My lime blue diamonds hand sewn quilt

Much earlier in the year I set out my quilt plans for 2025 with number 6 on the list being:

6. My English Paper Piecing (EPP) blue diamonds

This is my hand sewing project which I’ll take to my monthly sewing group evening meetings, and no doubt will pick up in between those too, as it’s a good project for keeping my hands busy. The diamonds are small - I like a challenge, clearly! - and I’m using pre-loved fabric for this. The central diamonds will be various blues from MOH’s old shirts - some patterned, some plain and each of these will be outlined with bright lime diamonds, which is material left over from another project long ago.

As the diamonds are small, my updated plan is to place much larger diamonds between the hand sewn blocks, which will help with progress! I’ve got an old embroidered tablecloth which I bought on eBay for this - which may be a bit controversial for some cutting this up, but I’m ok with it. Whether or not I’d cut up a family heirloom is another matter, but that’s not something I need to consider for this project.

Introducing my EPP project

As I said it’s a hand sewing project, but one which needs to be pretty portable so for this I’m using my Yarnivore project bag from Vicki Brown Designs a while back - and while it’s not descriptive of the contents, it’s a great size for this project. I’m able to include a mini cutting board, a pouch full of threads and a glue stick, plus the material covered diamonds which are ready to sew and quite a few which have already been sewn.

And yes, the diamonds are pretty small - they’re about two inches in length. I bought the white templates from eBay as my patience doesn’t extend to cutting those too!

The blues I’m using are all from MOH’s old shirts and the lime green is from my stash. I like the colours together and have been playing with layouts, even though it’s early days - I’ve only eighteen completed, and I’m going to need quite a few more.

Through testing the layouts I realised i liked it when there’s a plain blue ‘star’ interspersed with the patterned ‘stars’ like in the image below.

And to mock up how the gaps could be filled I’ve used the white diamond templates. These will be a large diamond, not four as shown in this image, and that’s where the new-to-me vintage table cloth will come it, not that I’ve been brave enough to cut it yet. I’m biding my time and will switch to that when I’m fed up of the lime blue diamonds.

Clearly lime blue isn’t a colour, but it’s the working name for my quilt as that’s what I see - and it’s stuck. Once it’s all together, and I’m not sure how big I’m aiming for, then we’ll see if the name still works. I’m also thinking that I might add further adornments, perhaps buttons, perhaps beads but that’s a decision for another day.

I’ll update you again when there’s more than just my lime blue diamonds, which may not be for a while!

A mostly repurposed vintage star quilt

I’ve made another quilt as part of my quilting ‘stretch’ project this time using the February block from Sherri at A Quilting Life’s mystery block a month. As I said then I don’t know if I’ll manage to make a quilt a month, but I won’t really know unless I try…

I already suspect that the warmer months may be more challenging, what with adding in some time to garden as well as going out and exploring the area around where we live, but that’s the point of a challenge right.

My fourth donation quilt

When I pulled the fabrics from my stash I had no intention of making this vintage star block in blues and greens, but there you go, those are the fabrics that called to me and so that’s what I’ve got. Unlike last month I don’t have a silly name that makes me smile, but I’m pleased to have repurposed quite a few old clothes in this one.

And when I say quite a few I’ve used material from old cropped trousers of mine (from three pairs), an old shirt of MOH’s, a blouse of mine and even some from Hawaiian swimming trunks. In fact the only piece that’s remotely new is the navy and white flowered material, which I bought in Newark whilst I was collecting additional material for the flying geese quilt, before I changed my mind.

But onto the blocks

I found this block centre more challenging, right from the off - but entirely because I misread the instructions. Instead of making HSTs (half square triangles) from the smaller squares I used the larger ones and of course they didn’t come out right. So with more squares cut, and my first learning under my belt I was back on track.

My second learning came on trimming the HSTs - the rotary cutting mat made life a lot easier, as did using the small square template.

But it was still trickier than it looks. My seams were, shall we say variable, and didn’t always meet where they should. And once I’d sorted one seam’s placement another misbehaved, but I did get my four blocks (with variable seams) done, and I’m happy enough with them.

