Be A Diamond Bloghop

Thank you Carol at Just Let Me Quilt for hosting Be A Diamond.

 I was thinking maybe a baseball diamond ball field/ball game themed quilt. And wondered how I could make a diamond ring quilt. Either would have been a good idea. But I did neither. I went with big huge diamond shapes sewn in rows. They’re just big triangles sewn together to create a huge diamond.

The best thing about this, including the Be A Diamond Bloghop, is the batik fabrics used for the diamonds. I’ve had a small set of batiks sitting around waiting for their debut. And I think they show off pretty well in these big diamonds. There was just enough to squeeze in these 13 huge diamonds.

It's made from a triangle template and side triangles to make it into a rectangle block. Then put a matching block end to end to make the diamond look. I just cut and placed in order as I went along. My template size was determined by the batik fabric sizes, which I think were just a little bigger than a fat quarter. Each finished huge diamond is 9” at its center and 26” long from point to point. Here’s a basic rundown of the idea of the huge diamond look.

I did say they were huge diamonds. A blue minky back and just straight line quilting to finish it.

I made the huge diamond quilt especially for the Be A Diamond Bloghop. And since it was a quick sew with the huge blocks, it was not easy but it was quick, I had time to make another quilt. So here’s an Easter treat for you to see. It’s a hopping bunny row quilt just finished and was ready for the Easter holiday.

This was made with fabric I already had. For the hopping bunnies, I drew a template then appliquéd  them on the white. And cut squares from a lot of bright prints and solids to make the other rows.  No actual pattern was used, it just went together row by row.

Diamonds and bunnies have been my projects the last few weeks.  They are definitely bright and different.

Thank you for visiting from the Be A Diamond Bloghop. Visit the other participants at Just Let Me Quilt Be A Diamond Bloghop  this week to see all the other diamonds.

Gin

All about strings

There's a blog hop going on with hostess Carla from Creatin’ In The Sticks . All About  Strings is what its about and should be easy to do. I thought.

I googled high and low for something different I could do.  I choose stars and strings  found on Mary Quilts Blog . She gave no pattern, just basic quick instructions on cutting and assembling. Thank you Mary Quilts.

There are 12 huge blocks measuring 20”x20” inch.
Each big block consists of four 10” squares.
I needed 24 fat quarters in 12 different solid colors.
The entire quilt needed 288 strings, which was 24 strings per each huge 20” block, or 6 strings per 10” square. I kept running out of strings and had to go back
to my stash many times to scrounge for more. Look close to see all the strings that qualify for the All About Strings Bloghop.

 You can see four designs in the quilt if you look at it in different ways. First you can see the big stars for sure.

Here you see a design the diamonds make as they come together at a point.

Look away and glance back you can see the diamond design.

One more look and there’s a hexagon effect around the star.

Plus the 12 solid color stars are bright and spring like and even reminds me of Easter egg colors. It was not the fastest quilt to make because of all the strings involved. It was foundation pieced. This is my first strings project and first foundation piecing project so I learned alot. It measures 58”x78”.

I like the end result. Thank you MaryQuilts.com for the tutorial.

And Thank You for stopping by and seeing my string quilt. Visit these other All About Strings participants this week to see more inspiring projects.

Monday, March 25th

Just Let Me Quilt

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Bumbleberry Stitches

QuiltFabrication

Seams to be Sew

DesertSky Quilting

Happy Cottage Quilter

quiltsbyjoanne

selina quilts

Homespun Hannah's Blog

Karrin's Crazy World


Tuesday, March 26th

MooseStash Quilting

keepsake moments

Just Sew Quilter

Vroomans Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

Quilted Delights

Life in Scrapatch

Patchouli Moon Studio

ShirleyC


Wednesday, March 27th

Stitchin at Home

Alycia Quilts

Websterquilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Melva Loves Scraps

Words & Stitches

Den syende himmel

Patchwork Breeze

Domestic Felicity

The Quilted Snail


Thursday, March 28th

Cynthia's Creating Ark

The Joyful Quilter

Color Creating and Quilting

PamelaQuilts

Beaquilter

Two Maker Chicks

Days Filled With Joy

Quilting & Learning - What a Combo!

Creatin' in the Sticks

Gin

A weekend of soccer and racing competition for Cohen and I didn’t make it to either one.  What kind of mawmaw am I? It wasn’t my doing to miss the activities but things happen. The mom kept me in the loop both Saturday and Sunday with snapshots she sent me.

So soccer up first on Saturday morning. He’s all over the ball so it’s safe to say he enjoys soccer.

