Improv Diamonds Quilt

I started this quilt two years ago as a baby shower gift.  I don’t have a lot of friends from my school days, but Betsy is one i’ve known since she came to our high school as a Freshman.  I was a year ahead and a teacher assistant in one of her classes, and it was through that class we became friends.  I can’t remember the reason, but I wasn’t able to make her baby shower two years ago, but I figured I should probably get Reid’s quilt done before he turned 2.  I reached my goal, and when I see Betsy in May for a trim, i’m so glad i’ll be able to bring her son’s quilt with me.

The quilt was almost done, so i’m not sure why it took me so long to finish it up.  I’m don’t remember how exactly I came upon the diamond design.  I just made diamonds, sewed on background fabric and created strips.  I like quilts like this, that come together organically.  The blocks were quick to assemble, and I have a tutorial I’ll be posting here within the next few days on how to make them.

I sat and stared at the quilt top for a week or two on my design wall, trying to decide how to quilt it.  I talked with my friend who I always bounce quilting ideas off of and we both thought woodgrain would look nice on this top, but I just really wanted to do some free-motion quilting.  So that’s what I did.  I did use the Statler (that’s the computer on my machine) to stitch out the straight lines of the bigger diamonds you see within the top that I filled in, and I also used it to stitch out Reid’s name.  But, other than that, I just went to town with the belts off the machine.  I decided to leave inside of Reid’s name without quilting so that it would pop off the quilt top more.  I used Quilters Dream Batting Deluxe batting, which gave a nice “poof” to the quilting.

I stitched-in-the-ditch around the outside of each of the diamonds, and on the inside of the diamonds around the center strip.  This was no small feat as I still do not have a baseplate on my longarm, and used rulers to do that.  It’s possible, of course, just a pain.  I did order a base plate finally, as I’ve missed using the rulers on my longarm.  I do love the computer for some work, but sometimes a ruler is a faster and more precise route, especially when stitching in the ditch.

I had a lot of fun, and it’s not often that I take the time to quilt my own quilts anymore.  I have a few custom quilts i’ll be working on for customers in the next few weeks and i’m really looking forward to it.  I’ll be sharing peeks on my Instagram as I’m able if you just can’t wait for future blog posts.  If you are interested in having me quilt something for you, I’m about 4 weeks out right now.  You can find all the info on prices and services by following this link.