Step two of quilting: sew cut pieces together...

Okay, this is more of "part a of step two," as I have more pieces to stitch together. "Part a" detailed to take my large and medium squares and sew them together accordingly (light on dark) twice down the diagonal to create new squares with triangles (more precisely, draw the diagonal line and sew a 1/4" seam on both sides of the line, then cut apart and iron). Quilters are so crafty in figuring out the most efficent way to sew triangles together!

You may be wondering why the larger squares are arranged how they are - step 2b is to sew these four squares into a bigger square to create that diamond of color - so I arranged them as to how that bigger square will look. In the end, that square will be a 12" block. All the blocks to the left will be sewn with smaller squares to create other 12" blocks. I guess I'll give a new picture update as the 12" blocks are together...

And update on the iron front. I did a bit of research, and no matter what iron you go with, there is a chance of it leaking. Therefore, Andrew took me out to buy my coveted Rowenta Professional (Merry early Christmas to me!) I must say that I'm really happy so far. The weight of it is excellent and I feel like it's operating as it should be (in other words, very reminicent of my mother's old iron). One thing that I did learn about irons from this whole debacle is that they can be picky about the water you use. Technically, Rowenta handles tap water, but if it's treated heavily, then the iron will clog and thus LEAK. That might have been part of my previous problem, that and that I bought the previous iron as a discontinued model on clearence and from the get-go it did not work as well. So, moral of the story - don't buy a clearenced iron and use Brita water. So far the Professional is happy with Brita water :) And Niecie is happy as well - an iron that works like it should - finally!