2012 Week 5 Progress

I only completed two blocks yesterday.  I have some medical tests coming up tomorrow, and surgery next week.  That was weighing on my mind, so my mind wasn't in to the block making.  I can normally press through all of the thoughts, and clear my mind, and just sew, but yesterday was a struggle.  

On block one, I had positioned items wrong, and had to rip the browns off of the yellow, and re-stitch them.  As I was re-stitching, I realized that I had mistakes in the brown rows themselves -- there are two short browns and two long browns, which are supposed to be opposite each other, I have mine on the same sides (two long browns on bottom, and two short browns on top -- not that you'd have ever noticed if I didn't tell you, mind you!).  

So, rather than make (more!) mistakes, I gathered up all of my sewing items, closed my machine and was satisfied with completing two blocks. 

Here they are in their glory: 

 

All worry aside, so far this year I have managed to sew some each week thus, keeping my resolution for 2012.  That is a bright spot. 


This week I'm 'closing' the restaurant.  That means I won't get home before 11:00 p.m. each night (Monday through Thursday) -- after leaving the house around 6:15 a.m. to get to my other job by 6:30 a.m.  I have been running the idea through my head (over and over and over) that maybe I can cut the pieces for the next block(s), as I am unwinding after the close.  Even though I get up early, and finish work late, there is that period where I am still too awake to go to bed -- where I'd just toss and turn and be miserable -- cutting might be a good idea.  The next several blocks are very scrappy with pieces finishing about 1/4 inch wide, so there's a lot of cutting to be done.  [As you may be able to tell from the black/white line drawings, the blocks in this section are getting more scrappy as we go along.]


Here's a peek: 

H4

H3

Progress Chart

Here's the latest numbers for my Lancaster Diamond Sampler Quilt

Completed:

• 98 full diamond blocks
• 0 short half-diamond blocks (top/bottom)
• 0 long half-diamond blocks (left/right)
• 0 quarter-diamond blocks (corners) 
• 48 corner stone diamonds
• 0 sashing parallelograms

Left to complete:

• 41 full diamond blocks
• 20 short half-diamond blocks (top/bottom)
• 12 long half-diamond blocks (left/right)
• 4 quarter-diamond blocks (corners)
• 124 corner stone diamonds
• 308 sashing parallelograms

To date, I have pieced 2154 pieces of 2927 pieces for the large diamond blocks.


**EDIT**
This was modified on 1/23/2012 to correct errors in the chart.  The chart is now available as public access on Google Docs.

H2

G3

G2

Set 9

All except the top left block were completed on January 22, 2012.

This leaves only three sets (10, 11, and 12) and the half-diamonds to complete -- along with cutting the sashing and setting diamonds.

Just as a note, the little bits of white you see peeking out from under blocks 1 and 2 in the top row, and blocks 3 and 4 in the bottom row, are the cut out paper diamonds that I pin to the blocks to help me when I lay out the quilt.  You can see the pin fairly clearly without enlarging the photo  on the bottom right block (pink/brown/blue). The pin is near centre in the block (in the large pink stripe) -- where I try to locate the pin in all of my blocks.

I showed the paper blocks and my labeling in an earlier post.  

P22

O22

O21

O21, a photo by jvc_scout_mom on Flickr.

O20

N20

N19

N18

M18

M17

M16

Once again, be careful with this block.  They are not quite square (off by 1/8 of an inch, I believe)

Updated Progress Chart

Here's the latest numbers for my Lancaster Diamond Sampler Quilt

Completed:

• 85 full diamond blocks
• 0 short half-diamond blocks (top/bottom)
• 0 long half-diamond blocks (left/right)
• 48 corner stone diamonds
• 0 sashing parallelograms

Left to complete:

• 54 full diamond blocks
• 20 short half-diamond blocks (top/bottom)
• 12 long half-diamond blocks (left/right)
• 124 corner stone diamonds
• 308 sashing parallelograms

To date, I have pieced 1951 pieces of 2969 pieces for the large diamond blocks. Only a little over 1,000 more pieces to do!  Wahoo! :)

L16

This is the first block in Set 9.

