Day: April 25, 2021

Diamonds III

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I’ve just laid out the second pile of diamonds from the Kaffe Fassett Collective. I’d cut them from the strips I’d cut for Diamonds II and added a few more from fabrics I picked up at Woolworks just outside of Mahone Bay when I was in Lunenburg for my regular bone density scan.

Tumbling Blocks Layout

I began by colour sorting the diamonds then sorting again for intensity. I laid out the blocks so I could get a colour flow from the yellows in the top left to blues in the bottom right. I haven’t taken time yet to sit with this array – I did my best to keep the dark diamonds aligned on one side of each “cube”, lighter diamonds on the “light side” with a medium intensity for the “top” of each cube. I now need to spend some time checking that the flow allows each cube to stand out.

In actual fact I began the layout with the blue diamonds (in part because I had more blues than other colours) but once I had the layout I decided the colour flow works better from the yellow to the blue, rather than the other way around.

Reverse Layout

So now to begin assembling the quilt top.

New Lockdown in NS

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The number of new COVID-19 cases is rising steeply here in NS – we’re seeing the effect of community spread with the highly transmissible B117 variant, so public health has imposed a new lockdown in an effort to slow the rate of infection.

However, we’re being encouraged to be outside to enjoy the spring weather – go walking, hiking, have small groups (of five people observing social distancing guidelines), just continue with the public health protocols.

Yesterday afternoon was lovely and sunny (if a bit windy) so the knitters/stitchers decided to get together for an hour or two outside.

We tried the grassy space beside the building where we gathered during the summer but the wind was strong and nippy so we retreated to Ruby’s patio – all five of us. Ruby couldn’t resist offering a snack!

Knitters At Work

Just getting out and laughing together was liberating.

Next week I hope the weather will be a bit warmer so more of us can gather on the large grassy space beside the building in clusters of five.

Diamonds II – Finished

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Just finished the second Diamonds Quilt.

Diamonds II – Finished Quilt

In this quilt I wanted the quilting to provide texture but not detract from the strength of the individual fabrics. I began at one edge stitching-in-the-ditch but I didn’t get far because I could anticipate running into trouble with the backing not distributing evenly. I switched to quilting the individual diamonds (I still haven’t counted them – there’s approximately 130-140 pieces in the quilt including the triangles and half diamonds at the edges).

Because I was quilting-in-the-hoop, I had to hoop each diamond separately as well as change the thread for each diamond. I was able to use the same variegated thread for several diamonds but to make sure the backing remained flat I started in the middle – that meant I couldn’t quilt every similar coloured block one after the other because they were distributed throughout the quilt top and I needed to work my way from centre to edge making sure the backing was taut with each hooping.

Once I had all the diamonds quilted I resumed stitching-in-the-ditch which now was straight forward.

I finished the quilt (final size: 48″ x 64 1/2″) with a hidden binding because I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the diamonds at the edge of the piece.

Diamonds II – Quilt Back

Added a hidden binding and a label and the quilt is finished.