Just Kidding Around!

I succumbed to the task of getting not just MY van inspected, but the Hubster’s truck as well – I needed a double dose of this cuteness to see me through my Monday!

I walked into the office at County Line Automotive, a local family owned auto repair shop, to be greeted by a baby goat!

A BABY GOAT! 

Oh, be still my heart!  If I hadn’t walked IN with a smile on my face, this sure put one there!

The story goes that this little fella (Maverick is his name – so cute!) was rejected by his mama at birth (why, oh why?!) and the family took him in to be bottle fed and cared for until he is old enough to re-enter the barn yard able to care for himself.

He is VERY attached to his owners, in fact when the husband left the office to go work on my car you would have thought the world was ending.  Poor Maverick just stood there bleating at the door, loud as he could as if saying “Come baaaaaackkk!  Come Bbbbaaaaaack!” inconsolable.

Oh my heart!

It’s okay, Maverick!  Daddy’ll be back soon!

Click to play:

A post shared by Bonnie K Hunter (@quiltville_bonnie) on Apr 9, 2018 at 8:45am PDT

It was just the most precious thing.

Maverick spends his time in the company of the family dog, Jutta:

Jutta is not amused with goat antics and can’t be bothered!

Oh, Maverick!  You stole my heart!

I left with my hands smelling of baby goat and Rottweiler.  LOL.

This happened last night.

I knew I had the right border fabric at home.

And the extra star blocks made the corners!

I puttered around trying to decide what to do with backing.  Why, oh why is it that even when I tell myself that this is NOT going to be a huge quilt it still comes out 80’’ x 80’’??  Which means I needed a backing that big, too.

My purple stash is not large.  I used MOST of it for En Provence.  I could stitch together several random yardage pieces together and make a back – but then ALL of my variety of what still lives on the purple shelf would be gone.  No --- we have to do something a bit better.

WHAT?  1996?  22 years old?  Oh. My.

This will work!

This peachy yardage with the purple sprig in it is what I used to back En Provence.  I had bought the bolt at some ridiculous price and had enough left over to NEARLY back this.  I used the 1996 leaf print as a racing stripe to add some fun and make it be gone.  Now the yardage is gone, and that purple is down to scraps and I’m a happy girl – down 7 more yards!

I’d love to load it in the machine today, and may get a start on it.  I’ve booked myself for a 90 minute massage this afternoon to get the kinks out before flying cross-country to California on Friday.  Preemptive strike.  We will see how the rest of the day plays out!

Michelle’s Diamond Tile Blocks!

Are you joining in?

Posts are showing up with blocks folks have made using the Diamond Tile block pattern found in the May/June 2018 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine!  I am kitting up some more for my trip to California and have a tip to share:

Cutting Setting Triangles from Strips!

While the instructions in the magazine pattern provide good results, I am cutting the quarter-square triangles for the outside edges of the blocks from strips.  A 2’’ strip is used, not the 2 1/2’’ as mentioned in the Magazine. (Which would still turn out fine, just leave you more to trim.)  Even the 2’’ strip gives me a bit more trimming margin than using the squares cutting method as mentioned in the magazine.

After assembling the block, trim leaving 1/4’’ seam allowance beyond the cornerstone squares.

Note that your block size may vary depending on your cutting, your fabric and thread thickness, and where your seams actually fall.  I’m finding that my blocks are finishing 1/8’’ larger than what the magazine states as the finished size, simply because a “regular” sized square is placed on point in the center of the block which can give the outside measurements of the block an “odd” dimension.

With quilt drafting, measurements are actually "rounded" to the nearest 1/8'' so things can really go either way depending on which direction things are rounded.  This keeps us from having to cut 1/16'' or 1/32'' (!!!!!)

Again, this all depends on all of the above.  As long as YOUR blocks are all the same size as each other and you have your 1/4’’ seam allowance beyond those 4 cornerstones you are doing it right.

So glad you are joining in with us!  Again if posting to Instagram or Facebook, please tag your public posts with #addictedtoscraps and #diamondtilequilt so I can find you!

Quiltville Quote of the Day!

Scrappy Mountain Majesties Quilt (Free patterns tab) shared during recent Illinois workshops.

Don't forget to appreciate all you have because you are too focused on what you want.

And yes, we are still on for Quilt-Cam tomorrow evening at 8pm Eastern via Facebook Live!

Enjoy your Tuesday, Friends!