These are two of my new red/yellow purchases (made on Monday).  Neither one is a reproduction print; however, they play nice with the reproductions I do have in my collection.

Sadly, when I visited my favorite quilt store in Danville, The Rose of Sharin' (the only quilt store in Danville, to be honest); they had no bright reds or yellows in their reproduction area.  I did find a very pretty pink, and an almost lime green (if reproduction fabrics were that color) along with a homespun orange plaid that I added to my collection in fat quarter, fat quarter and fat eighth quantities respectively. Sadly, there were no 'bright' colors in their reproduction area.  There were a few oranges, but I wasn't looking for that -- and I already have at least a layer cake of that whole line.  :)

This also gave me a chance to show the owners (sisters) the Lancaster Diamond Quilt (and my blocks).  They had heard me speak of the quilt that I have been collecting fabrics for; but had not seen the pattern.  They were in awe and one was in love with the idea of all of those fussy little pieces. :) 


These fabrics were purchased at nearby Beiter's Department Store.  They have a reasonable fabric area there at prices that are sometimes hard to beat. [Generally $5, $6 a yard; however, during the summer, I found a stack of "Centennial" reproduction fabrics for $3 a yard. The Centennial fabrics are just a wee bit too 'young' for my quilt; but I picked up at least half-yards of everything.] 

Beiter's has a few rules when it comes to fabric -- #1 Quarter Yard minimum cuts and #2 You must leave at least 1 yard when you make a cut.  One of these fabrics, if I took 1/4 yard, would have been okay leaving just a few inches more than a yard; the other would have been a few inches short of a yard. So, I bought the entire bit of each -- just over 2 1/2 yards total. 



I hope that on my next visit to the area, that I can take a little time and run out to Our Gathering Place in Montoursville. This is where I have been purchasing my 'bright' reproduction fabric.  It's also where I found my bolt of (as I call it) Peptobismol Pink sashing and my bolt of Poison Green (as labeled by the manufacturer) setting diamond fabric.  

I stopped by Our Gathering Place on Monday, January 2nd on my way home from Athens, but they weren't open.  The ladies there have asked me to bring in my blocks to show them -- I had been able to show them on my i-phone, but seeing the blocks in person is quite a different experience. 

Set 8

Because this section has so much yellow and red, I laid out the blocks and auditioned fabrics as I was preparing to do the next block. I did try to keep the reds and the yellows from being directly next to each other.

I have decided that I need more red and yellow reproduction fabrics. There's a gap in my collection, and more red and yellow blocks coming soon in the next set(s).

L15

L14

K14

Be careful when assembling this block. The squares are NOT square. They are very close to being square; however, they are rectangles.

K13

This was a quick and easy block -- certainly compared to J11!

K12

J12

J11

This little beauty has 122 pieces. Some of them will be "lost" in the seam allowances, however.

I did keep true to the three swapped four-patch units. Most of the 4-patch have a yellow upper left corner; however, there's three here that have red in that position. Do you see them? 

I10 - Post 100

Wow! This is post 100 on my Lancaster Diamond Quilt.

It could have been a post about the incredible J11 block which has 122 pieces. But, there is something special about this block, too.

This is my first ever hexagon block. And, it is a fine block.

<*breaks into song*>

The quilter said " Hexie, you're a fine block"
"What a good block you would be
"But my life, my lover, my lady is 'Big T'"

<*ends karaoke*>

Just in case you didn't recognize it, that's my version of Looking Glass' "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)."

Another great thing about this is that I have been able to keep up my New Year's resolution: I have sewn at least once a week each of the two weeks of the year.

Spoonflower Plaid Fabric

Just in case anyone might be interested in the plaid that I created on Spoonflower, here is the link to the fabric.

Lancaster Diamond F4 Plaid

Units completed on January 1, 2012

These are the nine large diamond blocks I completed on the first day of 2012. This was approximately 10 hours of sewing.

I did take breaks for lunch, dinner and a little bit of cross stitching (to give myself a break).