And so with the four centres complete I added the log cabin borders. My original plan had been to add a dark border but not only was I concerned it would be too dark, I also didn’t have enough of the plain blue fabric left, so I needed another plan.

I used the relatively new flowery fabric to add a border to brighten the quilt overall, and realised that there was plenty of the green spotty material (I’m sure this was a 1990s impulse buy from IKEA) to add a final border. This also brought a learning, and tested my patience, with its tendency to slip about with its own free will. But I got there.

For the backing I cut into an old duvet cover, and I think the grey and white zig zags really work - it’s definitely super soft, that’s for sure.

Once again I added my usual scrappy border, using up the majority of strips I’d cut for the quilt top. Looking at those central blocks now, I’m not looking at the wonky seams (well not so much) I’m looking at the quilt as a whole, so I’m glad it all worked out.

As I’m using these quilts to practice and refine my quilting making skills, I was keen to try something a little different with the quilting. It’s still straight(ish) lines, but instead of ‘stitching in the ditch’ I’ve gone bolder and stitched down the middle of the log cabin strip, using a navy thread - a bold move on the pale green fabric, less so on the plain navy strips!

I think it works, and overall I’m happy with how this one turned out. And as it’s been so nice I took my quilt outside for its own photoshoot in the garden! The block for my next quilt is out already, and it’s another cute one - but first I have to make my own block for my mystery block of the month quilt, all being well I’ll share that here later in the week.

You can see my other quilts which I’ve made to donate to Project Linus - a charity whose mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children, who are sick, disabled, disadvantaged or distressed through the donation of new, homemade, washable quilts and blankets, including those that are part of this ‘stretch’ project in earlier posts. I’m aiming to publish an update on my progress in the last week of each month for the remainder of 2025.

Bringing the bling to Zumba

I haven’t shared any pouches for a while, but don’t worry they’re still around - and the pouch love wait is over! Though today’s pouch is one that I’ve embellished rather than made myself.

At the start of 2024 one of our neighbours started a Zumba class in the next village, and so I’ve found myself heading along most Thursdays never having zumba-ed before - and quite honestly, I’m still not sure I’m technically doing it right, but it’s good fun and it’s a great group of people.

At Christmas our Zumba-leading neighbour held a fuddle for the group to celebrate our first year, which was a really thoughtful thing to do, and I think has helped cement the relationships that were already forming. We all insisted on helping cater the evening, as you would, and for a while our Zumba chat was the list of who was bringing what - and most importantly not to forget your slippers on the actual evening.

Now that’s my type of party!

Or fuddle. Not even knowing what a fuddle was, I’ve now been to two as my Sewing Group had one too. It’s a term I’d not come across before, and if you haven’t either, this is Wikipedia’s definition:

(UK, dialect, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Bedfordshire) A party or picnic where attendees bring food and wine; a kind of potluck.

But anyway, at the fuddle we all left with a Zumba pouch - imagine my joy, wearing slippers to a party and bringing a pouch home!

Embellishing my Zumba pouch

Obviously with twenty or so of these pouches now in the wild in my local area there was a high chance that some would make it to a Zumba class near me every week, and with them all looking the same that might not be the best move. So I decided some kind of customisation was required - and while I could have simply written my name inside, I decided to go bigger than that.

I also wanted to cover some of the text as that wasn’t for me. I know it’s fairly inoffensive, and more descriptive but I knew I’d be happier with just having the Zumba on my pouch - I can’t explain why. And I knew I had some sequins hanging around, like you do - and so I thought I’d put the mismatch of those together in ‘disco-type bands’ above and below the main zumba-ing figures.

This gave me the opportunity to test out my sequin applying skills, as well as my ability to thread teeny tiny needles - small enough to go through those tiny beads!

And actually it was quite a soothing thing to do. Before long I had two sparkly borders, which makes me smile - and then I remembered I had to do the other side too!

So now I have a bling inspired Zumba pouch, which definitely stands out from the others - and that’s mainly how I bring the bling to Zumba - my ‘moves’ mostly still need quite a bit of work, but really I don’t care too much about that!