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!

Post Comment Love 4 - 6 April

Hello there, and welcome back to this week’s #PoCoLo - a relaxed, friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked, comment and share some of that love.

Please don’t link up posts which are older as they will be removed from the linky, and if older posts are linked then please don’t feel that it’s necessary to comment on those. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’ve joined us.

It’s still warm, which is great. I had a solo trip to London this week and it was great not to have to think about taking a coat - though I did have a cardy and a lightweight wrap in case it chilled down more than I expected!

I was in London to catch up with friends and celebrate the retirement of one of them, and it was great to catch up too. We worked out that we’d known each other since 1985, which is quite a time and he was retiring from the company where we met all those years ago.

I took myself off to an exhibition in the Barbican Centre, stumbled across a pop-up garden and found some time to bask in some sun outside the Guildhall as well, so not a bad day at all.

Whatever you’re up to, have a great week.

ST LAWRENCE JEWRY, CITY OF LONDON

My garden in March

Last month there were hints of colour starting to appear in my garden, this month there’s been a lot more. It’s all been about the daffodils and the pops of colour they’ve brought to the border, the wallflowers and the start of the tulips.

Back at the start of the month, this is how it started.

But by the end of the first week, our first daffodils flowered. And the others weren’t too far behind them either.

Not all of the garden is back alive yet though, the fuchsia bushes - but I’m hopeful they won’t be too far behind.

The viburnum though is already flowering, and it’s great to see.

It was great to spot that my new-last-year wallflowers started to show signs of flowering, and I’ve been keeping my eye on them.

But we’ve also had some early blossom from the peach/nectarine tree - it’s not that surprising really as it’s much warmer by the old brick wall. It seems happy here - it’s still in a pot - so it looks as if it’s decided on its long term garden position, which is where I hoped it would be happy!

It was a month of surprises though as some daffodils sprung up amongst the wallflowers, and I’m not really sure where they came from. I’ve not had daffodils in that pot before, and it’s unlikely that they were in the pot with the wallflowers when I bought them, so it’s a garden mystery.

The tulips started to show themselves too, peeking out from their protective leaves. I really need to find a better place for them as if it stays windy they won’t last for long, but wherever they end up I want to be able to see them from the house - it’d be a shame to miss them wouldn’t it?

I had another surprise bulb appearance too. This time a bluebell in my rhubarb pot, this could have been in there a while as we had bluebells in our previous garden, although not knowingly in this pot - but the leaves don’t look like those bluebells, so maybe this one was a present from the birds. I’m happy it’s here though.

The wallflowers have been slow to show their flowers but they are finally starting - they’re a variety called ‘Chelsea Jackets’ and are a mixture of pastel colours.

And what a way to end the month, with the first proper tulip flowers growing taller, but not flowering just yet saving themselves for next month I’m sure.

Thanks for joining me for this month’s update, you can read all the posts in this series, and join me next month to see how my garden continues to grow!