Diamond Challenge Start

I have fussed around long enough with EQ7 working out how I want to do the Diva Diamond Challenge. I bought neutral fabric for the background blocks at the Farnpark Quilt Show on vendors weekend and I have been doing nothing with it since then.

This is the fabric I bought to get started. It is arranged left to right from light to dark; the order of the right 4 fabrics is subject to change.   These colors are all pretty close to the true colors

This is the same 7 fabrics with 2 more darker fabrics added on the right. These are from my stash and I don't have enough of either of them but I added them just to think about what I am going to look for.

This is what I started on today and it is all I accomplished. There is really no yellow in either of these fabrics. I used the first 2 fabrics for these blocks; the true colors show best in the top color run photo. Each set of subsequent blocks will have the darker fabric from the previous blocks in the "4" position and the next (darker) fabric in the "5" position. Think of the blocks as 9 patch blocks with the 4 position as the inner patch on the outside rows and the 5 position as the center and corner patches. I need to do some math before I get started on the other blocks. Each subsequent set of blocks will increase by 4 blocks more than the previous set.

This is the background I have worked out in EQ7 using the fabrics I scanned into the program for this quilt. .  I still have to shop for 2 darker fabrics for the outside blocks. I believe this will be the orientation but I may change my mind and turn the blocks so the width is vertical. I will need to make that decision after 2 more sets of blocks and I should probably decide before I shop for more fabric as the amount I need will depend on the orientation I choose.




























My original EQ version was posted here and I may go back to that one, minus the blue patches

I have made 9 patch colorwash backgrounds like this using square 9 patch blocks and I thought this would be another variation.  The  quilt with the red flowers on the top of this blog has a 9 patch colorwash background done in square neutral blocks.

By the time I am finished with this

 I may be sorry I ever started. 

We'll see!

Neighborhood House

I received this sweet little house block in the mail Friday as a thank you for participating in the Neighborhood Block Party hosted by Irene at  Hilachas and her sister Ida at My Sister Made Me Do It.  

I will be doing something with it but not sure yet what that will be. Right now it is up on my bulletin board.














 In 2011 Beth from Love Laugh Quilt hosted the Neighborhood Block Party. Everyone who participated  received a little fussy cut house patch. I made this one block curved log cabin wall hanging with the little house patch in the center; I hang in in my sewing room in February.

On My Walls

I haven't done any sewing since I made the second Neighborhood house.

 But I did go to the local quilt show during vendors weekend and purchased some neutral fabric for a low contrast diamond colorwash background.
The six pieces along the bottom are arranged in light to dark order and the larger piece at the top will go in between the 2nd and 3rd from the left. I will be adding something darker at the end and some (sky) blue sprinkled around.  We'll see how it goes.

I also changed out the  small quilts on my design wall and bulletin boards. This is the board between the two shelves above my sewing machine. The shelves are 6 ft. long and go from the book case to the adjacent wall.

This is on the adjacent wall. It is a narrow space a few inches wider on either side of the board.I covered these two boards with gray flannel for better color photos. 

I like to change some of the little pieces hanging on them from time to time to brighten up my mostly white space. A few of the pieces stay all the time, the bunny postcard from Annie (Freezeframe) and the "Quarrelsome Wife" proverb. 

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Below is my dinky 4 x 4 foot design wall

I made the 3 more colorful pieces when the Diva group was working through Ruth McDowell's "Piecing Workshop" book. After I made the pieced leaves I used the same border fabrics to frame a large floral motif and a left over block  from another Diva project. I wanted all 3 pieces to tie together but have different borders.

 I made these to be hung on a wall together but they hang in my closet. I put them up here in a way to fill  the design board but I would probably not hang them exactly this way on a wall. I have a lot of quilts that I made because something inspired me, they do not fit in with the decor in our house or in the homes of anyone in my family. They hang in the closet and I am going to get them out and put them up in my sewing room to enjoy and to inspire me.

The other two finished pieces on the lower left are zentangle inspired circles that I drew on fabric and stitches on a background and the quilted on most of the larger lines. The other little circle on the middle right is just a circle drawn on white fabric. Looking at this, I am wishing I had a white room where I could hang this arrangement and add unquilted small tangled circles in different sizes to fill in the empty spaces.

Hmmm......They are right there on the wall in this mostly white room. The walls, bookcase, shelves, tables, and sewing machine table are white. My office chairs are black and my rug is gray, the closet doors are white, the valence over the window is black and white stripe and the door is orange. Why have I never thought about hanging these in my sewing room before? They will have to come down if I need the design wall for something and I may change them out for other things from time to time. for now I will enjoy them. Yes!