Diamond Drama in Prints

This quilt has been a long time in the making. It began with the solid version--the original Diamond Drama--made from Painter's Palette Solids. I designed it before QuiltCon 2017. I knew I wanted to remake the quilt in various prints, and chose the fabrics later that spring. 

I left them with my mom--an accomplished quilter who is ever generous with her time, and she delivered the quilt top to me about a year ago. And then it sat for several months, until I quilted most of it and then stalled. Which brings me to my September One Monthly Goal--to finish it! 

After I finished quilting the blue blocks, I went back to all the blocks to add in squiggly lines between the straight line quilting. I'm glad I did--the blocks needed it! 

I found a cool black and white "stripe" for the binding at Wandering Stitches, my (new to me) local quilt shop, and now this quilt is complete! 

I love the bright colors of the diamonds. 

Here is the finished quilt:

OMG: Quilt the blue blocks!

You know those projects that you just.can't.quite.seem.to.finish? 

This one--Diamond Drama--has been following me around (literally...I brought in on our move to FL!) since winter. 

It's bigger than what I usually prefer to quilt on my domestic machine, so it involves a fair amount of wrangling. And line marking. So I've been procrastinating.

One of these blocks is not like the other...

That's right! The blue diamonds aren't quilted yet. Everything else is done. 

My One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts for September is to finish this quilt--machine quilt the blue blocks and then bind it. 

If this quilt looks familiar, it's because it's a print fabric version of my original solids quilt, Diamond Drama, shown here: 

April OMG - Rolling Waves

I didn't make my March goal. I might have been able to if I rushed the last day, but I went with quality over speed and didn't finish.

I did all the background (shades of gray) quilting, and I finished the straight line boxes in the green and orange blocks. I still need to do the purple and blue blocks and then do some wiggles in all the blocks. 

But that's not my April project for One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts. My April project is to complete the top of my Rolling Waves quilt, which will soon be a pattern. (Read more about it here.)

I have two blocks done: 

And 14 more almost done. 

Here's what the quilt will look like:

Can't wait to get it done!

March One Monthly Goal: A lot of quilting!

 My pile of unquilted tops is reaching staggering proportions...so I'm going to start quilting my way through it! First up is this print fabric version of my original Diamond Drama solids quilt. 

My mom pieced this for me (thanks Mom!) after she and I selected the fabrics together. Here's a close-up of it. The entire quilt is rolled up in the throat of my sewing machine right now, so you'll have to wait until the end of the month to see the whole quilt! 

So my March goal for One Monthly Goal (thanks, Elm Street Quilts!) is to finish quilting my Diamond Drama prints quilt. 

The original Diamond Drama quilt was quilted by a super talented professional--Brianne Moores--so this version won't be as cool with me quilting it, but I'm excited to try it out and see what I can do, using the seams as guidelines. 

Introducing Diamond Drama!

I've spent much of January and February playing with Paintbrush Studio's Painter's Palette Solids. These fabrics are soft and silky, and with 168 colors, there are plenty to choose from! 

I didn't realize until I started doing this how much I enjoyed designing with solids. You'll see over the next few weeks just how much! 

I'm on my way to QuiltCon right now (yippee!), where I'll be giving a few demonstrations using these lovely solids. After I'm done, I'll post about the sample quilts I've made here and tell you more about them, but for now, I'm sharing my newest quilt design.

Introducing....Diamond Drama!

I'm the first to admit that this quilt is quite simple, construction-wise. The key is color choice and placement. I picked four colors to work with--teal, orange, purple and lime, and selected four different shades of each color. Then I paired these brights with white, black, and a variety of grays. The result? Dimension and depth! (Which just might be the theme of one of my demos...)

Of course, fabulous quilting is key as well. Fellow guild member Brianne Moores did a fantastic job quilting it--I'm in love with her stitching!

I will soon be offering this quilt as a pattern for sale (the pattern also includes two additional size options). Stay tuned!