I'm still here! I'm nearly caught up with my long list of things that needed to get done! I did manage to sneak in some time to finish this quilt started at the workshop. I didn't want to leave it too long to finish so that I would keep the momentum I had from attending the class with Kaffe Fassett. I have to say, that though this quilt looks so deceivingly simple in design, there is actually quite a bit involved. I had it on the design wall for two weeks, cutting and adding to it, rearranging the layout nearly everyday before I was satisfied enough with the layout to sew it up. Perhaps I did get to the stage where I started to over think the process, but I feel like I learned a lot from making this quilt. I may try it again in a different colour combination to see if the process is easier the second time around. I also feel inspired to finish off some old Kaffe Fassett projects started years and years ago and possible start another one!
Go Soft or Bold for Equally Lovely Quilts! Floral print diamonds float on a white background in this beautiful quilt. Thin white strips frame the diamonds to give the floating effect. Choose prints from your stash or all from one fabric range. Go as vivid or subdued as you like. A scrappy look would be …
I’m so excited to bring you this pillow tutorial! I can’t get enough of these Good Folks fabrics. And the
Master the stunning Diamond Rectangle quilt block in 5 sizes with our free printable patterns. Paper piecing ensures perfect points every time. Download now.
(You can click, then double click on the photos and they will enlarge, showing you a lot more than if you just look at them normally. You will probably see the changes I have made in greater detail.) It's a funny way to design a quilt, but once I am happy with the placement of the giant diamonds, I remove the four patch diamonds and rearrange the medium diamonds. I like to place the medium diamonds so the colors relate to the larger diamonds, and I try to distribute darker prints so they aren't bunched together. The changes may look minor, but (for example) all the cream and light green prints (like these, above) are gone. From a distance they read as "green" and not "blue" and didn't fit. (By the way, I had decided that I was NOT going to go out and buy one more damn piece of fabric for this quilt. I was going to solve the problem with what I had on hand.) After I've got the medium diamonds placed, I place four patch diamonds next to the giant diamonds so their colors connect to each other. See the yellow-orange and orange four patch diamonds next to the yellow-orange tail of the bird in the lower-right of this photo? And then on the other side, see how the lime green four-patch connects to the limey-green leaves in the same diamond? And above that, the yellow orange again, and then higher up, the red connects to the red of the fish on the right and the red flowers in the big blue floral diamond? That's how I start. I place one at a time, and then work out where everything else goes. By the time I do that, though, I've got a big stack of the four-patch diamonds. There are 16 different colors here. (Yellow, yellow-orange, red orange, red, lime green, olive green, grass green, red violet, violet, a dusky pink, and six shades of blue.) I didn't use all of them. The yellow and olive green didn't work at all, but I didn't know that FOR SURE until I tried them. (Remember my favorite quote: "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are different." Translation: You have to try it out in real life. It doesn't always work the way you think.) I didn't arrange the four patch diamonds like a rainbow, either. Blue is next to red, orange is next to blue, green is next to purple... and so on. I'm almost 99% sure this is IT. Of course that means it will stay on the design wall just like this for a day or so while I study it and make minor changes. Of course, when you get the big things right, and then you pay attention to all the tiny little things that don't appear to be important, well, then you end up with a good design. I already see something I don't like. That dark medium diamond in the bottom row. Too dark. Gotta go...
My Clementine Kites quilt is finished! This quilt was made for Dear Stella 's booth at Quilt Market, out of their Clementine collection...
Before I start telling you about the replacement four patch diamonds I've been making, I need to remind you of something. The quilt I am m...
I'm going to vent in a bit, so bear with me. I really do love being an artist and making quilts and making weird stuff, and pushing the edge of every design envelope I can find, but the going is rarely smooth. I designed this, the first diamond quilt in one day. I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Well, we all know where THAT leads. I knew there were some things that were not working in yesterday's version, and I thought it would be an easy fix. After dinner last night I went into the studio and started "tinkering." At some point I figured out I was NOT making a colorwash quilt with giant prints. I was making a quilt of diamonds, that were part of bigger, overlapping diamonds, that blended in and out of each other, and to make that happen, I had to make you see their edges, so I did NOT want them to blend. So I had to move them. After a couple of hours I had this, and I thought it was pretty much IT. Then I looked again. SH*T, I had that bright pink at the top left edge that stuck out. Had to fix that. Rummage through stash. Curse. OK! Ta-da! GOT IT! Then I looked at the picture above and I saw IT! The fly in the ointment. The block that JUST WOULD NOT sit back and relax. You can find it. It's the pretty one in the lower left, with the pink flowers. CRAP! I tried moving it to a couple of places, but it just would not play nicely with me. A bit more swearing and fabric shuffling and I have this. YES, I know I have to fill that triangular space at the bottom, but that's not all that hard to do, and it can wait. The corner is now darker than I would like it to be, but I really am running out of unique big prints. Rather I should say I have run out. I don't really want to go shopping, because I can't take my design wall with me, and you never really know what will fit until you try it. Now I can hear some of you already. "Um, Lynne. There's more dark space on the right. Your quilt looks a little off balanced." Um, no. That vertical row of diamonds at the far right are the edge pieces. Those will be cut in half. Here's a "camera crop" to show you. And yes, I know the two pinkish ones at the upper left don't necessarily read as "diamond" shapes, but hey, there are at least 74 unique fabrics in this thing, and though I have a really good stash, it does have it's limits and I've pretty much pushed it to the limit. So here are 74 Diamonds Dancing Like Demons. Here's another funny thought. This quilt is made from scraps (really) and is made from one shape. So it fits the definition of a "Charm Quilt." ROFLMAO!!!
One of the things my late Grandmother loved was Jewelry. It didn't matter if it was real or costume jewelry Grandma would wear it. In memo...
Learn how to make a diamond quilt without a lot of fuss and hard seams.
