The Spunky Diva

Here is the finished block… This is the most complicated block I have ever attempted, and it was fun!  I love how easy the triangles are to make using this chain method of layering to square pieces of fabric, stitching a 1/4” on either side of the diagonal line, and then cutting to create your triangle pieces.  It is super easy and quick! I used a tip I got from a Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting about chain piecing.  If you are doing several ‘chains’ in a row, cut your lead piece/thread saver off and add it to the end of the chain before you stop sewing.  Then cut your ‘chain’ of pieces off the thread saver, and you are set to start your next ‘chain’.  Saves just a few seconds, but it adds up when you are doing several ‘chains’. These triangles are ‘sew’ cute!  Love how they turned out. The one on the right is before squaring the block down to 3.5”.  It took a couple tries for me to get the block laid out correctly, but I made sure t...

I skipped Block 6 and went to Block 7 , since it seemed more straight forward.  Definitely a plus when in a time crunch.  Blocks 6 and 8 are next.  Here are a couple tips I picked up while putting together this block. When adding small pieces to the end of longer pieces, see if you can sew both ends at the ‘same’ time by chain stitching. The odd man out here is the strip with a piece add to just one end. After sewing and pressing, I double checked that my strips still had two straight edges. This did help in the straightness of all these long seams in the final piecing of the Stacked block.  The last tip is an old one… double check that you are putting the right pieces together. {Before Seam Ripper} The green strip at the top isn’t ‘supposed’ to be the top strip, LOL. {After Seam Ripper, and Restitching} Here is the finished puppy-dog Stacked Block!

No piecing happening today it seems.  This past week has been very slow, almost nonexistent, as far as progress on the P2 Quilt-along front.  Last Sunday a cold front blew in and brought some weird stuff in with it.  We have all been down with the sniffles and coughs.  Making my two little Diva’s bigger handfuls than usual.  I have gotten all the pieces cut for Blocks 6, 7, and 8.  Maybe later when the kiddos go to bed {assuming I don’t just head to bed myself, LOL} I will get one or two of these pieced together. Block 6 ~ Tail Spin My pieces ~ Block 7 ~ Stacked! My pieces ~ Block 8 ~ Four Wheeler My pieces ~

Week 4 – Diamond Mine

Week 4 – Fourth Inning I think this block is the one I am most likely to recut and resew.  Not sure what went ‘wrong’, but almost every seam has a wave or bow to it.  It does measure the correct finished size, and I did only used the seam ripper to undo one seam.  But…  We will just have to wait and see how much time and material I have left at the end, and whether this block still bugs me when I pull it back out to put the quilt together.  My goal with this quilt-along is to finish, not have the perfect quilt. Here are a couple of my favorites that have been posted to the P2 Quilt-Along Flickr Group : Daisies Fourth Inning by Pink for Me; Teal and Green Fourth Inning by Nanners; and Orange/Teal/Green Fourth Inning by Nurseli4Aiden {just a few of my favs}

Hey there! I am in the process of getting Week 4’ Blocks completed.  Both of these blocks are super cool, and seeing all the variations posted in the Flickr file for this quilt-along as been very inspiring.  I love how crisp the Diamond Mine block looks in this refreshing ocean blue and lime combo . Well… onto my progress… I have all my triangles sewn for Diamond Mine.  Layering the squares together, and sewing on either side of the diagonal line makes piecing these a snap.  Here is the link to the details on this method from Week 2 that Ryan and Charlie posted.  I first saw this method watching Love of Quilting on T.V. from Fons and Porter . As for the Fourth Inning block… I have two layout options that I am considering.  Take a look and tell me what you think.  {This way my final block for this week will be a ‘big’ surprise} Option 1           Option 2 Thoughts????? Since I shared a tip last ...

Week 3 – Center Aisle , Finished!!! I have been storing these blocks with the quilt fabric in a 12”x12” scrap booking storage box.  With the fabric below the finished squares, the edges of the squares {finished block size is 12.5”x12.5”} tuck down the sides of the fabric.  It is nice to pull everything out at once, and be able to put it all back on this type of step-by-step project over several weeks.  Definitely something I will do with my next quilt-along too!

Week 3 – Biggest Fan is the block I finished Monday night.  It only took me an hour, LOL!  A lot less time than the first block.  I skipped over Block 2 {Center-Aisle} to get the more straight forward of the two blocks for this week done.  I am all about getting results.  The dark blue dog breed fabric is a series of squares that are set off very nicely by this block pattern.

Here are some photos of how I put Block 1 together.  It took me 2.5 hours with some minor/small {think 2 month-old baby small} breaks.  For more details on this block and more details, check out the Week 1 post on P2’s Blog .  First Step… I used my 1/4” foot to make sure I was getting my seam allowance right.  I lined up the edge of the foot with the diagonal line, and off I went.  This part went fairly quickly.  It actually worked just like on Fon's and Porter’s Love of Quilting show … imagine… they know what they are doing on that show, LOL!       Here are the triangles pressed open.  You can see how the block is going to look when finished.  This is where I stopped and rechecked the P2 site to make sure all the triangles/fabrics where in the correct locations.  I am using the reverse side of the tan pawprints fabric to mute the pattern on the fabric since it is my ‘white’ fabric. Then I matched the blocks up ...

Well Folks … I almost washed out of the Quilt-Along on the first block… it had triangles, LOL!  This is the first block I have ever made using triangles.  {Not that I have done tons of quilting.}  It came out so well!!!! I used the reverse of the tan, pawprint fabric so that the pattern is as subdued as possible since it is my ‘white’ fabric.  This block shows how all the different patterns/colors are going to work together.  The pattern at P2 showed only four of the fabrics being used, but since this is the center block for the quilt I made each corner using a different fabric so that they would all be used in the center block.  You can check out the other blocks that have been posted to the P2 Quilt-Along Flickr group .  Happy quilting! Linking up with: Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design We Did it Wednesday at Sew Much Ado

The quilt-along schedule was posted last night on the Patchwork Squared blog .  I have to say… I am relieved that I can say… that I have already completed this week’s task;  Pick out fabrics to use for the quilt-along and post a picture to the Flickr Group . Week 1: Monday, March 28 – Intro Week 2: Monday, April 4 – Block 1 Week 3: Monday, April 11 – Blocks 2 & 3 Week 4: Monday, April 18 – Blocks 4 & 5 Week 5: Monday, April 25 – Blocks 6 & 7 Week 6: Monday, May 2 – Blocks 8 & 9 Week 7: Monday, May 9 – Finishing/exit post What is it with setting a goal to accomplish something that just begs for chaos to happen your life???  My car has decided this is the perfect time to go on the fritz, and Ms. T was up all last night { okay maybe not all night , but it felt like it} not feeling good. In case you missed the post last week with my fabrics for the quilt-along here they are once again.  Week one ~ Complete!

Since I didn't luck out and win a gift certificate to purchase fabric... { darn it }... I will be using these puppy themed fabrics for my P2 Quilt-Along Quilt.  I think a fun puppy inspired quilt is in order to celebrate the newest family addition, Ms. T { found behind a local store in town last week }. I had all of these in my stash except for the two fabrics in the top right of the picture { the blue nursery puppy print and the multi-dog breeds with words print} .  I am super excited to be taking part of the quilt along, and can't wait to learn new quilting skills.  I will be posting each quilt block as we go so you can keep track of my progress. Watching the Fons and Porter on T.V. I have been learning alot, and now want to put some of those new skills into practice.  One thing they showed was a 'project sheet' to help you keep what fabric you are using where in order.  Here is my 'project sheet' for this quilt.  Since I am not using the 'recommende...