Then ASAP after the soccer game they loaded up to travel over an hour to the 2nd race of the competition season for one dirtbike league. This will be his 3rd race of his entire life at age six
and a half. They joined 2 leagues. One league they’ve had one race and he placed first. This league they’re racing today has had 2 races of the season. He placed 8th the first one and fifth this one.

His mom said it was a race of hills, something none of the little ones were experienced with. Cohen wiped out once on the practice course and a bad wipe out on the competition race. He got a few scrapes and bruises to show. Thankful for the right safety gear to protect all the little racers.

I would have loved to been there in person to cheer him on. The mom said even though he had a tough spill and turn over he got back in the race and placed 5th out of 9 in his group.

He likes the competition and is gaining a lot of experience in so many avenues. Like sportsmanship, like not giving up, like knowing you did your best, like honoring the winner, like learning more about your dirtbike each race, like being grateful and a good attitude, and like a great life experience at an early age.

Time

Time changed forward. Which means time for all things spring. Like pollen everywhere over everything. And daylight till way late in the evening, which I like.

And there’s soccer and ball time. We made it to the first soccer game of this year. My part goalie/part kicker did not disappoint. Here’s the almost 7 year old at the goalie position with the yellow over-best defending his team to tie game of 1-1.

He gets a lot of kicks in. Here he is the blue on the left.

Also spring time brings fresh local strawberries, chicks and bunnies, and longer days. It’s one of my favorite times of the year. 

Gin

E is for . . .

News is that there’s a new baby boy arriving soon joining the other three grands. I’m excited for his arrival in about 11 weeks or so. While waiting for his mom to choose fabric to match his nursery so we can make a baby quilt for him, I made this one for him this week and using it for my entrance into Project Quilting 10.5 which the theme is abecedarius.  The word “abecedarius” means “an alphabet primer.” Literally, the word itself is made up of a+b+c+d! It can refer to a form of poetry where the first letter of each line or verse is the next letter of the alphabet, or it can be a book where each letter is defined (A is for … B is for …). 

This is from a kit I’ve had from my favorite FB quilt shop who has live party sales at least twice a week and last for three hours with everything you can think of that you could want. Find her at SewTrendyMN. This included a panel of the pictures/words and five fabric designs to make the other squares and borders. Instructions are to cut the panel apart into squares, cut the supplied fabrics into small squares to make the matching blocks to the animal blocks. And then cut the borders from the remaining fabrics. The animal blocks have words on the front which of course incorporates the letters of the alphabet. So it meets the quidelines for Project Quilting 10.5.

There was a teensy-tiny bit of fabric left to make the letters for his name on
the back.  The measurements are 48”x57”. E . . . is sure be a cutie playing on and dragging his wild animal quilt around as he grows.

PQ10.4

There is a 12-week challenge with 6 quilt projects over at Kim’s Project Quilting 10.
We’re on PQ10.4 this week and the project is pixel play.  Which is hard. And very time consuming. And something way beyond my thinking, I think. But I did my version of it from start to finish in the 7 days allowed in the rules of the challenge, For some reason I have to do a bed size quilt or at least a large throw size for any quilt I do. I don’t know why. That’s my own challenge I guess. The only subject on my mind for a pixelated project was a penquin. I couldn’t let go of not doing a penguin in some shape or form.

If it looks like a penquin, has the colors of a penquin, and surrounded by snow and a blue sky, then it must be a penquin.

It’s not a highly pixelated resolution, just a bare minimum pixelation. I don’t know if that is even the right jibber-jabber for pixel talk, but that’s how I’m calling it any way. Everything used was from my stash and measures 47”x54”, which is a great size for a baby to play on and kick around with.

Thank you PQ10 for pushing our limits on these challenges.

Gin

             

Show Your Wings Bloghop

Show Your Wings Bloghop

Winner, winner, chicken dinner. No, we're not going to eat these chickens that I created for the Show Your Wings bloghop. We've always had chickens on and off thru the years. We just had family Christmas Day at one of our sons house and he brought out Chicken Ginger to hang out with us. Yes, their chickens are named after family members, thus Chicken Ginger. And they have Dixie, Louise, and Blondie just to name a few. All was fine and well till she pooped on the carport and was taken back to the coop.

I

Some others in the family have ordered baby chicks for the spring and are they just arrived flapping their little wings . Sister says I should make a chicken quilt. Then along comes the Show Your Wings bloghop and I was brainstorming what to do for it. So its chicken wings for Show Your Wings with these whimsical chickens.

I used fabric I had in my stash and was surprised to find a yellow/tan that looks like chicken wire that’s good for the background. There was only enough for eight big blocks, no more. So I made it work.