It's been a while since I have posted here mainly due to the fact that I've just barely been able to keep up with life in general due to sicknesses going on here with myself and the kids. Nothing serious, just constant! I'm still sewing though, but possibly not getting done everything that I would like to! Nothing new, right? I have had the opportunity to attend two workshops the last two weekends. Considering that I have only attended four workshops in my quilting career up until now, it felt like a very busy week! Last weekend's workshop was with Chris Jurd, which I will blog about next. This weekend's workshop was with none other than the wonderful Kaffe Fassett! Nearly as long as I have been quilting, I have wanted to attend a Kaffe Fassett workshop. I have spent many many hours over the years pouring over his books and dreaming of quilts to make inspired by him. When I heard that Addicted to Fabric in Canberra was going to host Kaffe Fassett and run a workshop for the Bordered Diamonds quilt from his book, "Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts", I jumped at the chance. And I have no regrets! If anyone is unfamiliar with how Kaffe runs his workshops with his partner Brandon Mably, they are all about the design process and colour placement. There is no sewing involved, but rather a lot of cutting and placing of fabrics on a design board and then moving and arranging the fabrics around. For me, this is the most exciting part of quilting, so a workshop dedicated to this process was extremely interesting to me. The morning started out with a brief introduction and discussion on how it is important that we work quickly and not hesitate or over think what we put up on the design wall. Their mantra is the same as the Nike commercial, "Just Do It". Most important was that we get something up on the design board and then stand back from quite a distance to look at our work. They suggested using a reduction glass to look through so that we could see what was working and what wasn't working easily. For the Bordered Diamonds quilt they suggested that large prints would be most effective and that smaller scale fabrics would be effective to use as the frames for each diamond. We were to cut the large diamonds out first and get them on the board first and then go back and work on filling in the frames for each large diamond later. Neither Kaffe or Brandon teach the workshop in a manner that they spend time babysitting what you are doing, but rather there is the feeling (particularly of Kaffe) of someone standing in the background parenting with a bit of gentle guidance here and there. This method I feel allowed me to be able to work and gain confidence as the day progressed. After I had placed about 15 diamonds up on my board, Kaffe did wander over and was quickly able to see what the color palette was that I was mainly using. He picked out about three or four of the darkest diamonds and said that they created too much contrast--too dark against the lightest of the fabrics that I had already had on the board. It surprised me how simply taking out those diamonds, suddenly made the start of my quilt seem clear and gave me direction as to where I wanted to go with it. I had brought with me a range of blue/purple, red and yellow/gold fabrics with a desire to try to use yellow in my version of his quilt. I told Kaffe that I find it tricky to use yellow in general and wanted to concentrate on this as an exploration on how to use it! Brandon mentioned that next to black and white, yellow is the most difficult color to work with. Kaffe's suggestion was to add in green, which I didn't bring with me, so I did get the opportunity of having him go "shopping" with me to pick out possible fabrics. That too, was an educational experience to see how his mind works. I suggest that if anyone ever gets an opportunity to do a workshop with them to take them up on their suggestions! It's the easiest way to begin to see what they already know. Close to lunch time I had already starting working on my borders for each of the diamonds. The suggestion was not to try and match the border fabric to the large diamond, but rather use instinct and choose the fabric based on what we feel works. Using a single or two color fabric seemed to work better than using detailed fabrics with many colours. Here is where I was up to when we broke for lunch: After lunch we kept working and trying to fill in as much as we could. Kaffe would walk around the room, sit down on a chair looking very relaxed and just look. Then he would walk up and point to an area and say, try this here, or this here. What I got from it was that where there is high contrast next to each other creates a starkness and doesn't let the colours dance together. Neither should the fabrics blend into each other. It was effective to choose a different colour for the border than the centre diamond. There is a subtle play and harmony when it works which allows the integrity of the shape of the diamond to remain clear. Below is a photo of where I was at at the end of the day. He then goes around the room and talks about the process each student went through to create their own palettes. This was an extremely interesting part of the workshop and fun to see how each person came up with really beautiful palettes of colour. This is a quilt I would like to try again to see how I could make it work in a different palette. Maybe next time I will try a darker palette. Here are some photos of what some other ladies in my workshop made during their day at the workshop: All in all, I was very pleased with the entire experience of the workshop. It's an educational experience. Be warned though, Kaffe and Brandon are very disciplined in their approach to teaching and expect you to be on your best behavior! We had a very nice group, so everything went very smoothly. At the end we got a chance to have our own books signed by Kaffe and then we rolled up our flannels with our quilt layout to be sewn up at home. I hope to get mine on my design board in the next week or two so that I can still remember what I learned in the workshop as I finish it! I want to add another row to each side so that it is the same size as the one in the book, which I believe is approximately 55" x 80". If you ever get an opportunity to attend a workshop with Kaffe and Brandon, don't hesitate, just do it!
I don't make a quilt expecting it's going to be one of a series, but sometimes an idea is too good to play with only once. Diamond Jubilee, 2015 I made this quilt as a high school graduation present for my niece, a hip West Coast girl. I didn't want to make her a typical quilt. I wanted something that would be new and fresh but stylish. It was inspired by Pam Goecke Dinndorf 's quilt, Harlequin. She sells a pattern here. Some of my best quilts are made when I am barely paying attention - as if the quilt flies out of the ends of my fingers without any effort. This one took eight days - or rather six evenings after work to design and two days to sew the flimsy together. Jewel Box, 2017 Jewel Box came about because I had the idea to make a dark diamonds quilt. I screwed around with dark fabrics from my stash for weeks, not coming up with anything that worked for me. I set the idea aside and instead worked with fabrics that were darker than the Diamond Jubilee quilt, but not as dark as I had originally planned. Once I let go of an idea that wasn't fully formed, I was able to embrace these middle value diamonds and this lovely quilt developed. Dark Majesty 2017 No matter how much I tried to ignore it, I just knew a quilt with dark fabrics was in there somewhere. Finally I realized I needed more fabrics from which to choose, so I went shopping for dark fabrics with large prints that would form the backbone of the quilt. With those in hand, this quilt came about. Tickled Pink Tickled Pink, 2018 Sometimes an idea just pops into your head. What about a PINK quilt? I had to order fabrics, and I wrestled with the tiny background diamonds next to the bright ones, but it turned out just the way I wanted. It looks really great on my dining room table. My Mother loved the Tickled Pink diamond quilt (above) so much, she asked if she could have it. I said no. I thought, I'll make her a scrab slab quilt. But I didn't really want to do that either. Looking around my studio, still messy from finishing the pink one, I saw all the discarded pieces and thought, what would happen if I used those... Well, Dairy Cream (with Sprinkles) happened. This is Glorious, a collaboration between my friend Julie Sefton and me. We used her color inspiration, chose the fabrics together, and then collaborated by email, text and a couple of very long telephone conversations to design the quilt together. This is Glorious, quilted. Julie added the binding, and you can see the quilt finished here. This is Blu, the blue diamond quilt. I made the top in July 2018 and finished it in May 2019. Here's a full view of the quilt top before it was quilted. When your granddaughter asks for a diamond quilt with dinosaurs, the proper grandmother answer is YES DEAR! I wanted this quilt to be little girl friendly, bright and colorful, and have dinosaurs, but not be overly dino-centric. I do need to stress that in these quilts, I want the viewer to first get the experience of the color first, and then to realize the quilt is made of three sizes of diamonds, and how they break up, and come back together, and then finally, all the different fabrics.
