Forty Diamonds, a 2013 Quilt show entry that was never shared.

Because of Val's Tuesday Archive post, I thought I'd share my layer cake quilt previously known as the 10 minute block quilt then by the name of my 40 Diamonds Quilt.

While looking for the 40 diamond quilt I made for my husband last year I realized I never shared it here on a blog post.  It was initially known as the 10 minute block anyways, here it is almost finished.  IMHO it needs more quilting.

40 Diamonds a 4 layer cake quilt
King Size - with a brown minkee dot backing
I love me some Minkee!

This king size quilt (and it's huge!) started with the purchase of a kit containing 4 layer cakes of batiks and the pattern in the book,  10 minute blocks.  (BTW, it took me way longer to make a block than ten minutes, sounds similar to those Quilt in a Day products doesn't it?)
It was started at quilt camp that I attend yearly with my best friend Trudy, in March 2013 .  I did show a picture of it in progress and mentioned it here  but never gave you a glimpse of it all sewn together.  While at our quilt retreat, I did get most of the blocks made except for one which didn't play well with the others IMHO.  No problem I thought, I'll just shop for one more batik that would behave better when I got home.  Did that then assembled the 20th block. The Quilt show in my local guild was approaching in October 2013 so I entered it thinking it would be just the incentive I needed to "get 'er done".


 What a Big mistake on my part but that is a whole other story.  I survived and entered all that I had intended to but they weren't quite done, just done enough to hang.  Inserting a red faced here.  :(   and that I know I'll never do that again.

Anyways, I love details so while assembling this now named  40 Diamond Quilt it was sashed with a complementary batik for the cornerstones made out of that unifier print batik used in the diamond areas.   I had just enough to make the binding with this fabric too and I think just a tad more that I'll use as an accent for two pillowcases which I'll make after this gets it's final quilting done, it needs a bit more quilting and am thinking some soft fat feathers circling those diamonds might be just the ticket.   The  quilt was assembled as a top then layered using a brown minkee dot fabric for the backing without any batting.   Oh I love me the drapiness of a minkee backed quilt. 



Lime piping adds a little POP of color.   :  )
You can see some of my quilting in this pic,
diamonds and straight lines..

After that I quickly and simply quilted with echoing that diamond folded shape on those brown print batik centers and also stitched an echo 1/4" on both sides of the sashings/cornerstones to be able to hang it up  for the quilt show figuring I could do more quilting within those grouped sections of the four batik clumps after the show. 


Label made of same lime as the piping.
Name of the 10 minute block quilt is now officially known as the Forty Diamonds.
A tribute and gift for my DH on our 40th anniversary. 













Usually I love selecting fabrics and relish playing with all the possible choices but I can't tell you how nice it was to sit and sew with having all that worked out for you by using those layer cakes.   It was pure heaven and exactly what I needed at that time in my life.  

Hope you enjoyed hearing about this finish from last year.
Jane