with it, but I loved the pattern!

2013-05-21 14.19.17I’m also participating in the fat quarter exchange at guild and they are due at our next meeting.  So Alex and I went the other day to Olla Mae’s, which happens to be closing by the end of June!, and I got almost all of the 26 fat quarters I need.  Of course I bought a few things for myself too! The aqua-ish fabric is for the block exchange, I just need a few more fabrics and I can wash it all and start working on blocks!  They aren’t due until September, but as the coordinator I want to have them done early.

I’ve spent the last few days working diligently on the final cross stitch project for my cousin’s twins.  Now I need to wash them and get the sewed into wall hangings before the party on June 8th.  Shouldn’t take too long, so I’m not worried.  But that means I can now start working on my hexagons again.  Got the first round completed last night on one of them, hopefully I can finish that diamond tonight.  Then I’ve only got 1 more and I can add the next row to the mother ship.

Hopefully be back soon with an update on the hexagon diamonds quilt!

Design Wall Monday – May 13, 2013

2013-05-13 11.41.48Well I managed to get 2 more diamonds completed the last few days.  I finished the blue one during the guild meeting Tuesday and the pink one last night after we got home from camping.  Two more diamonds and I can put the next row together.  Unfortunately I need to put this aside for a little while so I can finish a cross stitch piece that is a present.  I had started 2 pieces for my cousins twin for Christmas and just ran out of time to complete them.  I have 1 more part to finish on the second piece and then I can put them both together.

I passed out the challenge fabric for the block exchange at our guild meeting last week, and now I need to figure out what my 2 blocks are going to be.  I can’t get additional fabrics until I pick my blocks though.  I also need to go shopping to get some fat quarters for the fat quarter exchange.  They are due at our June meeting, so I need to get busy!

I am planning on going to Joann’s tomorrow to get some batting so I can finish some quilts.  I’d like to work on the red, white and blue quilt for donation at guild.  I also want to get my first hexagon quilt ready to be hand quilted.  I’ve committed to putting it in our quilt show in October, so I need to get started working on it!  I’ll finish the test piece once the hexagon one is done.

We had a speaker at guild last week that owns a quilt shop, Quilts & Sew Forth.  Of course they brought products to sell.  I don’t usually find anything that I want to buy, but I saw that they had a charm pack of Fossil Fern.  100 charms for $27!!  I could not pass up that deal!!!  Don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but it’s sitting here and ready to use for something!

Shopping Again

2013-05-08 15.29.46I was blog surfing the other day and found one that was using 1/4″ tape for quilting lines.  I had asked where she found it because that is really what I’d like to use for my hand quilting since it’s easier than marking all those lines!  My shipment came today from Connecting Threads and of course I had to add some items to the order since the tape was pretty cheap.  I ordered 2 packs of 4 different charm packs to try their fabric.  Each set should be enough to do hexagons, or triangles, or some size squares with.  Not that I’ll be doing anything soon, but at least they are here and ready for me when I have time.  Of course what do I see at Walmart today?  The same quilters tape!!  Oh well, I can always get it there when I run out of the 2 I just got today.

2013-05-08 15.31.32 I managed to get another diamond completed and I have the next 4 prepped and ready to go.  I’m hoping to get some work done on them this weekend since we’ll be camping and I won’t be able to watch much tv!  I really like the colors in this one, I love the orange!!

I need to go and get the fabric for the block exchange split up and ready for the meeting tomorrow.  Need to get everyone working on their blocks!  I need to go shopping for some coordinating fabrics, plus fat quarters for the exchange, those are due in June.

Wiggly Whimsy Finish, New Toys

Wiggly Whimsy TopYep I did it, I finished my Wiggly Whimsy top!  I ended up taking 2 different seams out and reattaching them.  Still have a couple of small puckers in one of the seams, but it won’t be noticable once it’s quilted.  Now I need to find a backing and get some batting so I can get it quilted.
2013-04-24 14.54.04I mentioned the other day that I had spent a little money to get some Accuquilt Go dies that I’ve been wanting. I got the 3″ finished half-square triangle to go with my signature die and a 2″ finished half-square triangle to go with my 2″ finished squares. Anyway, they arrived today!  I’ve already started playing with the 3″ HST and signature block dies.  I designed a quilt the other day in 2 colors in EQ and today while driving home from lunch started to think of colors I could use.  Top colorway?  Red, white and blue!  I figured I had enough red and blue scraps for the triangles and I was pretty sure I had white I could use for the signature part of the block.  I’ve already got 4 blocks done, took me maybe 10 minutes to cut and sew them together!  I LOVE how the dog ears are cut off when you use the dies.  Everything fits together so nicely and there is no guessing at all!  I think I’ll work on cutting as much of this out as I can today and maybe put it together tomorrow.  It will finish around 29″x33″ as it is designed right now, I haven’t thought about a border yet and I can always make more blocks and make it larger.  We’ll see what I decide.  Oh!  I also bought the Lil’ Twister template, I love the look of these quilts and I might be able to use a bunch of scraps to make up some easy quilts.  Hope to play with this soon too!

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2013-04-24 14.53.07So I’ve talked 5 brave souls at guild to do a block exchange.  Because none of the quilt shops in our area have the focus fabric that I wanted to use, I placed an order with Hancocks of Paducah and got enough for everyone (they are paying for their yardage!).  I really like the fabric and it’s just enough out of my comfort zone that it will be interesting to see what everyone does with it.  Since there are only a total of 6 people (that’s including me) if everyone does 2 12″ finished blocks it will be a decent sized quilt – around 38″ x 50″,  if it’s on point it’s around 40″ square.  Now I need to go shopping for some additional fabrics and do some designing to figure out what blocks I want to make.  I’m thinking one simple and one that is a little more complicated.

Well, I want to get back to playing with my new dies, so I’ll be back soon with an update!