Create a gorgeous one-of-a-kind stained-glass quilt that every friend and family member would want to have. Use precut jelly roll strips to create this treasured quilt. Finished size: 58" x 58" Designed by Nancy McNally
Cute baby quilt or play mat pattern!
It's been a while since I have posted here mainly due to the fact that I've just barely been able to keep up with life in general due to sicknesses going on here with myself and the kids. Nothing serious, just constant! I'm still sewing though, but possibly not getting done everything that I would like to! Nothing new, right? I have had the opportunity to attend two workshops the last two weekends. Considering that I have only attended four workshops in my quilting career up until now, it felt like a very busy week! Last weekend's workshop was with Chris Jurd, which I will blog about next. This weekend's workshop was with none other than the wonderful Kaffe Fassett! Nearly as long as I have been quilting, I have wanted to attend a Kaffe Fassett workshop. I have spent many many hours over the years pouring over his books and dreaming of quilts to make inspired by him. When I heard that Addicted to Fabric in Canberra was going to host Kaffe Fassett and run a workshop for the Bordered Diamonds quilt from his book, "Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts", I jumped at the chance. And I have no regrets! If anyone is unfamiliar with how Kaffe runs his workshops with his partner Brandon Mably, they are all about the design process and colour placement. There is no sewing involved, but rather a lot of cutting and placing of fabrics on a design board and then moving and arranging the fabrics around. For me, this is the most exciting part of quilting, so a workshop dedicated to this process was extremely interesting to me. The morning started out with a brief introduction and discussion on how it is important that we work quickly and not hesitate or over think what we put up on the design wall. Their mantra is the same as the Nike commercial, "Just Do It". Most important was that we get something up on the design board and then stand back from quite a distance to look at our work. They suggested using a reduction glass to look through so that we could see what was working and what wasn't working easily. For the Bordered Diamonds quilt they suggested that large prints would be most effective and that smaller scale fabrics would be effective to use as the frames for each diamond. We were to cut the large diamonds out first and get them on the board first and then go back and work on filling in the frames for each large diamond later. Neither Kaffe or Brandon teach the workshop in a manner that they spend time babysitting what you are doing, but rather there is the feeling (particularly of Kaffe) of someone standing in the background parenting with a bit of gentle guidance here and there. This method I feel allowed me to be able to work and gain confidence as the day progressed. After I had placed about 15 diamonds up on my board, Kaffe did wander over and was quickly able to see what the color palette was that I was mainly using. He picked out about three or four of the darkest diamonds and said that they created too much contrast--too dark against the lightest of the fabrics that I had already had on the board. It surprised me how simply taking out those diamonds, suddenly made the start of my quilt seem clear and gave me direction as to where I wanted to go with it. I had brought with me a range of blue/purple, red and yellow/gold fabrics with a desire to try to use yellow in my version of his quilt. I told Kaffe that I find it tricky to use yellow in general and wanted to concentrate on this as an exploration on how to use it! Brandon mentioned that next to black and white, yellow is the most difficult color to work with. Kaffe's suggestion was to add in green, which I didn't bring with me, so I did get the opportunity of having him go "shopping" with me to pick out possible fabrics. That too, was an educational experience to see how his mind works. I suggest that if anyone ever gets an opportunity to do a workshop with them to take them up on their suggestions! It's the easiest way to begin to see what they already know. Close to lunch time I had already starting working on my borders for each of the diamonds. The suggestion was not to try and match the border fabric to the large diamond, but rather use instinct and choose the fabric based on what we feel works. Using a single or two color fabric seemed to work better than using detailed fabrics with many colours. Here is where I was up to when we broke for lunch: After lunch we kept working and trying to fill in as much as we could. Kaffe would walk around the room, sit down on a chair looking very relaxed and just look. Then he would walk up and point to an area and say, try this here, or this here. What I got from it was that where there is high contrast next to each other creates a starkness and doesn't let the colours dance together. Neither should the fabrics blend into each other. It was effective to choose a different colour for the border than the centre diamond. There is a subtle play and harmony when it works which allows the integrity of the shape of the diamond to remain clear. Below is a photo of where I was at at the end of the day. He then goes around the room and talks about the process each student went through to create their own palettes. This was an extremely interesting part of the workshop and fun to see how each person came up with really beautiful palettes of colour. This is a quilt I would like to try again to see how I could make it work in a different palette. Maybe next time I will try a darker palette. Here are some photos of what some other ladies in my workshop made during their day at the workshop: All in all, I was very pleased with the entire experience of the workshop. It's an educational experience. Be warned though, Kaffe and Brandon are very disciplined in their approach to teaching and expect you to be on your best behavior! We had a very nice group, so everything went very smoothly. At the end we got a chance to have our own books signed by Kaffe and then we rolled up our flannels with our quilt layout to be sewn up at home. I hope to get mine on my design board in the next week or two so that I can still remember what I learned in the workshop as I finish it! I want to add another row to each side so that it is the same size as the one in the book, which I believe is approximately 55" x 80". If you ever get an opportunity to attend a workshop with Kaffe and Brandon, don't hesitate, just do it!
This week’s quilt block of the 2019 Summer Sampler is “Altitude” and features a mountainous landscape with the most beautiful sky you can imagine behind it.
