Step 1 finished

The first step of the Diamond nine patch color wash is finished. this is the background for an autumn leaves wall hanging. Right now it measures roughly 46 x 70. It will be trimmed because the setting triangles are oversize to make it easier to square it up in the end.

Here it is laying across my king size bed. It is now too big for the present design wall.

This is a close up of a section closer to the edge than to the center and  the color is more true than the other photos.
It is much warmer visually than the photo below which shows the half blocks on the sides.









 I am not sure how I will deal with some of the edge blocks that stretched  on the bias edges.  I made it much worse by stay stitching along the edge. Some of it will quilt  out but there are a couple of places that will have to be fixed or maybe the half blocks will need to be replaced.

Jack asked if it was going to have some color in the center. I got out a bunch of fabrics that are possibilities.

These are two views of some of the fabrics I am auditioning for the leaves. I will use fewer fabrics and multiple leaves of the same fabric.
I am aiming for a look of the wind sweeping along a pile of leaves.

I am thinking about how I am going to accomplish this and hoping for the best.

Slow Progress

I am moving along slowly. My yard of the darkest fabric finally came in the mail and I finally got out to shop for one more (darker) fabric.

This is where I am now.
The blocks in some of the rows as sewed together. It is very easy to get mixed up when making a blended value quilt, especially when the design wall is too small. After the first 6 diagonal rows were sewed I ran out of design wall.  I put what I had sewed on the bed and sewed half of the next row and laid out the rest of the blocks for the row on my bed. And then..... confusion reigned. The fabrics in that area are so much alike that it is easy to get them out of order. I kept coming back to my sewing room to look at what was up on the wall and also my EQ version on my computer screen. I finally got out my Command Hooks and hung up a makeshift  piece of  flannel board. that isn't really good enough either but I think I can move on from here.

 This is the rest of that unfinished row, already to sew together. After I got organized last night I quit; I am all ready now to finish this row and
move along.

These are the rest of my finished blocks that won't fit on the design wall. I resorted them last night and laid them out in order. I also found one that had one strip sewed to the wrong side. It is there on the end of my ironing board.

These triangles are the end pieces for the rows. The light one is my cloth template with cutting instructions written on it. I cut a strip of fabric and lay the template triangle on it and use my ruler to cut; then I lay it on the other edge and cut the next one. It works but I wish I had a diamond shape ruler.

Next time I will have one!!!!

I will also have a large design wall!!!




This is the latest EQ7 version, rough, but it shows (I hope) my idea of windblown leafs.

A Flimsy

I finished the table runner top and I am ready to layer it up.

I trimmed back the side triangles so there would be 1/2 inch between the points of the squares and the border. I added narrow strips on the two ends which makes the whole pattern "float". This solution has accomplished the problems of making this the size that best fits the coffee table. It is a Hitchcock table and has decorative painting on the ends that I didn't want to cover. The table has a fine black line on the table top about an inch from the edge and black legs.  I needed to add the long borders to make it wide enough and I needed to add something on the ends so it didn't look like something was missing. I think the narrow strip accomplished that. Now I have to decide whether to turn it pillowcase style before I quilt it or quilt it and add a binding. Or....... I could layer it and quilt it and decide if I want a binding or a facing. Writing a post is like talking to myself which helps me think and gives me new ideas as I go along.

I finished the last set of blocks that I have been working on for the diamond background.


I am happy that I will not be replacing anything. I have to wait until I get more of the last fabric before making any more blocks. This is about the right size horizontally but I am probably going to add one more set of blocks on the top and bottom to make it the right size to fill the space where it will hang. I will finish the outside all around with half diamonds using the final fabric which  I still have to buy. I still need to buy fat quarters of several colors also, for fall leaves for the applique. I don't plan on adding a border as the darker diamonds on the outside will be enough of a frame.





This is my EQ7 version  from last October. I have changed the orientation of the blocks and I might omit the free form curvy stripes and there will be more leaves.
Last fall I gathered a bunch of leaves from the yard and scanned them. I will print them in different sizes and use them for applique patterns.

This EQ version makes the background from my actual blocks look very dull but in reality the background has a much warmer tone.

Background Progress

I have been working away at the background blocks and I have the strip segments for the last round of blocks cut and ready to sew together.
Well, I think this will be the last round of blocks, I may need to make it wider, vertically.  I will have to make that decision after I sew the blocks into diagonal rows and see how well it fills the space for which I am making it.

