Lancaster Diamond: End of February Update

February was super productive for me, diamond-wise. I was really glad to have these guys to occupy my mind as the month had brought me some hard times. Brighter days have come again, in more ways than one.

My wall was getting full. I do have a little step stool for when I need to reach up to the very top, but the older I get the more reluctant I am to use it. I knew it was time to get them down and just have the current month's blocks up.

So this is February's yield; it includes the two "worstest" diamonds, the red and green HSTs, which really turned out to be not as dreadful as I'd feared and the block two to the right of that one, the teensy checkerboard and that one WAS taxing! There is a teensy error that at some point I guess I will take out and repair. 

I was getting itchy to resolve the lattice and cornerstone small diamond situation. I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that Kona Black was the lattice. I went to the LQS and came home with four FQs of possibilities for the small diamonds. These are the two finalists:

 

I settled on the first one, which my friend at Stitch Central picked out. Tomorrow or the next day, I'll go back and buy the amount I'll need. You can enlarge it by clicking, and see the texture of the small diamonds. As much as I liked the glittery gold in the first runner-up, it was too much contrast. The original quilt has a great deal of contrast between the peachy lattice and dark green small diamonds; I wanted very little contrast so as not to distract from those large, intricate diamonds. I'm pretty confident that I've made the right choice. Himself has approved, so that is something!

A friend who is also making the quilt is averse to applique, so I offered to hand-buttonhole those blocks for her. Her color scheme is so different from mine! I'm enjoying having those to work on in the evenings. Gosh, that photo is dark!