I’m so excited to bring you this pillow tutorial! I can’t get enough of these Good Folks fabrics. And the
HEY, YOU GUYS!! My Tabby Mountain quilt is officially Quilted, Bound, Laundered, and finally, FINALLY finished: Highlights from the Tabby Mountain Photo Shoot Having been inspired by the mad photography skills exhibited by other quilters on social media, I dragged my husband around against his will took advantage of an overcast Saturday afternoon to drive around in search of the perfect location for a photo shoot. My favorites are the ones where I wrapped the quilts around the bronze bull statues in the Ballantyne Corporate park. 2000 lb. Bull Sculpted by Peter Woytuk, Quilt Made By Me But you can't really get a good look at the quilt in the bull photos. A Bridge Over a Golf Cart Path at Ballantyne Country Club I picked this spot because I liked the texture of the stone bridge and the flowers below were just the right shade of purple, but alas the quilt is tiny in order to get the bridge AND the flowers in the shot, and you can't see any detail. "Tabby Mountain Disco Kitties," 57 1/2" x 72" You can see the quilting texture better in this shot. By the way, the sides of this quilt do lay nice and straight and flat. It's an annoying optical illusion from the diagonal quilting lines that is making the edges of the quilt appear wavy. "Tabby Mountain Disco Kitties," 57 1/2" x 72" The vibrant colors look best in this photo, taken on a shady patch of the lawn. Gotta Have a Rear View Here's how the back ended up. I ended up really liking this extra wide backing fabric, even though it was a bit of a pain. The sateen weave frays like crazy and is especially prone to being snagged by pins and needles during the quilting and binding process, but I love the soft sheen and it feels really nice to the touch, too. Post-Laundering Texture And one more for the road: So, to recap, this is the free Tabby Mountain Quilt pattern that was designed by Tula Pink for Free Spirit Fabrics, showcasing her Tabby Road fabric collection. You can get that pattern here. I understand that some of the prints in this collection are already selling out, but I found an etsy seller who has fabric kits still available for this quilt here (you're welcome!). Honestly, this quilt is ALL ABOUT THE FABRIC. I did swap out some Kaffe Fassett prints for the weird eyeball fabrics that I didn't care for in my own quilt, and I found near-equivalent solid color fabrics from other lines because my local quilt shops don't carry the Free Spirit Solids that are specified in the pattern. Also -- and this is important -- if you follow the cutting directions and yardage requirements in the pattern, your large scale print fabrics will be SIDEWAYS and/or UPSIDE DOWN instead of right side up in your finished quilt. This would bug me SO MUCH -- I'm glad I caught that and purchased additional yardage of my prints. And I fussy cut my absolute favorite print, the Disco Kitties, so that a kitty cat would be featured and centered nicely in each of those triangles. Disco Kitty from Free Spirit Fabrics in 2 Colorways I used this Creative Grids ruler to make it easier to cut out the large 30 degree triangles quickly and accurately: The Creative Grids 30 degree triangle ruler was definitely a worthwhile purchase, in case you're considering making a Tabby Mountain quilt of your own. I doubt I'll make another quilt EXACTLY like Tabby Mountain, but I think something similar would be a really cute way to showcase Christmas fabrics or novelty prints for a baby quilt, especially now that I've finally figured out how to piece the giant triangles together accurately. Using the Creative Grids 30 Degree Triangle Ruler to Fussy Cut Prints And now, for the Nitty Gritty on the Disco Kitties: Tabby Mountain Disco Kitties is only my SECOND quilt with my APQS Millenium longarm quilting machine. This is my FIRST custom quilt on the longarm machine, FIRST time quilting with acrylic rulers and templates on the longarm, and many other firsts (winding my own bobbins with the scary Turbo Winder, first time ripping out bad stitches, first time with lots of different threads...). This was supposed to be a "quick and easy" quilt for practicing with my longarm machine. I started it in January and it's now the end of May, so it has been a good 5 months in the making (let's all roll our eyes together, shall we?). I used Hobbs Tuscany Wool for this quilt, a variety of different quilting threads (primarily Isacord and Glide trilobal polyester), and the backing is a luscious extra-wide sateen fabric also designed by Tula Pink, "Freefall" in Orchid colorway. All of the quilting is hand-guided -- unfortunately I don't have a computer on this machine. Today I'm linking up and partying with: · Finish It Up Friday at www.crazymomquilts.blogspot.com · Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com · Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/2018/06/plus-quilt-in-island-batiks-finished-or.html ·TGIFF Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday, hosted this week by http://devotedquilter.blogspot.com/
Diamond in Diamond Quilt- Foundation paper piecing block. Finished block size 4 1/2" x 8" . Prior paper piecing knowledge required as this pattern does not include instructions on how to paper piece. Included: Printable pattern pieces with 1/4" seam allowance. Coloring sheet for 45" x 64" pattern size quilt. Coloring sheet for 22 1/2" x 16" pattern size pillow. Assembly instructions for a quilt. Instruction sheet. Separate file that includes extra printing sheet for printing multiple half-blocks. I'd love to see what you make. Tag your finished projects on IG #diamondindiamondquilt For personal use and small scale home production only.
Enjoy the Imperial Diamonds digital pattern from Love of Quilting July August 2011 issue.
The "Tickled Pink" flimsy is complete. Yeah, I'd say this tickles my fancy but good. As it is, it measures 72" wide by 98" tall. I have learned something about this quilt, and that is that the TINY diamonds will make or break this design. They - not the large diamonds - are the star of the show. The colored ones determine how brightly the quilt sings, so there needs to be good contrast with the "main" color. So in this pink quilt the tiny diamonds had to be bright turquoise, blue, deep purple and bright green. The "background" tiny diamonds need to blend with the "main" color of the quilt, they shouldn't stick out too much, but they shouldn't be monotonous either. And they shouldn't be "dull". The most successful background prints, in my opinion, were the ones with a pink allover design on a cream background so the fabric "read" as light pink and not cream. I am very happy with this quilt. You could say I am tickled pink! Just a reminder that my diamond quilts are inspired by Pam Goecke Dinndorf's Harlequin Quilt. She sells a pattern for it here.
