My Diamonds Quilt

Time to write a blog post. I went down to Melbourne last week to attend the best Australian trade event, Australian Quilt Market. There were lots of Familiar designers and fabric companies there with a wealth of fabulous goods for me to stock in the shop... but more about that in another post.

I feel it's time to revisit my blog....

These are photos of the process of my Diamonds Quilt - now finished and hanging in Quiltopia! if you're in Maleny and able to come in and see it.

Up above is the book with the pattern and my selected fabrics - only a few actual Kaffe Fassett's, but lots of other gorgeous stuff. Then, to the right is the design wall progress.

All the diamonds are in place below. I used the same hydrangea fabric twice - once for the top row with predominantly creamy blooms, then later I used the blue/purple ones. This was the fabric I started the quilt with.

You can see the blue hydrangeas here. I like the idea of the directional fabric and stripes going every which way, and I've seen a Kathy Doughty (of Material Obsession) diamond quilt made using all stripes - incredible!

Here's the whole thing on the design wall, ready to sew. If you've ever made a diamonds quilt, did you find a formula for sewing that ensures perfect matching of seams? I'd be interested to know because

every time I thought I'd found a way, it changed in the next row. A bit frustrating. I quilted the whole quilt in the ditch by machine then used a huge variety of variegated Perle 8s to hand quilt about 1cm in from the seams. Each fabric row used a different colour.

The back looks stunning (even if I do say so myself) with it's hand quilting and sublime Prints Charming paisley - it's in the top too and as no one was buying it I decided to use it. It has a very luxurious feel (or "hand" as they say in rag trade).

The quilt could easily be used either side and I look forward to having it on my bed. See those border triangles? They're a Bali Batik and, being a child of the 60's,  orange and pink has long been a favourite colour combination for me. I think I feel a workshop coming on in 2012 for this one. On from quilting - my daughter has just finished grade 10 and started her first real part time job. It gives me a funny feeling.... I started this blog when she was still in Primary School. In fact it would probably be about  a blog anniversary time !
I'll look it up and maybe we could do a give away :) I'll post details here and also on Quiltopia!Design facebook page, so if you haven't already, join us there for daily updates and special offers.
Thanks for reading and following over the years

xo xo Ann.

Kaffe Fassett Diamonds Quilt

I am revisiting an old favourite at the moment - Kaffe Fassett's Diamonds Quilt.

I bought this lovely book a couple of months ago, about Kaffe Fassett's home, creative projects, fabric design etc. Absolutely gorgeous it is!

Anyway, as Maleny has been so freezing recently, I've got my original Red Diamonds Quilt out again for winter. I made this quilt early in my quilting life, from one of my very first pattern books that happened to also be by Kaffe Fassett, Glorious Patchwork, or something like that. The quilt in it was amazing and I decided to make it, not realizing how HUGE it was going to be and how much fabric I would need - thinking I would have enough red fabrics in my very humble stash at the time. I used wool wadding and the quilt covers a queen size bed, down to the floor and over the pillows! So, it's very warm and reserved for winter.

I got it out again a few days ago, and my daughter surprisingly said, "That's my favourite quilt; I love that quilt."

It got me to looking at it again and I remembered the new book also had a Diamonds Quilt in it. Found it and decided to give it another go - it's a smaller quilt and uses a slightly different fabric recipe. I wanted particularly to use a lovely hydrangea fabric I just got into the shop + other fabrics in stock so I could make some packs. Even when I was cutting the fabric, people were commenting on what a beautiful quilt it was going to be. I hope so!

Here it is beginning to take shape. I was trying that Kaffe paisley in two different spots.

Decided to keep it in the top spot, and put the purple one in the lower spot. You can see how I've used the hydrangea in the top row, then again in the 13th row by grouping all the diamonds containing more blue or creamy/pinkie/mauve hydrangeas. Then I got to the end and discovered I was one fabric short!

I've already chosen a fabric to slot in, but didn't have time this morning. Can't wait to get back to it.

(Just a word of warning: The templates for this quilt in Welcome Home, the new book, are incorrect!)

Something else very exciting is:

We're going to Japan!

Hope I see some incredible kimono like this one.

Happy stitching,

Ann ♥