I had to show you some more peeks!  I’m not quilting it as well as I had hoped I would, yet it’s better than I expected.  I don’t always hit my marks right on, but I’m just having so much fun quilting this one, and I’m liking the way it looks.  If you do like Eleanor says, and just hang it up and go by at 30 or 40 miles an hour, it looks pretty good!  🙂  Somewhere after the first few “bobbles” where my stitches didn’t land exactly where I was aiming, I remembered why I made this one in the first place.  Because I saw it in a Fons & Porter magazine and fell in love with it, and thought “I want one of those”.  So I said to myself, quit obsessing over every little mistake, and enjoy what you are doing.  Suit yourself and worry about no one else.  Wow! What a little epiphany!  I still think I might put it in the quilt show I have in mind.  We’ll see.  Oh yea, here I am rambling again, and you just wanna see pics, don’t ya!?

I really struggled over what to put in the large diamonds.  I finally came up with this design, after doodling like a gagillion other ideas, used a paper template of the diamond to fold up like when you cut snowflakes, so I could make a symmetrical template.  Then I used the paper template to trace the pattern out on craft foam.  I’ve been using a Fons & Porter chalk pencil, or a Marvy marker to trace the design.  This shape has been a little challenging for me to quilt “perfectly”, but I’m finding the more of them I do, I’m getting the hang of it a little better.

I also tried out this chalk spray, to mark the stencil designs.  I like it, it works pretty well, but it is a bit messy, kind of expensive, and puts off some pretty strong fumes.

I really like the way the back is looking.  I couldn’t get a really good pic of it, though.

If you haven’t commented on my Blog Birthday Post yet, don’t forget to scroll down to it, and get yourself entered in my reward challenge give-away! There will be one lucky winner come Saturday morning.  I can’t tell you how the nice comments that have already been left have warmed my heart!

XXOO’s