A Bonjour Quilts sewing tutorial for a diamond quilt block - make your own scrappy diamond quilt with this quilt block pattern tutorial.
When I saw the Bordered Diamonds quilt in Kaffe Fassett's book, Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts, I knew immediately that it would be a perfect quilt for a thank you gift for my aunt. Never mind that my stash did not contain many large floral prints. My first thought was that I would just buy a kit, and Glorious Color has fabric kits to make two different versions of the quilt. This is their version from the book. And this is their version from the June/July 2010 Quilt Magazine. I carefully analyzed each kit trying to decide which would be best. Then I started thinking about how I liked each version--except for this or that fabric, and how I wanted to use some of my own fabrics, and how I am pretty persnickety about fabric choices, and I finally just gave up and started collecting florals...surely that wouldn't add too much to my stash? Here's a view of the cut diamonds and border strips and of my lovely white board which has been replaced: And since the directions call for dark diamonds to have light strips, and light diamonds to have dark strips, and the rows to alternate, I photographed them, then changed them to black and white to determine the values, as shown here by the strips (although these are the mediums to darks primarily): But after trying to lay them out as directed, I decided to do my own thing when the light/dark thing didn't work, and just evenly separated the colors. And now, a couple of months later, the blocks of the quilt are all sewn together. Hooray! I needed the quilt to be larger than designed, so it's now waiting for the border fabric to be added. This is what I am planning on using: And, having easily spent twice as much as I would have on a kit (what's an extra 1/2 yard here or there?), I now have a very large bin of floral fabrics. My stash, like my waistline, only seems to grow in one direction....
Have you ever wanted to try the Diamond in a Rectangle quilt block? It can be a bit tricky but Kate Colleran and Tammy Silvers simplify it for you in their blog post. This detailed tutorial demons…
It's been a while since I have posted here mainly due to the fact that I've just barely been able to keep up with life in general due to sicknesses going on here with myself and the kids. Nothing serious, just constant! I'm still sewing though, but possibly not getting done everything that I would like to! Nothing new, right? I have had the opportunity to attend two workshops the last two weekends. Considering that I have only attended four workshops in my quilting career up until now, it felt like a very busy week! Last weekend's workshop was with Chris Jurd, which I will blog about next. This weekend's workshop was with none other than the wonderful Kaffe Fassett! Nearly as long as I have been quilting, I have wanted to attend a Kaffe Fassett workshop. I have spent many many hours over the years pouring over his books and dreaming of quilts to make inspired by him. When I heard that Addicted to Fabric in Canberra was going to host Kaffe Fassett and run a workshop for the Bordered Diamonds quilt from his book, "Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts", I jumped at the chance. And I have no regrets! If anyone is unfamiliar with how Kaffe runs his workshops with his partner Brandon Mably, they are all about the design process and colour placement. There is no sewing involved, but rather a lot of cutting and placing of fabrics on a design board and then moving and arranging the fabrics around. For me, this is the most exciting part of quilting, so a workshop dedicated to this process was extremely interesting to me. The morning started out with a brief introduction and discussion on how it is important that we work quickly and not hesitate or over think what we put up on the design wall. Their mantra is the same as the Nike commercial, "Just Do It". Most important was that we get something up on the design board and then stand back from quite a distance to look at our work. They suggested using a reduction glass to look through so that we could see what was working and what wasn't working easily. For the Bordered Diamonds quilt they suggested that large prints would be most effective and that smaller scale fabrics would be effective to use as the frames for each diamond. We were to cut the large diamonds out first and get them on the board first and then go back and work on filling in the frames for each large diamond later. Neither Kaffe or Brandon teach the workshop in a manner that they spend time babysitting what you are doing, but rather there is the feeling (particularly of Kaffe) of someone standing in the background parenting with a bit of gentle guidance here and there. This method I feel allowed me to be able to work and gain confidence as the day progressed. After I had placed about 15 diamonds up on my board, Kaffe did wander over and was quickly able to see what the color palette was that I was mainly using. He picked out about three or four of the darkest diamonds and said that they created too much contrast--too dark against the lightest of the fabrics that I had already had on the board. It surprised me how simply taking out those diamonds, suddenly made the start of my quilt seem clear and gave me direction as to where I wanted to go with it. I had brought with me a range of blue/purple, red and yellow/gold fabrics with a desire to try to use yellow in my version of his quilt. I told Kaffe that I find it tricky to use yellow in general and wanted to concentrate on this as an exploration on how to use it! Brandon mentioned that next to black and white, yellow is the most difficult color to work with. Kaffe's suggestion was to add in green, which I didn't bring with me, so I did get the opportunity of having him go "shopping" with me to pick out possible fabrics. That too, was an educational experience to see how his mind works. I suggest that if anyone ever gets an opportunity to do a workshop with them to take them up on their suggestions! It's the easiest way to begin to see what they already know. Close to lunch time I had already starting working on my borders for each of the diamonds. The suggestion was not to try and match the border fabric to the large diamond, but rather use instinct and choose the fabric based on what we feel works. Using a single or two color fabric seemed to work better than using detailed fabrics with many colours. Here is where I was up to when we broke for lunch: After lunch we kept working and trying to fill in as much as we could. Kaffe would walk around the room, sit down on a chair looking very relaxed and just look. Then he would walk up and point to an area and say, try this here, or this here. What I got from it was that where there is high contrast next to each other creates a starkness and doesn't let the colours dance together. Neither should the fabrics blend into each other. It was effective to choose a different colour for the border than the centre diamond. There is a subtle play and harmony when it works which allows the integrity of the shape of the diamond to remain clear. Below is a photo of where I was at at the end of the day. He then goes around the room and talks about the process each student went through to create their own palettes. This was an extremely interesting part of the workshop and fun to see how each person came up with really beautiful palettes of colour. This is a quilt I would like to try again to see how I could make it work in a different palette. Maybe next time I will try a darker palette. Here are some photos of what some other ladies in my workshop made during their day at the workshop: All in all, I was very pleased with the entire experience of the workshop. It's an educational experience. Be warned though, Kaffe and Brandon are very disciplined in their approach to teaching and expect you to be on your best behavior! We had a very nice group, so everything went very smoothly. At the end we got a chance to have our own books signed by Kaffe and then we rolled up our flannels with our quilt layout to be sewn up at home. I hope to get mine on my design board in the next week or two so that I can still remember what I learned in the workshop as I finish it! I want to add another row to each side so that it is the same size as the one in the book, which I believe is approximately 55" x 80". If you ever get an opportunity to attend a workshop with Kaffe and Brandon, don't hesitate, just do it!
