I have been making pretty steady progress on the first border of my “Ladies of the Sea”. This quilt is intended for my son, so I am trying to keep the colours “manly”.
I love making bunches of grapes! I used 3 shades of purple. First I started with the dark grapes….
…then the medium grapes (although in the picture they look pretty dark!)…
…and next, the light grapes. Aren’t those little red stars adorable! I haven’t stitched them yet, so those pesky points are still sticking out. I think they look like little sea creatures. You can read about how I handle those pesky points here.
Next, I added a few more leaves and vines. I am not sure if you can tell from the picture, but some of my shapes are stitched in place, and some are not. That is how I work. I like to prep for a while (maybe an hour or so) and then I stitch for a while, usually in the evening in front of the TV.
So when it came time to stitch the maple leaves in the border, I decided to do needleturn. Yes, needleturn! When I made the first block of this quilt, I prepped all the pieces in the usual way, but decided to needleturn the maple leaves. You can see that post here.
Like most quilters, I have a scrap collection that just keeps growing. I decided to go through all my scraps and make as many diamonds as I can. I am using the 45 degree diamond from the Free Shape Collection from Inklingo.
Because I am using all different shapes and sizes of scraps, I am ending up with different amount of diamonds, so in order to stay super-organized, I drew some lines at 45 degree angles to give me a “map” of what my diamonds would look like once stitched together. So now, I can count up exactly how many diamonds of each fabric I need for a complete star. Oh! I almost forgot…I drew the lines to include the seam allowance. And, I used double sided tape to hold the diamonds on the paper, so they don’t fall off.
It is Saturday morning and I am still in my jammies, sipping my coffee and hand stitching my diamonds together. Can life get any better?? I think not!
Love it!
Til next time….
Kerry
Simple Bird Applique 
Love your applique piece.. you are showing your work so well too!! Your maple leaves rock too! Love the diamond blocks you are working on as well! Fun stuff for sure 🙂 Kathi
Everything you do, Keri – is exquisite!
I love your diamond project! Your applique is perfection as always :0) Enjoy your Saturday!
Always a delight to see your applique blocks in progress.
Thank you for posting all the details of how you work. I clicked through to the block washing post too. All these tips are so useful to me.
Love seeing your gorgeous work in progress! You get such an amazing amount of applique done.:) Great idea to make a diamond map. I’ll have to remember that one!