The backing is a kind of a toille farm scene with chickens and goats and barns that I had from who knows when or where. And I had just enough red to put around the huge blocks. The blocks range from 8x16 to 12x12. The reds weren't measured to any specific size. They were cut to fit between the blocks. It came together without a pattern or plan. I just "winged"  it as it evolved along.

The chickens body parts are cut from a free-handed drawn template. The bodies are from different black fabrics to give them a cohesive look. Then different wings and feathers. The beaks, combs, and feet are all matching. Some do look as if they may be a rooster.

The baby chick blocks are just hatched and still in the cracked egg. 

They are appliqued to the tan/yellow and then surrounded by random size red fabric to offset each in the lineup

It's a finished measurement of 50"x78. I'm thinking it will be a cute throw for a farmhouse sunroom.

Thank you for stopping by to visit the chicken wings in Show Your Wings bloghop.
Leave a comment and let me know you were here and then visit the others participating in the Show Your Wings Bloghop . 

Check out all the amazing bloggers who will be participating:

February 18

What About Rheema?

Hill Valley Quilter

Nutz For Redwork

Kathy's Kwilts and More

Melva Loves Scraps

Creative Blonde

Keepsake Moments

Whims And Fancies

Quilt n Party

Seams To Be Sew

February 19

Patchouli Moon Studio

Vroomans Quilts

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Songbird Designs

Quilts Fabric and Thread Tales

Sew Many Yarns

Kathleen McMusing

Life in the Scrapatch

DesertSky Quilting

Clever Chameleon Quilting

February 20

Creatin' in the Sticks

MooseStashQuilting

The Joyful Quilter

Home Sewn By Us

Selina Quilts

Websterquilt

Beaquilter

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Ms P Designs USA

Bumbleberry Stitches

Mageez Room

February 21

Just Let Me Quilt

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Sew Fresh Quilts

Quilt Fabrication

Words & Stitches

All Thingz Sewn

Kathy’s Quilts

For The Love Of Geese

Two Maker Chicks

madeNcorrea

Gin

Another Win

You can say we have a dirt bike racer pro in the family. Another race this week and he placed 1st in the PeeWee Beginner Division.

It’s not if you win or loose, we know. It’s sportsmanship, competition, fun, and surely a learning experience in every way. But when giving it your all it sure is fun in the reward of 1st place. This is his second race in his lifetime of 6 and 1/2 years. It seems it’ll be a monthly event for sure from now on.

Last month he had a blue bike. This month an orange bike. His  dad is a dirt bike enthusiast since he was a kid, which we instilled in him growing up by buying him his first several dirt bikes as a kid. The dad has several dirt bikes in his collection over the years so he had the next size up to put Cohen on after his first race last month.

Call it a tight race. It was close. I was not at this race. But there in spirit with the pictures I was sent. Another race coming up. It has me on pins and needles wanting win after win after win now. I have to remember it’s fun for all no matter the results.

Gin

Hanging Out

Here is my January quilt projects. The bright sun makes them look twice as nice and the light breeze had them floating in the air. It was kind of a wild theme quilting month. There's a sleepy fox group and a bird gathering.

The only real pattern used was a fox face pattern from online. I made the template, cut the pieces and sewed them together to make the fox faces come to life in a quilt block.  The bird block is just a free handed bird i drew on paper to make my template then cut and appliqued it on strips for the quilt.

First, the  bird gathering. Its made from fabrics I already had except the backing fabric which I bought just for this. I free handed the bird pattern silhouette and appliqued them on. Then just added the border strips and called it done.

It measures 68"x78" and makes for a nice size. It can't get any easier than this. Just cut and sew straight lines. Except the birds were a little time consuming.  I used a spray adhesive (for sewing) to put the birds in place,  then appliqued around each one.  The back is bird themed also.

Race Day

The new season for dirt bike racing has started. Cohen has signed up and is making his debut. Last year he watched and cheered his older cousins on and this year he’s starting in the peewee beginner.
He’ll be racing once a month for the next ten months. Each race counts toward the end of the season for the placing in your division.

He’s not new to riding. He’s been riding at home for several years. So he has the riding basics behind him. He just has to get the competition part down.

He did great the first half keeping his place in second and third as we watched the laps. He had a spill and that put him back and couldn’t get back in the front.

He was sad at the end of the race knowing he didn’t make the top three. For his first race he finished and no injuries is a winner for us. So he took home fifth place for Round 1 and knows the next race is another chance.

We only stayed for the morning races to see Cohen and his older cousin race. The teenagers and adults races were next. As we were leaving, this is the view of the racers lining up. It was a sea of racers waiting their take offs by divisions.

The next one is February and I so plan to go and cheer my favorite racer.