A Bonjour Quilts sewing tutorial for a diamond quilt block - make your own scrappy diamond quilt with this quilt block pattern tutorial.
The fabrics shown in this post were given to me by Island Batik. December’s challenge is to explore the world of 3D by using optical illusions, textures, trapunto or whatever else will make your qu…
Beads Quilt This Beads Quilt designed by Marlene Oddie of Kissed Quilts for Fall 2015 - Blogger's Quilt Festival. The Quilt also called "Dangling Diamonds".The Pattern by Donna Jordan for Jordan Fabr
Scroll down in English please. Tämän työn nimi on "Diamond in Diamond Quilt". Blokeista on ollut kuvia Instagramissa ja siitä on tullut kiinnostuneita kyselyitä, joten tein siitä ohjeen. Laitoin ohjeen Etsyyn ja linkki sinne löytyy myöskin tuosta sivupalkista Etsy painikkeen alta. Ohjeeseen sisältyy viisi sivua: Foundation paper piecing mallit, kokoamiskuva, värityskuvat 45" x 64" (n. 1,15 m x 1.62m ) peittoon ja 22.5" x 16" (n. 57cm x 40.5 cm) tyynyyn sekä sivu mittatiedoista/blokkien määrästä. Peitto odottaa vielä tikkausta ja taustaa mutta halusin esitellä tämän jo tässä vaiheessa. Tässä näitä blokkeja, joiden valmis koko on 4.5" x 8". Käytin yhteen timanttiin suurin piirtein samaa tummuusastetta olevaa kangasta, jotta muoto erottuisi selvemmin. Keskustimanttiin selkeästi tummempaa tai vaaleampaa kuin uloimmat osat. Timantin osia ommellessa saumanvarat on hyvä pitää kohtuullisina, sillä kun peittoa kootaan, tulee risteyskohtiin muutenkin paljon kangaskerroksia. Tykkään ommella ns. vanhanaikaisesti pois revittävälle kuitukankaalle, joten nämäkin kaikki olen piirtänyt. Tapoja on monia muitakin mutta tykkään tehdä näin. Piirsin myös omat kaavat noille kolmioille kankaan leikkausta varten. Siten voi leikata kangasta sarjana, eikä tarvitse miettiä riittääkö jokin tilkku ja kangasta säästyy. Pienen timantin kehyksiksi valitsin harmaan, sillä sen värisiä tilkkuja oli paljon ja monia tummuusasteita. Kun palat ompelee ja trimmaa tarkasti, ne kohdistuvat hyvin. Tähän epäsymmetriseen sommitelmaan olin tyytyväinen ja tästä lähdin kasaamaan pintaa. Iso osa kankaista on tilkkulaatikosta mutta leikkasin myös lisää värejä isommista paloista. Kokoa on helppo muokata ja tyynyversioon ei tarvitse tehdä ihan niin montaa palaa. Onhan tässä ommeltavaa mutta tästä tuli niin nätti, että kannatti mielestäni nähdä vaivaa. #diamondindiamondquilt **** This quilt is called "Diamond in Diamond Quilt". I have shown some of the blocks on Instagram ja I have received a lot of interest. I made a pattern of it to Etsy and you can also find the link to the shop from the side bar. The pattern includes five pages: Foundation paper piecing pattern, assembly instructions, coloring sheet for a quilt size 45" x 64" (about 1,15 m x 1,62 m) and for a pillow 22.5" x 16" (about 57 cm x 40.5 cm), and short instructions. The quilt is still waiting for a backing and quilting but I wanted to show this to you already. Block size is 4.5" x 8". One diamond is made out of colors that are quite similar in color value so the shape becomes more distinct. For the inner diamond I used clearly lighter or darker color compared to the outer diamond. While paper piecing the diamonds it is good to keep the seam allowance reasonable because once you start assembling it there will be a lot of fabric when four pieces come together. I like to sew in an old fashioned way using thin tearable non-wowen paper, so I have drawn each one by hand. There are many other ways but this is how I like to do it. I also drew own pattern for both of the triangles in order to cut the fabric. That way I can cut the fabric faster and save fabric. For the small diamond's frames I selected gray because I had so many different scraps in variety of shades. Once the pieces are sewn and trimmed carefully they match well. I am happy with this unsymmetrical color design. Big part of the fabrics are from my scrap box but in addition I cut up some bigger fabric pieces. The size is easy to change and for the pillow version you don't have to make quite as many pieces. I have to say that there is a lot to sew here but I think it turned out so pretty that it was worth it! #diamondindiamondquilt
Bordered Diamonds is finished and I'm very pleased with it. I think I fulfilled my goal of "Summery florals". There are so many beautiful Kaffe Fassett Collective prints in this quilt. The bird fabric is "Summer Tree" by Philip Jacobs - out of print now The centre fabric is "Orchids" in blue by Philip Jacobs Centre fabric is Brassica in Rust by Philip Jacobs I really enjoyed making this quilt. The big diamonds give plenty of room to showcase the flowers in Philip Jacobs' and Kaffe Fassett's designs. And when you put smaller scale prints in the borders, they separate the blocks nicely. As I said in my previous post here, I think this pattern works best when the same fabrics are repeated within the quilt, but with different borders. And here's the back - pieced from Kaffe Fassett pieces in my stash. I cut down the Midnight Diamonds pattern from Quilts in Burano, and left off the border, so the finished size of this quilt is 63" x 55". I had it machine quilting by Busy Bee Quilt Shop in Wellington, NZ, and they used a wavy design running down the quilt. Now it's time for the Peacock Party. Feel free to link up a recent blog post below. You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter
I’m so excited to bring you this pillow tutorial! I can’t get enough of these Good Folks fabrics. And the
Diamond Drops quilt pattern. Download copy. This quilt pattern is for intermediate to advanced quilters. It is not a beginner pattern. No 'Y' seams. Not paper pieced. Queen: 87" x 99" King: 115" x 127" Features 'Mixmaster Mashup' and 'Dapple' By Patrick Lose for Northcott. Kits may be available. Please contact me regarding wholesale purchases if you own a store. Like us on Facebook. www.facebook.com/www.fabricaddict.net
Going to sleep under your average, run-of-the-mill, storebought duvet feels nothing like snuggling under an artistic quilt that you or your loved one made for you. With affection. With care in every stitch. With countless hours of skill and dedication.