I consider myself an "average" quilter.  I admit I spent a lot of time on the cactus/bird block (G6 - top of diamond) and the red/white/green/yellow "diamond block" (I9 - centre right of diamond). 

The rest of the blocks were well-behaved and went together quickly.    Okay, mostly well-behaved.  Don't look too closely at the red/white geese in block I8 (bottom of diamond). 

Nine Units

Without flash

J10

I9

I struggled a little with this block. I could not figure how to place the white blocks as whole units by paper-piecing without a giant pucker in the center. I ended up doing some y-seams to get them in the block. Not my favorite to do, but not as bad as applique (in my opinion, at least!)

I8

A bit out of focus. My apologies.

H8

The center four-patch is to be yellow and green, but I had this perfectly sized white and green four-patch hanging in my scrap bag. So, since it's MY quilt ... I used it.

H7

H6

G6

I still struggle with applique. I have a hard time getting "round" to be "round". Those little circles (the eye and the berry (?)) are not nearly round. They're more like 20+ sided units.

F4

Center square (3-inch square inside the yellow box) of fabric was printed at Spoonflower.

G4

Welcome, Visitors!

Awhile ago, Ann Holte, and I exchanged some emails about the possibility of her linking my blog to her page.

I see that she has done that.  I was updating with the progress from this long holiday weekend, and saw that I had 12 hits today.  I wondered if it had been me checking the look/format of the page -- then I checked sources.   You all came from Ann's page.  And, wondrously -- 33 of you visited yesterday!   [Oh no! You had a STALE blog!]

No matter when you came, or how, or why ... I welcome you.  You give me more incentive to continue progress (along w/ my resolution to sew some each week -- I'd love to say to sew every day, but with working 70-74 hours between my two 'real' jobs, my available sewing during waking hours are limited mainly to Sundays.  :)   [Now, if I could just manage to "sleep-quilt" I'd be golden!! :) ])

For those of you who visit me because of ... well ... ME... here's a link to the link on Ann's blog:

Happy New Year - 2012

It is hard to believe that another year has passed.  I spent the day in a hotel room in Sayre, PA sewing on my Lancaster Diamond quilt -- with just quick breaks for a continental breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, and a jaunt out to Subway for lunch.  Holed up with me, and working on her own quilt was my BFF, Amy.

I completed 9 more blocks before calling it a day.  (Amy had sewn together an entire quilt top in the time it took me to put together 8 of the blocks).

The block that I think I struggled the most with was the 'cactus/bird' block (G6).  I have great admiration for those who can applique a circle, and have it come out looking like a circle and not some "gon" ( in my case, I think it was a dodecagon, but who is counting?! ;) )

I am happy to be making progress again on this quilt.  I think that getting over the hump with block G5 (the Seminole piecing block that plagued me) allowed me to move on. 

And, isn't that what a new year is about?  Moving on. 

Lancaster Diamond Progress Chart

Below is a link to view my Lancaster Diamond progress chart -- I warned you that I had been keeping a document to help me keep track of my progress! :)

Completed:

• 78 full diamond blocks
• 0 short half-diamond blocks (top/bottom)
• 0 long half-diamond blocks (left/right)
• 48 corner stone diamonds
• 0 sashing parallelograms

Left to complete:

• 59 full diamond blocks
• 20 short half-diamond blocks (top/bottom)
• 12 long half-diamond blocks (left/right)
• 124 corner stone diamonds
• 308 sashing parallelograms

To date, I have pieced 1617 pieces of 2969 pieces for the large diamond blocks.

I did eventually use the Spoonflower fabric that I mentioned in my previous post. It wasn't an exact match, but it blends into the 'feel' of the rest of the quilt, so sucked it up and dealt with it. [My jpg was off just a little, so you can see some 'bleed' on the Spoonflower fabric -- EXACTLY like the jpg showed. Spoonflower does a wonderful job.]

The first block that I finished was block G5. I hit it with some Mary Ellen's Best Press and a hot iron, evaluated it one more time, and decided that it was 'close enough.' I finished adding the stripes to the side of the Seminole piecing and called it a block.