Doin's - Diamond Painting, Knitting, Quilting

For those of you who expressed concern about the problem I encountered with my Ocean diamond painting kit, (see previous blog post) I am happy to say that the problem has been resolved, though not without several emails and some angst. 

Initially, after emailing the company my complaint, with accompanying photos, they emailed a DMC color chart with numbers (diamond drills are colorized according to DMC embroidery colors), and suggested I pick which colors I wanted to fix their mistake on the canvas! I was a little upset by that first because I didn't know how to begin choosing, and second, how could I trust that the colors on my computer monitor were accurate?

After talking through the situation with a diamond-painting friend, I decided I didn't want to try to figure out the correct colors myself. I asked the company to instead make the correction to the canvas and send me the drill colors needed, OR they could give me a refund.

Last Thursday's email read:

"Please rest assured, we are arranging to send you a completely new replacement kit, including a brand new canvas with the correct markings and the properly selected drill colors by our production team."

A tracking number was included in the email. 

Now my Diamond Painting Club friends are placing bets as to whether the new kit will have a corrected canvas. Most believe I will receive the same canvas with the same printing errors. I can only wait until the kit arrives to find out. It's currently in Hangzhou, China.

Knowing that I have more diamond drills coming (whether they are the corrected colors or not), I used square drills from the "old" Ocean kit to make a name tag to wear to Diamond Painting Club. From Etsy I bought pre-glued 20cm x 20cm paper/canvas that's gridded squares. 

The paper/canvas is also available as gridded circles, in case a painter prefers round drills.

I graphed out my name, but randomly used drill colors to fill the background. When finished, I cut out the design and glued the paper to a magnetic-backed plastic name tag.

Another new interest has been amigurumi, a crochet technique for making small dolls. Being somewhat knowledgeable about crochet, I thought, "How hard can it be?" even though the Cuddle Me Bear pattern I bought says "Intermediate."

The picture at left, from shop.amigurumi.today is what the bear is supposed to look like. 

Okay.

I'm in over my head! How can something so utterly adorable be so-o difficult to crochet?!

I keep looking up YouTube videos to learn "how-to." Though I'm finding good information about how to make a magic ring, and how to properly crochet - yarn over versus yarn under - this isn't easy! 

After crocheting, my left thumb aches.

The yarn I purchased through Etsy is Yarn Art Jeans, and recommended by a YouTube "certified crochet instructor." I'm also using the stuffing she recommends: Cluster Stuff by Morning Glory. I bought it at Hobby Lobby  Here are the bear's head and two ears. 

All the parts are tiny! I'm pretty sure I'll have a teddy bear with character! Mis-matched ears, arms and legs... when he's finished in 2026!

I feel much more comfortable round loom knitting, and am enjoying making these Comfort Dolls. They're good for using-up yarn scraps. (Oh my! How can I be talking about YARN scraps too?!)

Next I want to make Cupcake Skirt Dolls. 

Quilting finds with on the Central Florida MQG/QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge Quilt. Our members pitched in to create an original medallion design (per MQG guidelines) to make a quilt using colors from the brights color palette. The quilt top is 64" X 80".

I pin-basted the quilt sandwich.

Then, after talking through quilting design options with my friend Karen who will also be domestic machine quilting it, I starting quilting on my Bernina 770QE. I started with walking foot. Then free motion quilting. I'll be working on this for the next week or more.

Tuesday morning I went power-walking, and intended to turn right at the end of our street. When I saw these two sandhill cranes on the sidewalk in front of me, I decided that turning left was a better option. 

😀

These animals are majestic, and a little intimidating. They were warily watching me as they strode toward me. Best to keep moving away from them, I thought. 

Though we don't have panoramic skyline views, occasionally we get to see some sunset magnificent colors. This Florida sunset showed beautifully, silhouetted through the neighbor's palms. 

I'm reminded of the God's majesty. Linda