Bordered Diamonds is such a great pattern. The original pattern is in Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts by Kaffe Fassett, but that book is out of print now, so I've been using Midnight Diamonds from Quilts in Burano by Kaffe Fassett. I think the patterns are the same, but I haven't got out my ruler to check. I've had fun mixing the fabrics and applying borders to the fussy cut blocks. I especially like the big Cactus Flower block above, surrounded by the blue section of the Diamond Stripe. The blue in the border highlights the blue in the flower. Although Bordered Diamonds can be a scrappy quilt, it's still important to balance the blocks and get a good flow throughout the quilt. I like to use the same feature fabrics more than once, but change up the borders so there's no exact repeats. The Cactus Flower looks good in it's final placement. Oh! And in exciting news I see that the Shawl design is going to be re-released later this year. I love Shawl. Here it is in the Bordered Diamonds quilt - the pink flower in the centre. I'll show you full photos of the Bordered Diamonds quilt soon, but in the mean-time, here's one I made back in 2014. I called it Bordered Peacocks because of the feature print that started it all. You can read about it here. In fact that quilt is where I got the name for the Peacock Party from. I've always loved the jewel tones in peacock feathers. Well, now it is time for the Peacock Party. Fee free to link up a recent blog post below. You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter
Diamond in Diamond Quilt-Foundation Papierblock. Fertiger Block Größe 4 1/2 "x 8" . Vorkenntnisse im Papierannähen erforderlich, da dieses Muster keine Anweisungen zum Papierstück enthält. Im Lieferumfang enthalten: Druckbare Schnittteile mit 1/4" Nahtzugabe. Ausmalbild für einen 45" x 64" großen Quilt. Ausmalbild für ein Kissen in der Größe 56 x 40 cm. Aufbauanleitung für einen Quilt. Gebrauchsanweisung. Separate Datei, die ein zusätzliches Druckblatt für den Druck mehrerer halber Blöcke enthält. Ich würde gerne sehen, was Sie machen. Markiere deine fertigen Projekte auf IG #diamondindiamondquilt Nur für den persönlichen Gebrauch und kleine Heimproduktion.
Join BERNINA Brand Ambassador, MJ Kinman, as she shows you how to create your own sparkling diamond with freezer paper piecing techniques!
See the Diamond Quilt tutorial @ urban-patchwork
I can’t believe it’s Friday already! This week has been crazy at my new job and I’m still in that “drinking from the fire hose” phase. I added a ton of items to my to-…
The computer catalog of their quilts is a good place to start and we spent a long time looking up our friends and favorite quilters to see what works were there. We wrote down the catalog numbers and the next day, some of the quilts were presented on the tables in the viewing room you saw in the last post about the Quilt House. This is by one of my authors, M. Joan Lintault from NY. It is one that isn’t in her book so I was excited to see it. It is a printed design on the fabric and then quilted. Just spectacular detail in the leaf designs and the colors are beautiful. Here is the Libby Lehman they own. One of her ribbon play quilts with vibrant colors after all these years! Of course, Libby is on everyone’s mind in the Quilt world and we are hoping for a complete recovery so we can see more of her work! Goats by Ruth McDowell. ONe of my friends owns a large horse piece by her so I had to see what the museum had. I regret not taking a class with her! These beautiful full quilt shots were generously provided to me by the museum. Any that are odd or badly lit were ones that I took. I couldn’t get an angle to shoot some and of course didn’t have ideal lighting so it’s the best that I could do under the circumstances. Some of the quilts that are filed flat are ones that have embellishments so can’t be folded into boxes or are too delicate.For example, this is a crazy quilt made famous by being on the cover of a Penny Mc Morris book. This embroidered bedcover from 1710-1730 has lots of gold thread, very heavy and intricate. The center medallion is a bed of gold thread and I think the base fabric is silk. As a contrast, this white wholecloth quilt from 1750-1800, France, is just fantastic free motion quilting! It’s over 5 ft so just close ups here. This is a Mughal ‘floor’ quilt from the first half of the 18th century and is silk with silk embroidery, wood-block cotton print on the reverse side. The embroidery is tiny here and amazing! I wonder if it was truly for a floor or a repro of an image on a floor? The vibrant colors of this silk were a standout and I could study this for hours. It is one of the 3 quilts that I found inspirational because of the small pieces used in the quilts. I’d like to try creating with tiny pieces. Here are the other two below. Detail in the Gallery. Pieces were about half inch at the smallest center. Made by Bertha Neiden in Lincoln, NE about 1910 of wool and probably wool scraps from clothing! Wool and felt pieced by hand! It reminds me of many gameboards all together! More photos coming in future blog posts!
