Diamonds Mini Quilt

Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend here in the states! Everywhere else, I hope you enjoyed your Mondays immensely!

I chose to partake in the leisurely activity of making a mini quilt over my holiday. It's been a long while since I've made a quilt, and it felt deliciously frivolous. [Not that quilting is frivolous, necessarily - this project just felt frivolous.] I had actually been wanting to try foundation paper piecing for a while now, and looked online at least an hour for a pattern that was not too involved but also cool.

My search was fruitless until I was mindlessly swiping through my instagram feed and I saw a paper pieced gemstone block from one of my followees, the lovely legs_benedict. She had even so generously posted a link to the pattern she had come up with. I knew right then and there what the rest of my night was going to be.




Let me say that I'm not at all a "diamonds are a girl's best friend" type of person. In fact I mostly hate that expression, minus the very small part of me that secretly wants to be Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But I love the graphic shape of a gemstone. I think it would be totally awesome to do a whole quilt of these in different colors on a neutral background, kind of like a mineral chart or rock collection poster. I'd be totally into that. Would you, Marilyn?

a mineral chart?

For this lil baby, I used some recent scraps that were leftovers from a few different projects. It's hard to see, but the center white fabric in each diamond actually has pearly metallic dots printed on it, which adds to the gemstone luster.

For the quilting, I could see no excuse for doing my usual boring free motion squiggles, given the small size. So I again drew from from Maggie's instagram inspiration and quilted lines out from each diamond. It was kind of tedious and took a little while, but again it's such a tiny quilt, so come on Devon don't be so lazy.

The effect of the quilting was to actually make each diamond a little puffy, which I love. It's hard to see in the pictures but you'll just have to trust me on this one.

Speaking of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, it made me think of Sarai's recent post on the Coletterie about movie sewing inspiration. The wardrobe is pretty spectacular. It's on Netflix instant so you can watch it all in its full glory, but here are some choice examples:

There are no seams in this bodice except for the center back. WHAT.

This purple number, plus LOOK at that gingham swing coat, under which she is wearing a choice black jumpsuit.

Again with the purple, because, waistband.

What do YOU wear on a boat?

More swing jacket.

Blue velvet genie pants are a must on any transatlantic voyage.

COLLAR.

I love the ridiculously colored, sweeping, over the top dance numbers from 1950's musicals.

Happy Tuesday everyone!