 Yesterday I took the quilts down from my design wall and put the blocks up. My little design board at my work table wasn't large enough anymore after I got the first 3 sets of blocks made.
I know it is looking pretty bland right now but when I look at the actual blocks I see the result I had in mind.

I am not able to put the whole quilt up on the design wall. The blocks on the left are hanging off the edge. That little spot is a flower head pin I put there to mark the center of the quilt.

This is a close up of that center. There is not much of a value from one fabric to the next until about the 4th set of blocks.   I thought at first that there was no yellow in the first 2 fabrics but not that I have more blocks made the whole thing has kind of a muted yellow glow. I think  that the lighter fabrics have a background that is more cream than it is white.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          This is a close up showing the fabrics in the last 2 sets of blocks. So far there is only 1 block finished in the last set. I wanted to see if I like the last fabric but I am still not sure. I will have to finish more blocks and if I am still not sure I will add one more darker fabric. If I don't like it I will have to replace about 60 blocks.

It won't be the first time!

And probably not the last time!

A little Progress

Saturday was a bit of a disappointment for me; I had planned to go to the Basement Divas meeting but the weather report kept us home. The prediction was for afternoon snow and Jack doesn't like to drive when the weather conditions make visibility poor. As it turned out, we would have been coming home at the time it started coming down.

This is a bush on the edge of the patio taken when the first few large flakes started coming down.










This is about 30 minutes later.
So I guess we made the right choice although when the sun was shining brightly in the late morning I didn't think so.

I stayed home and worked on my diamond 9 patch blocks.
I am working on the 6th set of blocks (16 blocks).

This photo shows one block from each set. The bottom block is the center of the block setting (which is not the center of the quilt). The block above it is one of 4 blocks from the the blocks that will go around it and is the same 2 fabrics. The next block above (the point block  is one from the next round of blocks (8 blocks) and fabric #1 has been dropped and fabric  #3 has been added.
Each set of blocks has 2 fabrics; in each set the lighter fabric from the previous block has been dropped and the next fabric in the color run has been added. The block above the point block is from the next set and is one of 12 blocks. The top block is the next in the color progression and is one of 16 blocks. Each set of blocks has 4 more blocks than the previous set and I have been doing the math for the number of strips to cut from each fabric as I come to it. I am up to fabric #6 and I have 3 more fabrics before I need to shop again. I need the last 2 (darkest) background fabrics.
I am writing everything down after I work out what I need for each set of blocks in case this turns into a series. I did this for the square 9 patch colorwash quilts and I had a chart to work with when I did a series of quilts.

Working with neutral low contrast fabrics gets pretty boring (probably pretty boring reading about it too). I have to keep telling myself this is background.  

This is my companion who hangs out with me most of the time. He thinks it is his responsibility to keep me from being bored. He presents himself for petting on regular intervals and he brings me his ball to play with when he thinks I need to have some fun.





Tux is 8 or 9 years old and he  is a very nice dog with very good manners but he is very hard to photograph inside the house. Photos of him require a lot of photo manipulation.

An Autumn Flimsy

I bought the fabrics in this table runner last month. I had a vague idea about how I wanted to use them; it was so vague I don't remember what it was. I was in Pa. helping my daughter in law after their move and we visited a quilt shop about a block or so from their apartment.

The striped border fabric caught my eye and I bought a yard of it and then picked out 4 fat quarters to go with it.

I have not shopped yet for fabric for the wall hanging I want to make and I don't have the yardage requirements figured out yet. I decided to use this fabric to make a test piece to determine how large I want the blocks. I also wanted to see how easy or difficult 9 Patch diamond blocks would be to work with. I strip pieced these and it went together easily. The flimsy is about 16 x 34. I cut my strips 2 inches wide and offset them about 1/2 inch to reduce waste. I cut 2 inch slices from the strip set by using the 60 degree line on my long 6 x 24 ruler. I did pin at the intersections when I made the 9 patch blocks and sewed the blocks together. I was really surprised that all my intersections came together with points that are as close to perfect as they can be.(I hate to say they are perfect but if they are not I can't tell.) Still this is only 7 blocks the wall hanging has about 74, although not all of them will be 9 patches. That doesn't include all the 60 degree triangles around the perimeter. That will be a lot of intersections.
Maybe I should make my strips a bit larger; I'm not sure that will save me much work. I am not going to rush into this without giving it some more thought. I don't want to come up short on the fabric if I change my mind about the size of the components.  I've been there and done that and it was troublesome enough when I could jump in the car and run over to the local quilt shop in 5 minutes.