Diamonds Are Forever, Quilts, Great Links and Cute Cats

Welcome to the weekend, dearest readers. Plenty of fun stuff to share with you, so let’s get on with it, shall we? Settle in with a cup/glass of something delicious and read on.

Completing a Diamonds In the Deep Quilt Top

For those following along at home I’m sewing up a queen size of my Diamonds in the Deep quilt pattern for my own bed. I’m recording all my tips and tricks for this pattern here on the blog. With the way my memory is these days, I’ve no doubt I’ll be back reading this again some day!

So in this blog post I’ll go over:

• Trimming your blocks to size
• Bias edges on edge and corner setting triangles
• Cutting your edge and corner setting triangles
• Laying out your blocks
• Sewing your blocks together

Trimming your blocks

This one is pretty self explanatory. Your pattern will have the sizes you need to trim your main blocks (Blocks 1, 2, 3, 4), edge triangle blocks (Blocks 1a, 2a, 3a, 4a) and corner triangle blocks (Blocks 1b and 4b).

The main thing here is to make sure you correctly identify and separate your main blocks from your edge triangle blocks (the ‘a’ blocks) so that you don’t accidentally cut your main blocks up for setting triangles. (The ‘b’ blocks, with only two sides sewn, are hard to mix up.)

Go back to the piecing instructions in the pattern and find the table that shows all the different block variations needed for each quilt size. Then go through each block family and make sure you have separated the Block 1s from the Block 1a’s and so on.

You’ll know the ‘a’ blocks as they will have the slightly larger centres (and will be slightly larger overall). In my photo below you’ll see a Block 1 and Block 1a together – the top one is Block 1a as the centre square is a little larger.

Once you’ve identified all your blocks, go ahead and trim them to the correct size. I used my 9½” square for the main blocks and then used my 12½” square to do the ‘a’ and ‘b’ blocks.

Bias edges on setting triangles

This is addressed in the pattern, so if you haven’t read that part yet please make sure you do. In order to get the stripes to match the quilt design, the edge and corner triangles have their bias edges around the outside of the quilt. Obviously this is not ideal as bias edges stretch much more easily than edges cut along the length or crosswise grain of the fabric. But have no fear, there are two things we can do to ensure our edges stay in tip top condition.

This first technique needs to be done before you cut your blocks into edge and corner setting triangles.

Firstly, with a pencil, draw a diagonal line on the back of any ‘a’ block.

Then sew a seam one eighth of an inch either side of that pencil line.

Then you can cut the triangles apart along the drawn pencil line and both will have a line of stretch-resistant stitching along the bias edge.

You can do the same thing with the ‘b’ blocks – you’ll just need to draw in both diagonals and sew either side of both of them.

I’ll address the second bias-busting technique at the end of the email.

Cutting the edge and corner triangles

We’ve seen how to cut the edge triangles from the ‘a’ blocks. Cutting the ‘b’ blocks just requires one more step.

I like to line my blocks up with my cutting mat lines and then line up my ruler.

Once this cut is made I like to take away the triangle with most of the centre square in it and put it in my scrap bin.

Then it’s time to make the opposite diagonal cut to give two corner triangles. Make sure your half-block is still in line with your cutting board lines so you can line your ruler up with the appropriate line intersection. If your mat has a 45 degree diagonal line you could also use this to guide your cutting.

Laying out your blocks

This is so much fun because you get your first glimpse of how amazing your Diamonds in the Deep quilt is going to look!

The layout diagrams for each quilt size are toward the end of the pattern. You’ll start with the Block 1 family at one end of the quilt and progress through the block types to get to Block 4 at the other end.

The blocks are sewn together in diagonal rows and I like to put a number marker on the first block of each row – this makes it easier to fit your rows together once sewn. I also mark down the row numbers on the quilt pattern layout diagram, just so I don’t forget where I started my numbering.

Sewing your blocks together

Your first row will include a corner triangle. I like to centre the corner triangle on the main block, sew and press toward the triangle.

You can also centre the edge triangles on the main blocks if you like, but I prefer to line them up with the main block edge and have all the overhang toward the outer edge of the quilt. I’ve lined up one of my edge triangles here – you can see how it is in line with the bottom edge of the main block, with all the overhang out over the edge of the quilt (near the corner triangle).

The edge triangle below is also lined up so that the overhang is toward the outer edge:

When you sew the corner sections together, don’t worry if your corner triangle isn’t meeting up exactly with the neighbouring edge triangles (you can see mine doesn’t line up on the right side below):

The edge and corner triangles have all been purposely oversized so that we can trim back our quilt neatly after quilting. So no need to worry about how the edges are meeting (and no need to worry about that bias stitching – it will likely be trimmed off or if not, will be hidden under your binding).

So now you can sew all your long rows together. I like to press the rows in alternating directions so that I can nest seams when sewing the rows together. But if you like seams open, then go for it.

My tip at this stage is to be careful when you transfer your rows from your design wall or design floor to your sewing machine. It can be easy to accidentally rotate a triangle and sew it on the wrong way. Ahem:

Quick unpick. Ahhhh, that’s better:

Once your rows are all sewn together be sure to take a minute to bask in the fabulous task you have completed!

The final bias tip

I recommend that you do this even if you’ve already sewn anti-stretch seams on your ‘a’ and ‘b’ blocks prior to cutting.

Just sew an eighth of an inch seam all the way around the entire edge of the quilt. This will give extra stretch protection and will also make sure none of your seams come apart on the edges. And there are a lot of seams there, so it’s good to have them all locked down. If you’re having your quilt long-arm quilted your long-armer will also thank you for doing this.

To make sure your seams don’t flip and get sewn down the wrong way, feed the quilt top through your machine wrong-side up. That way you’ll be able to see all the seams and hold them down as needed.

Next newsletter I’ll have a quick chat about quilting.

This forms part of my series on the Diamonds in the Deep quilt. You can find the previous parts of the series here:

• Fabric cutting for Diamonds in the Deep quilt pattern.
• Chain piecing Diamonds in the Deep quilt blocks.
• Sewing up Diamonds in the Deep quilt blocks

Around the Interwebs…

Check out the American Quilter’s Society dates for Quilt Week around the USA.

What a way to turn bottle caps into art!

Art Gallery Fabrics’ Pure Solids are 20% off the whole month of April at Fat Quarter Shop.

Things making me happy:

• this cute 3D paper work
• watching this cameo creation
• a pretty way to seal up cracks
• a genius method to preserve a wedding (or any) bouquet
• oh, to be able to draw this quickly.

Reader Quilts…

I always love to see quilts you’ve made from Bonjour Quilts patterns so please keep sending them in! Either email (Kirsty at BonjourQuilts dotcom), or tag me on Facebook or Instagram.

Dawn is nearly finished her own Diamonds in the Deep quilt, in lovely scrappy yellows and greys:

And here’s Rhonda’s lovely version in a fresh pistachio green and white:

Gabrielle’s Scrappy Lattice quilt is so bright and happy:

Donna’s Mountainside quilt is also full of beautiful, saturated colour:

Diane sewed up this colour-packed version of the Go West quilt.

While Barbara made a single Go West panel into a clever table runner.

Some Nice Things

When the news gets all too much I take a minute to do something like patting a cat or tending to a small part of the garden. Here are some quiet moments from my week.

That’s it from me – I’m back to the sewing machine. Hope you have as good a week as possible given the state of affairs at the moment. One day at a time and all that!

Until next time,

Kirsty x

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