Dazzling Diamonds Remix

Three years ago now I taught a class for my Dazzling Diamonds quilt pattern. Instead of making it on solids like my original pattern, I made this one in some prints to go with the colors of my guest bedroom.

I'm really not sure why it took me this long to finish this quilt, because I really do love it. This is still one of my favorite quilt patterns I've designed over the years. I love that there are so many different layout options for this quilt, making it so versatile.

This quilt finishes at 24" square and is now hanging in my guest bedroom. I picked these colors specifically for this bedroom, with it's blue walls and pink and green accents.

I machine quilted this on my longarm and found inspiration from a recent Craftsy class - Angela Walters' Dot to Dot quilting. I had quilted the white and blue already before that class but decided to use one of her quilting techniques to do the green points here. I really love how it came out and will definitely use this design again. I had toyed with pebbling the pink, but it became clear that with the pattern, it would be difficult for any pattern to show up, so I just echoed around the diamonds.

I'm not sure if this new quilt will become a favorite over the original, but they're both pretty awesome in my opinion. I can look back at this original all the time and just smile.

If you ever come stay with me at my house, your guest room will now how two lovely quilts hanging in it. You can see my Twirling Trellis quilt hanging in the mirror here with some great complementary colors to it. 

A little Rusty

Last week I finally put a quilt on my Handi Quilter frame to start quilting. I've got a massive backlog of quilt tops that need quilting. Now that I've graduated (yay!), I can finally spend some free time quilting some of these quilts.

To start and get back into the swing of things, I loaded this mini quilt based on my Dazzling Diamonds pattern on the frame to practice with.

A while back, I snapped this photo above. One of the things I love about paper piecing is that I can sketch out a few quilting ideas on the back of the quilt before I take the paper off.

Unfortunately, I discovered that my quilting skills are a bit rusty. I started doing that back and forth in the white, but I hated how it was turing out. I just couldn't get it to look right, so I ripped it out, twice. I then turned to my trusted loop quilting and liked that. I'm done with the white and started to move onto the blue, but I'm having tension issues. I'll rewind a bobbin sometime this week and will give it another go since I think the bobbin I'm using wasn't wound tight enough. I've got more unpicking to do to take the blue out, but fortunately it's all loose on the bottom, so it should go quick before I dive back in. 

Dazzling Diamonds Remix

When I taught my Dazzling Diamonds pattern at Quilter's Way a few weeks ago, I prepared some blocks in various stages to show how to paper piece.  Since I already had to make a few blocks, I decided that I would make another quilt to go in my guest room that I'm redesigning in blue, pink and green.

Well, I just finished piecing the remaining blocks and pieced the top together.  In my pattern, I offer up several different layout options, with this being one alternative to my original pattern.  In this layout, you lose the secondary design of the stars in the background.  BUT, you get this awesome sense of movement - your eye is directed to the center of the quilt.

I've enjoyed making this version in prints instead of solids like my previous version.  Like it's predecessor, this quilt measures 24" square and will be a wall hanging.

One of the things that I love about paper piecing is that you have a full-size template to sketch quilting ideas.  I'll occasionally use a light pencil to sketch out quilting motifs before I tear the paper off the back.  I don't recommend using a pen or marker (don't ask me how I know) since you can easily tear the paper with a pen and a marker can easily bleed through the paper and onto your fabric. 

Dazzling Diamonds Class

Yesterday I taught my Dazzling Diamonds quilt at Quilter's Way in Acton. 

It was an intimate class, which I prefer at times.  It allows me to spend more 1:1 time with folks to ensure they understand the concept.

This is the block that I made in preparation for the class.  The goal was to have everyone leave with this. I wanted to make this quilt with prints instead of solids to make sure everyone understood what pieces needed to be right-side-up and right-side-down when piecing with prints. Once I finish this quilt, I will hang in my newly designed guest bedroom.

Here's the block that Allison made.  She used almost all of the same fabrics that I did in my original quilt, but she changed the lime green for a nice light blue.  Doesn't it look awesome?

Here's Karen's block. She used some great Kate Spain prints with a few others to make this block.  Yet another great block.

Blogger Quilt Festival - Fall 2012

It's that time of year again - the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  This time around I'm "entering" my Dazzling Diamonds quilt.  This was a hard choice for me because I've actually finished quite a few quilts this year.

I made this quilt as part of a challenge the Boston Modern Quilt Guild was hosting. Participants had to make a mini quilt in the colors of QuiltCon.  The mini had to use at least three of the colors and could be no bigger than 24" on any side.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I love to paper piece.  So of course I needed to create my own paper pieced pattern for my entry into the challenge. I designed this block because I wanted a block with diamonds, but with a slight twist.

The quilt went together pretty easy.  The great thing about the block is that there's only one point to match, the tip of the diamonds, which is pretty rare for a lot of paper pieced patterns.  I think this also went together easy for me because I had just finished piecing the 140th paper pieced block in a different (but secret) quilt that I've been working on.  16 blocks in this quilt seemed like a piece of cake!

I love how in using two different grey fabrics for the stars, a secondary pattern emerged, a dark grey pinwheel.  I also love two different stars that emerge when piecing multiple blocks together - the grey and the orange in this quilt.

I lamented for a while on how I should quilt this beauty.  I knew I needed to do some custom quilting, but what kind of quilting should I do?  I started by echo quilting in the grey stars.  I stitched in the ditch around the blue diamonds and did a 1/4" echo three times within the grey stars. I then did some pebble quilting in the lime background.  I knew I wanted to do a figure eight type design in the blue, but I wasn't sure if I could do it well enough in such a narrow space.  The blue diamonds do measure only about 1/2" wide.

After practicing on some scrap fabric sandwiches, I realized that I could do a figure eight pretty well in the space provided, so I went for it.  I have to say, I'm really pleased with how it turned out.  I really like to practice new quilting designs on scrap quilt sandwiches first before digging into a quilt.  Boy am I glad I did.  The first few tries left me thinking that the blue would either be left unquilted or with a more simple design.  Practice is key because, like I said, I really like how it turned out and that might be my favorite part of the quilting.  I finished up by quilting some radiating straight lines in the orange star points to highlight the motion of the star.

I did change my thread color for each section for four different color threads.  Because of that, the back looks like an awesome whole cloth quilt.  Am I the only one who loves to just run my hands across a finish quilted quilt?  I couldn't stop running my hands over this one. I bound the quilt in a charcoal Kona to really frame the quilt.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this quilt turned out and it has become one of my new favorite quilts.  Of course, that will probably change when I finish another quilt.

I'll be teaching a class on this quilt on November 18th at Quilter's Way in Concord, MA if you're interested in making your own mini quilt wall hanging or table topper for the holidays.

You can check out the rest of the quilts in the BMQG challenge here. Amazing, aren't they?

Quilt Details:
Finished Size: 24" x 24"
Fabrics Used: Kona Cotton - QuiltCon bundle from Pink Chalk Fabrics
Pattern: Dazzling Diamonds by me!
Machine paper pieced and machine quilted by me using Superior Threads So Fine!
Best Categories: Best Mini Quilt, Wall Quilt, Machine Quilted
Entry #: 78

Dazzling Diamonds Class

On November 18th I will be teaching my Dazzling Diamonds quilt at Quilter's Way in Acton.

This class will teach my paper piecing technique and will show you how to make the best use of secondary designs in your projects.

The class runs from 12-5 and is just $45.  This price includes the Dazzling Diamonds pattern.

If you're interested you can call Quilter's Way or sign up here.  If you're in the area and want to make a cute holiday gift, sign on up!  I hope to see you there.