Norma Rose Wasn't Done Inspiring Me!

Remember this from last week? The fabrics are so clear and fun and fresh. Norma Rose by Natalie Barnes uses all my favorite colors. And they said they weren't done with me!

Norma Rose Fabrics (released in October 2020)

So, I decided to play with more 4-1/2" diamonds! Here I am cutting them from a fat quarter. All I had were fat quarters! I cut a 60 degree slice from the side and then cut 4-1/2" diamonds using the 60 degree lines on the ruler. You've seen those lines before, right?

Cutting 4-1/2" diamonds

My idea was to surround these diamonds with strips, like a Log Cabin. My little Chicken Pin Cushion was overseeing things to make sure I was doing things right! I cut these strips 1-1/2" wide.

Diamonds and strips

I didn't take a lot of photos. I was just having fun cutting and stitching. As you can see in the partially pieced diamond above, I sewed the strips on all 4 sides, trimming as I went. These blocks turned out pretty large! 10" from flat side to flat side. When set on the diagonal (as seen above) they measure 11" wide (after seams). And a whopping 19" high from tip to tip!

I had enough of the light prints to cut the setting triangles - barely!

Quilt Center: 34" x 39"

I had enough of the dark blue fat quarter for the inner border. I took the remainder of the large scale prints and was able to get 2-3 strips 4-1/2" wide for the outer borders. Talk about squeezing the life out of these fat quarters, but isn't she lovely? She now measures 45" x 51". Not too big for me to quilt myself.

Norma Rose Diamonds Quilt: 45" x 51"

I will use other leftovers to make a very scrappy binding. I hope you are inspired to rethink those fat quarter bundles you have hanging around in your sewing room. Who says you have to use the same fabric for all your setting triangles? Or the same fabric for your outer border? Huh? Who? Not me!

I'm going to use this as one of my teaching samples in my Big Baby Blocks workshop. It uses the same size diamond but in such a different way.

One more look at those Norma Rose fabrics. Gorgeous!