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.