Diamond Quilts

I don't make a quilt expecting it's going to be one of a series, but sometimes an idea is too good to play with only once.

Diamond Jubilee, 2015

I made this quilt as a high school graduation present for my niece, a hip West Coast girl. I didn't want to make her a typical quilt. I wanted something that would be new and fresh but stylish.

It was inspired by Pam Goecke Dinndorf 's quilt, Harlequin. She sells a pattern here.

Some of my best quilts are made when I am barely paying attention - as if the quilt flies out of the ends of my fingers without any effort. This one took eight days - or rather six evenings after work to design and two days to sew the flimsy together.

Jewel Box, 2017

 Jewel Box came about because I had the idea to make a dark diamonds quilt. I screwed around with dark fabrics from my stash for weeks, not coming up with anything that worked for me. I set the idea aside and instead worked with fabrics that were darker than the Diamond Jubilee quilt, but not as dark as I had originally planned.

Once I let go of an idea that wasn't fully formed, I was able to embrace these middle value diamonds and this lovely quilt developed.

Dark Majesty 2017

No matter how much I tried to ignore it, I just knew a quilt with dark fabrics was in there somewhere. Finally I realized I needed more fabrics from which to choose, so I went shopping for dark fabrics with large prints that would form the backbone of the quilt. With those in hand, this quilt came about.

Tickled Pink

Tickled Pink, 2018

Sometimes an idea just pops into your head. What about a PINK quilt? I had to order fabrics, and I wrestled with the tiny background diamonds next to the bright ones, but it turned out just the way I wanted.

 It looks really great on my dining room table.

 My Mother loved the Tickled Pink diamond quilt (above) so much, she asked if she could have it.  I said no. I thought, I'll make her a scrab slab quilt. But I didn't really want to do that either. Looking around my studio, still messy from finishing the pink one, I saw all the discarded pieces and thought, what would happen if I used those...

 Well, Dairy Cream (with Sprinkles) happened.

This is Glorious, a collaboration between my friend Julie Sefton and me. We used her color inspiration, chose the fabrics together, and then collaborated by email, text and a couple of very long telephone conversations to design the quilt together.

This is Glorious, quilted. Julie added the binding, and you can see the quilt finished here.

This is Blu, the blue diamond quilt. I made the top in July 2018 and finished it in May 2019.

Here's a full view of the quilt top before it was quilted.
 

When your granddaughter asks for a diamond quilt with dinosaurs, the proper grandmother answer is YES DEAR! I wanted this quilt to be little girl friendly, bright and colorful, and have dinosaurs, but not be overly dino-centric.



I do need to stress that in these quilts, I want the viewer to first get the experience of the color first, and then to realize the quilt is made of three sizes of diamonds, and how they break up, and come back together, and then finally, all the different fabrics.