Monday, April 1, 2013

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




18 comments:

  1. Gorgeous quilt!! What a fabulous finish! :D Your mom must love it!

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  2. Great job! I love the design you chose. Aviary 2 is one of my favorites, too especially the yellow and gray.

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    1. Thank you. I actually made this quilt first with Aviary 2 Vintage Yellow. I have pics of it under my Quilts 2012 Tab
      http://iloveyoubushelandapeck.blogspot.com/p/quilts-2012.html

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  3. Your quilt is absolutely beautiful! Well done on getting it finished so quickly - you have a very lucky Mum!

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  4. Lovely quilt, and love the colors. Congratulations on all the HST.

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  5. Your quilt looks great! What a great gift for your mom. I am sure she will cherish it!

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  6. Wow very pretty, love the ping pong table! Use what you have right?

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  7. What a beautiful gift for your mother. :)

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  8. Wow, this quilt is gorgeous! You did such a great job. I really like how the quilting looks on the back! I hate pressing the seams open too...I always end up burning my fingers lol!

    Thank you for linking up to Let’s Get Acquainted this week!

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  9. You did such a great job on this quilt. I am sure your mom loves it!

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  10. It's a truly beautiful quilt and I am sure your mum is thrilled with it! It was really interesting reading the story behind it. Hopping over from Plum and June's link up :-)

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  11. Hi from Let's Get Aquainted link up. It's a lovely quilt. I have some fabric from this line, the one with birds on in black and yellow which I bought to make a bag with ages ago, but I haven't got round to it yet

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  12. It looks like your Mum was happy with her lovely quilt!

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  13. What a beautiful quilt and I can tell your mom loves it! Using the ping pong table was a great idea so you could get the weight of the quilt up on it! Thanks for sharing.
    Freemotion by the River Linky Party Tuesday

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  14. Beautiful quilt! Love the fabric and colors, purple is my favorite!

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  15. Awesome quilt! I'm sure your mom LOVES it.

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  16. What a wonderful gift, I bet your Mom is thrilled!
    The fabrics you chose are gorgeous!

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