Been away~

 Took a trip to Boston to see family. Took in a kidlet for 1 1/2 weeks while her guardians are away. Needless to say I'm behind on this month's doll quilt. And school planning. And because my in-laws are moving to an apartment, my brother-in-law brought some downsized items to our house while we were away and so I came home to a house that looks like one of the ones on Hoarders.

  I just want to catch up with y'all now so I can see how productive YOU have been and NOT look at what used to be my living room.

Best part of the trip-  a week with the grands. Here's Kal-El~ can you believe he's 2 1/2 already?

I. Hate. Diamonds.

  I hate diamonds. Not the naturally occuring minerals that claim to be a girl's best friend, although I really don't care about them either. I mean the ones that claim to be a quilt block, or piece of a block, that have too many bias edges and make life for this quilter frustrating and hair-pulling. This is my first diamond foray:

 I had a charm pack from Me & My 3 Sisters stashed away and a template that was in my Christmas stocking. Bless my two youngest children, I know they didn't know what they were choosing. I imagine the scene went something like this:

Child 3: What should we get for Mom's stocking?
Child 4: Dad says 'pick out a bunch of quilting stuff and let's go'.
Child 3: But what stuff? I don't know what she wants.
Child 4: I don't either. I think she has most of this. Let's get some
              long pins and one of these shape thingies.
Child 3: Which one? I wish she wanted comic books.
              I know about  comic books.
Child 4: Here--this shape will fit in her stocking and it's orange.
              That could be fun. She doesn't have anything orange.
Child 3: Is there one shaped like Batman?
Child 4: *hits child 3*

 Thus, I have a diamond template.
  I used it to cut the charm pack into diamonds (3 1/2-4") and cut some solid white ones from the stash. I immediately sewed them into 'twosies'--every blessed one-- and then went to press them open. Naturally, I had sewn the wrong edges, so instead of rows I had chevrons. Angry at myself for not checking the first one, I stuffed them into the UFO drawer. Weeks later, I pulled them out, picked them apart, and stuffed them back into the drawer for a few more weeks.  Now ready to face them again, I managed to get them into rows and trimmed all sides to be fairly even. Not quite big enough for a baby quilt so I added the pink stripe where I will embroider the baby's name. Boy, it was frustrating getting points to match and there's a lot of steaming on there to make everything lay flat. I hope to sandwich it this week.
  And I swore off diamonds.
 So what am I working on for this month's doll quilt exchange?

 

                                                                  Shoot. Me. Now.