Opinions please!

Okay, so I know that I have a few faithful readers out there somewhere, and here I am soliciting your opinons and comments. I am currently stuck in how to lay out the second block style and I have a couple of choices.

Here are the options as rendered in paint: Rendition via fabric to mimic that shown in paint:

Please tell me if you like the option on the right or the option on the left. I will not say which way I'm leaning yet so that I don't cause you to lean one way or another (but luckily Andrew is leaning the same way I am!) Please keep in mind, there are several ways to lay out each option in terms of which light or dark fabric used, but I hope to lay it out in an even mix. Also, I will be quilting it via machine and ties. Each block will have the "diamond" dip-stitched and there will be a tie at the corners of each block and in the middle (probably with a cream-colored yarn).

Disclaimer: cameras and computers don't exactly pick up the colors of the fabric, and both blocks actually look better on the table in person.

Looking forward to your comments!

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!

Grr...

So, sewing is now put on hold, as I have come to an ironing stage. Typically ironing is not a problem for me, I deal with it, and ironing seams down to the dark side is no big issue. The issue however comes from the fact that my ROWENTA iron, yes, ROWENTA, drips practically all the water I put into it. Oh, and I should mention that the water leaks out of the auto-off indicator light that is on the handle, and when I have the iron sitting upright, that leak drops down onto the power cord. Can we say hazardous? My ironing board cover now has a lot of water stains on it too...

Looking at new irons, coveting the Rowenta Professional, at joann.com, I am now finding out that ALL ROWENTA IRONS have this DRIPPING ISSUE!!! Apparently the standard no longer holds to the name.

What happened to you Rowenta?

I guess that even though I could not adjust the heat setting on my old iron (it was my mom's previously), I should have kept it. It at least didn't leak and ironed really well - nice and heavy.

Anybody out there with a different brand of iron that they love? After years of saying Rowenta is the best, I now know to spend less of my non-existant money elsewhere for an iron that does what it's supposed to do - make water into steam and make fabric flat (yeah, this one also has issues on making cotton fabric flat...)

I know that there's Black and Decker, Sunbeam, Shark, et al... currently leaning on really looking at the Sharks since that's a name in the steam industry.

Any product reviews from your experiences would greatly be appreciated...

Now, if only I had a job so that I could finance this new iron... le *sigh*

Step one of quilting: cut all the material for the top

Okay, I should actually back up and write the background to this quilt, so here it is in bullet-point format:

~ Pattern - "White Chocolate" found in McCall's Magazine, August 2007

~ How it was discovered - online, killing time at work, looking for quilt kits, and found the quilt at a shop in Texas

~ How it was obtained - drove to King County Library in Bothell and spent the few cents to copy the pages seen in the pic

~ How the fabric was financed - funny story really... After finding the pattern and that the magazine was nearby in a library, Andrew encouraged me to run off to the library right after work. Thing I didn't know was that he got his quartly bonus and he was buying time to find me something sparkly. I got home shortly after him, pages in hand, and he said what he was up to but didn't find anything. So, instead he spent the money for the something sparkly for me on fabric, at Pacific Fabrics nontheless... and he helped pick out the fabric. Such a romantic... :P Apparently I like the gesture of fabric more than the gesture of jewlery...

Though, I should note that it would have been cheaper to order the kit from the shop in Texas, but at least I got to pick out the fabric myself, and okay, it's not exactly "white chocolate" (it's supposed to be in various whites, creams, greys, tans, golds)

Now we're all moved and I'm jobless, so might as well make the quilt for our bed, you know? Keeps me from going out shopping. Though at least the JoAnn's near me keeps me from wanting to buy fabric - just give me a week of work there and that store would look A LOT better... I just won't have time to work with the customers...

Anyway, as you can see, there's a lot of squares. I bought a lot of the tan floral with hopes of being the anchor (fabric that dictates the color palate) for the quilt. The quilt pattern dictated "light" and "medium" prints, which looks more like "medium" and "dark" as I don't really like pastels. I chose three fabrics for each category. You may note that my anchor fabric is being used as a dark even though it has a tan back, but that print has the green and burgandy seen in that category. For the lights, I have a green/purple marble that has various contrasts (should have shown it in picture prior to cutting) and correlating green and lavender prints. There are two fabrics which have not been cut, and those are the backing and binding fabrics - figured I'd get the top sewn first. And that's right, the leafy-pattern print that looks like it's a lot of fabric there is the backing - nine yards worth... at least that bolt had the necessary yardage and happy pricetag... plus it fit into the leafy theme I had going for my wedding... afterall, it's the queen-sized quilt to go on the bed that I'm sharing with my husband. That's right... no more sharing a twin sized quilt once this one is done!

More picture postings will come as move forward with the quilt :) Hopefully the colors will come out better in picture as they are sewn next to each other...