Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

I have been dilatory as regards posting, but I hope you'll forgive me.  My B.Ed. students come back this week and I have been working hard to get ready for a very heavy teaching month in September.  However I do have a few things to share with you.
First, you may remember that I was casting around for a hand sewing project that wasn't hexagons.  Jessica suggested diamonds, and she pointed me to a handy video she had made about how she uses Quilt Patis 1.5" diamond templates.  I thought her work was so pretty and I thought it might work for me.  So I ordered a pack, to try them out.  I wanted something to take with me to Memphis for my father's 70th birthday celebration, and they arrived in the mail the day before I left.  I just had time to cut a whack of fabric diamonds to take with me.  Here's what they look like - the directions say trace the template, but that's far too tedious.  I do what Jessica suggested: cut 2 1/8" strips and use the 60 degree angle line to cut diamonds.

You piece them together in segments - in this photo, you can see the plastic Quilt Patis in the back of the work; once a plastic piece has been joined on all four sides, the template can be popped out.

I was a bit slow getting started, but here's what I managed to get done over the four days I was away.  The photo at the top of the post shows what I've done to date.

My trip was quite eventful - and not all pleasant.  I was 11 hours late arriving in Memphis due to a plane malfunction and various weather systems.  I was glad to have my new hand sewing project to keep myself occupied and distracted from things I didn't want to know about - like how bad the weather was.  I really really really hate flying, and I was especially nervous, when, on our way into Atlanta, the pilot came on the speaker and asked the flight attendants to stop preparing the cabin for landing and to sit down and strap themselves in.  We flew into quite a storm and the turbulence was bad - so bad, in fact, that as I kept myself busy by sewing diamonds together, a particularly bad bump made me poke myself in the face with the needle! Fortunately, I stabbed myself in the chin, not the eyeball!  The thunderstorm over Atlanta caused a further delay in my travel.  When I finally arrived in Memphis, I was amazed beyond belief to find that my bag was actually on the same plane as me, since I had been rerouted twice and had been on three different airlines.  And so grateful - since the quilt I made for my father was in my suitcase!  However the adventure wasn't over, because I soon found that the Atlanta baggage handlers had left the bags out on the tarmac while they waited for the thunderstorm to pass.  I kid you not - I was wringing water out of my clothes and the quilt.  I hung it over the shower rod in the hotel that night and spent an hour the next morning drying it with a hair dryer!  But all's well that ends well - I'm happy to report that my father was thrilled with it, just as you all predicted.
In other news, I wanted to share what I finally decided on for my month in the Incredible Shrinkers bee.  I'm asking everyone to make me a Snail Trail block.  I've always loved this block, and I have some very sweet red and aqua fabric, mainly Lecien Flower Sugar.  The single block doesn't look like much, but when assembled with red and aqua setting blocks, it will look magnasplendent!