The Desperate Housewife’s Quilt – Block 12 Diamond in the Rough
Welcome to week 12 of the ‘The Desperate Housewife’s Quilt’. Todays block is all about diamonds. Remember, this is not a quilt-a-long. Just follow the blog every week and pick and choose which blocks you would like to make. I will be injecting some uniqueness into traditional blocks, applique, three dimensional, crazy and thread-art blocks. If you make a block you can post it on the Flickr group for everyone to enjoy. Also, I have this nifty button under each post that allows you to save the post as a PDF.
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Be sure to visit this week’s Guest Blogger and their wonderful block.
My guest this week is Christina from A Few Scraps. Christina is nurse-midwife and mother in Portland, Oregon, USA. She is a self taught quilter and free motion quilter who thrives on experimentation and new ideas. Today, Christina is presenting Linked Squares.
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Diamonds in the Rough
The lure of shiny carbon. The stone that is set in promises of forever. The hidden beauty in every person.
Techniques explored
- Joining Diamonds.
Materials
I used 2 charm squares for the contrasting stripes and 3 – 3 1/2″ x 20″ strips for the diamonds.
Cutting
- Place the 60 degree ruler marking along the bottom edge of the strip and cut.
- Measure 3 1/2″ from the first cut and make a cut.
- Continue until there are three diamonds. Repeat for the other two fabric strips. Remember to check that the angle is still 60 degrees by placing the 60 degree ruler line along the bottom edge before cutting.
Making the Block
- Arrange the diamonds in three rows.
- Sew the rows vertically. From top to bottom. To sew a diamond to another diamond, overlap each end by 1/4″. Press open seam. Remove ‘Bunny ears’ (or the overlapping 1/4″ pieces).
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- To make the contrasting strips, sew 2 charm squares (5″ x 5″) together. Press open seam. Cut 2 strips 1.5″ wide.
- Sew the contrasting strips to row 1 and row 2, aligning the strip with the top of each row as per the image below.
- The block will look quite uneven.
- Fold the block into 4 and press. This will be to determine a midpoint so that an 8 1/2″ block can be cut from this pieced block.
- Place a 12″ square rule over the pieced block and position the ruler so the horizontal fold is aligned with the 4 1/4″ marking on the ruler and the vertical line is aligned with the 4 3/4″ marking on the ruler. Cut an 8 1/2″ square.
The beauty of the this type of block is that you can position the square ruler anywhere within the pieced block, even on a slight tilt. Just make sure you can fit a complete 8 1/2″ square within your chosen area. Try experimenting with different angles and coloured fabrics.
Let’s Play ….
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| The Block |
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| Horizontal Layout with rotation and colour replacement. |
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| Horizontal Layout and Rotation |
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| On Point |
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| On Point with Rotation |
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| Block with 30 degree tilt |
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| On Point – 30 degree tilted block |
I hope you enjoyed this weeks block. Next week I will be putting up my Umbrella ready for the summer storms.
*** Please remember that these blocks and any blocks designed by guest bloggers should not be used for commercial purposes ( sold as a pattern, published etc) without the written consent of the owner ***