It's been a while since I have posted here mainly due to the fact that I've just barely been able to keep up with life in general due to sicknesses going on here with myself and the kids. Nothing serious, just constant! I'm still sewing though, but possibly not getting done everything that I would like to! Nothing new, right? I have had the opportunity to attend two workshops the last two weekends. Considering that I have only attended four workshops in my quilting career up until now, it felt like a very busy week! Last weekend's workshop was with Chris Jurd, which I will blog about next. This weekend's workshop was with none other than the wonderful Kaffe Fassett! Nearly as long as I have been quilting, I have wanted to attend a Kaffe Fassett workshop. I have spent many many hours over the years pouring over his books and dreaming of quilts to make inspired by him. When I heard that Addicted to Fabric in Canberra was going to host Kaffe Fassett and run a workshop for the Bordered Diamonds quilt from his book, "Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts", I jumped at the chance. And I have no regrets! If anyone is unfamiliar with how Kaffe runs his workshops with his partner Brandon Mably, they are all about the design process and colour placement. There is no sewing involved, but rather a lot of cutting and placing of fabrics on a design board and then moving and arranging the fabrics around. For me, this is the most exciting part of quilting, so a workshop dedicated to this process was extremely interesting to me. The morning started out with a brief introduction and discussion on how it is important that we work quickly and not hesitate or over think what we put up on the design wall. Their mantra is the same as the Nike commercial, "Just Do It". Most important was that we get something up on the design board and then stand back from quite a distance to look at our work. They suggested using a reduction glass to look through so that we could see what was working and what wasn't working easily. For the Bordered Diamonds quilt they suggested that large prints would be most effective and that smaller scale fabrics would be effective to use as the frames for each diamond. We were to cut the large diamonds out first and get them on the board first and then go back and work on filling in the frames for each large diamond later. Neither Kaffe or Brandon teach the workshop in a manner that they spend time babysitting what you are doing, but rather there is the feeling (particularly of Kaffe) of someone standing in the background parenting with a bit of gentle guidance here and there. This method I feel allowed me to be able to work and gain confidence as the day progressed. After I had placed about 15 diamonds up on my board, Kaffe did wander over and was quickly able to see what the color palette was that I was mainly using. He picked out about three or four of the darkest diamonds and said that they created too much contrast--too dark against the lightest of the fabrics that I had already had on the board. It surprised me how simply taking out those diamonds, suddenly made the start of my quilt seem clear and gave me direction as to where I wanted to go with it. I had brought with me a range of blue/purple, red and yellow/gold fabrics with a desire to try to use yellow in my version of his quilt. I told Kaffe that I find it tricky to use yellow in general and wanted to concentrate on this as an exploration on how to use it! Brandon mentioned that next to black and white, yellow is the most difficult color to work with. Kaffe's suggestion was to add in green, which I didn't bring with me, so I did get the opportunity of having him go "shopping" with me to pick out possible fabrics. That too, was an educational experience to see how his mind works. I suggest that if anyone ever gets an opportunity to do a workshop with them to take them up on their suggestions! It's the easiest way to begin to see what they already know. Close to lunch time I had already starting working on my borders for each of the diamonds. The suggestion was not to try and match the border fabric to the large diamond, but rather use instinct and choose the fabric based on what we feel works. Using a single or two color fabric seemed to work better than using detailed fabrics with many colours. Here is where I was up to when we broke for lunch: After lunch we kept working and trying to fill in as much as we could. Kaffe would walk around the room, sit down on a chair looking very relaxed and just look. Then he would walk up and point to an area and say, try this here, or this here. What I got from it was that where there is high contrast next to each other creates a starkness and doesn't let the colours dance together. Neither should the fabrics blend into each other. It was effective to choose a different colour for the border than the centre diamond. There is a subtle play and harmony when it works which allows the integrity of the shape of the diamond to remain clear. Below is a photo of where I was at at the end of the day. He then goes around the room and talks about the process each student went through to create their own palettes. This was an extremely interesting part of the workshop and fun to see how each person came up with really beautiful palettes of colour. This is a quilt I would like to try again to see how I could make it work in a different palette. Maybe next time I will try a darker palette. Here are some photos of what some other ladies in my workshop made during their day at the workshop: All in all, I was very pleased with the entire experience of the workshop. It's an educational experience. Be warned though, Kaffe and Brandon are very disciplined in their approach to teaching and expect you to be on your best behavior! We had a very nice group, so everything went very smoothly. At the end we got a chance to have our own books signed by Kaffe and then we rolled up our flannels with our quilt layout to be sewn up at home. I hope to get mine on my design board in the next week or two so that I can still remember what I learned in the workshop as I finish it! I want to add another row to each side so that it is the same size as the one in the book, which I believe is approximately 55" x 80". If you ever get an opportunity to attend a workshop with Kaffe and Brandon, don't hesitate, just do it!
If you’re stressed about sewing perfect diamond units, we’re here to calm your nerves with an easy tutorial for strip pieced diamond quilt blocks.
Bordered Diamonds is such a great pattern. The original pattern is in Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts by Kaffe Fassett, but that book is...
I'm going to vent in a bit, so bear with me. I really do love being an artist and making quilts and making weird stuff, and pushing the edge of every design envelope I can find, but the going is rarely smooth. I designed this, the first diamond quilt in one day. I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Well, we all know where THAT leads. I knew there were some things that were not working in yesterday's version, and I thought it would be an easy fix. After dinner last night I went into the studio and started "tinkering." At some point I figured out I was NOT making a colorwash quilt with giant prints. I was making a quilt of diamonds, that were part of bigger, overlapping diamonds, that blended in and out of each other, and to make that happen, I had to make you see their edges, so I did NOT want them to blend. So I had to move them. After a couple of hours I had this, and I thought it was pretty much IT. Then I looked again. SH*T, I had that bright pink at the top left edge that stuck out. Had to fix that. Rummage through stash. Curse. OK! Ta-da! GOT IT! Then I looked at the picture above and I saw IT! The fly in the ointment. The block that JUST WOULD NOT sit back and relax. You can find it. It's the pretty one in the lower left, with the pink flowers. CRAP! I tried moving it to a couple of places, but it just would not play nicely with me. A bit more swearing and fabric shuffling and I have this. YES, I know I have to fill that triangular space at the bottom, but that's not all that hard to do, and it can wait. The corner is now darker than I would like it to be, but I really am running out of unique big prints. Rather I should say I have run out. I don't really want to go shopping, because I can't take my design wall with me, and you never really know what will fit until you try it. Now I can hear some of you already. "Um, Lynne. There's more dark space on the right. Your quilt looks a little off balanced." Um, no. That vertical row of diamonds at the far right are the edge pieces. Those will be cut in half. Here's a "camera crop" to show you. And yes, I know the two pinkish ones at the upper left don't necessarily read as "diamond" shapes, but hey, there are at least 74 unique fabrics in this thing, and though I have a really good stash, it does have it's limits and I've pretty much pushed it to the limit. So here are 74 Diamonds Dancing Like Demons. Here's another funny thought. This quilt is made from scraps (really) and is made from one shape. So it fits the definition of a "Charm Quilt." ROFLMAO!!!
