Everly's Diamonds

 Your best friend only has her first baby once. Jolene is that perfect best friend, almost. Her only flaw is that she lives 2000 miles away. Jolene and I met years ago and instantly clicked. She's incredibly generous, supportive, full of love and has the best sense of humor in the world. She took a huge leap of faith and moved across the country to start a life with her now husband and wherever she goes, she sparkles and shines. 
The minute she told me she was having a baby, I immediately started daydreaming of ideas for her quilt. I had a design that was gender neutral but I just couldn't start. It wasn't until I was driving and listening to that incredibly catching, albeit slightly annoying (and drug inspired) Diamonds by Rihanna when I read a text from Jolene. She was having a baby girl! 

Shine bright like a diamond, shine bright like a diamond in the sky..find light in the beautiful sea...

Jolene is a diamond; she's one of a kind, valuable and beautiful. And her baby girl would definitely be one in the same. So the quilt had to have a diamond pattern. She chose the colors for the nursery and I followed suit in my fabric selection. I used my Hex N More ruler to cut perfect diamonds of the four fabrics.

 So at this point I knew I wanted to put a lot of white in the design and added the 60 degree strips between the diamonds. The top measures about 50" x 65" 

After I got the quilt pieced I designed a quilt label in my Bernina embroidery V7 software and embroidered it. I really like this part of the quilt, this baby thing was starting to feel real! 

I loaded the quilt on my Handi Quilter and used the Pro-Stitcher to do an all-over quilting with the "orange peel" pattern. I liked the vast difference between the sharpness of the diamonds and the curves of the quilting. I used white thread on the top and back to blend and let the diamonds shine.  

After quilting, I attached the label to the back on the diagonal, with a hand stitch. 

Here's the label on the diagonal on the back. You only have to hand sew one side!

With the wide white borders I liked the idea of doing a white binding so that the diamonds would really pop. The rational part of my brain kicked in and I decided to use the coral polka dot instead. White bindings are so beautiful but tend to look dirty after a few touches.
 I love a hand stitched binding and was happy with how this beauty turned out. Once the binding was done, it was time for an outdoor photo shoot for Baby Everly's Shine Bright like a Diamond quilt. 

 Sometimes people ask why I quilt. (or for that matter, why does anyone quilt?) We don't need the quilts. We do it because we love it. We love pretty things. We love our friends and family. We want to see someone smile. We want to show our appreciation. We want to express feelings that have no words. 

I'll never be able to match the amazing-ness of Jolene, and I won't get to hold the baby very often, but at least she'll have a quilt that will always remind her of how much I love her and how much she means to me.

Shine bright like a diamond...