Mom's Lilac Diamond HST Quilt

Basically since I started blogging, I have been working on a quilt for my mom. I ordered the fabric for this quilt several months ago because I knew it would be perfect for a quilt for my mom. I didn't have a design in mind when I ordered the fabric, so I ordered half yard pieces of all of the fabric, a bit more for some of the prints that I really loved.

This summer I fell in love with Joel Dewberry's Aviary 2, and yes I have made quilts using all three color palettes.

Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 - Lilac 

 In February I decided I make a HST (Half Square Triangle) quilt and make a diamond design radiating out from the center. I actually went with an off-centered diamond rather than directly in the center.

To make the quilt large (over sized full or small queen) enough I needed 168 HSTs. That is a lot of cutting! I cut 5.5 inch squares of the fabric. I organized my squares into piles of light and dark values. I then put one dark with one light value, right sides together and drew a line down the center. I sewed quarter inch seams on each side of the line. After sewing all of them I cut down the middle, to give me two triangles. I pressed all of the seams open (I hate that part). I then had HSTs with light on one side and dark on the other.

 Because I ordered my fabric before knowing what I was going to do, the process wasn't as smooth as I would have liked. I would have focused on making sure I had a more equal amount of dark and light values.

I did most of the cutting in February, and then started working on the London Minus the Red quilt that I made for a friend. At the beginning of March I decided to really start working on Mom's Lilac Diamond quilt as I am calling it. I wanted it finished by Easter weekend, as my family would be meeting up with my parents and my sister's family in Branson, MO for the weekend and I wanted to give it to her at that time.

Once I had all of the HSTs I trimmed all of them up, as I wanted them to be perfectly square. I had a nice pile of scraps, I thought they were so pretty.

I then started laying out the HSTs to figure out their exact placement. That took a whole afternoon. I also, had a little hiccup, because I layout my quilts on the ping pong table and it just wasn't quite wide enough, the quilt wound up being a bit longer and narrower than I prefer. Pretty close to the shape and size of a ping pong table LOL.

After I sewed all of the HSTs together I added a narrow inner border, and a wider outer border. I backed it with Pond Kona Solid. 

I had never machine quilted something this large, so it was slightly difficult for me. I broke two needles because the weight of the fabric was pulling on the needle. I wound up moving my machine to the ping pong table so that I could use it to hold up the fabric. Thank goodness for that ping pong table in my "sewing nook!" 

I chose just to follow the design of the quilt and stitch in the ditch using my walking foot.

It created a nice design on the back. I bound it by hand, using left over 2.5 inch strips of the fabric, although I through in some Olive and Violet Kona Solid as well.

So here it is! It is a LOT of color, but my mom loves it.

Center of Mom's Lilac Diamond Quilt

My mom, her quilt, and Lone Starburst Pillow