When Diamonds Become Jewels

What? Diamonds ARE jewels, aren't they? Yes, but they are a different shape when it comes to quilting. Let me tell you a story from 6 years ago using some lovely batiks from Benartex.

I always likes to say that I let the fabrics tell me what they would like to become. Whether they whisper to me or send text messages to my cell phone - I trust what they say! Let me share some steps from a 2016 blog post using two batik collections as directed by the fabrics.

Batiks from the Dolce and Rio Collections by Benartex

We were assigned to create a project for a week long blog hop.

Here are the five colors I chose for my project from the lovely Dolce and Rio collections. 

Five fabrics for my flowers

I am still enamored with hexagon shaped blocks and patches. The most recent is the jewel (some call it a gem). I discovered how to cut it using a standard acrylic ruler with 60 degree lines and a 60 degree multi sized triangle ruler. For a finished 6" high jewel, I cut 4-1/2" wide strips. Then I cut the selvedge off on the left side at a 60 degree angle as shown below. I measured 4-1/2" from that edge and cut again. I was able to get three of these diamonds from each 4-1/2" x 22" strip (remember, I'm working with fat quarters).

Cutting 60 degree diamonds

I did this for each of the four bright batiks. The black and white will be my background fabric.

4-1/2" 60 degree diamonds

Then, to make the jewel, I needed to cut a 2" triangle off of one pointed end. Why 2"? Because the diamond will finish to 4". Other than that, I just know it works, ok? I was using a standard 60 degree, multi-sized triangle ruler.

Cutting a 2" triangle from one end of each diamond

Jewels and cut away triangles (which I don't use in this project)

I then cut 2-1/2" triangles from my black and white batik. These are cut using a multi-sized 60 degree ruler which I bet is in your sewing studio!

2-1/2" high 60 degree triangles

Here's is how these patches work together:

Sew a small triangle to each short side of all the colored jewels

And then what? I used 6 of the units above to make my daffodil block.

Sew 3 jewel/triangle units together into a large half-hexagon; repeat

I pressed the triangles away from the yellow fabric (toward the black batik). All other seams were pressed open.

Here is my "Daffodil" block, which finishes to 12" high.

Daffodil Block #1

When there's a #1 block, we assume there's a #2 block, right? I appliquéd an orange hexagon over the center of the #1 block and this is what I get. Looks like a traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden block, doesn't it?

Daffodil Block #2

And then I went on to make another one! I was on a roll, that's for sure. This one uses 6 jewels, 12 blue triangles and the center orange hexagon (appliquéd).

Daffodil Block #3

And then I sewed a block using two each of the other 3 colors:

Tri-colored Block #2

And then I sewed one last block, also using two each of the other 3 colors, but this time I put each color together and if you use your imagination, you might see hearts!

Three Hearts Block #3

I hope you enjoyed seeing how versatile your acrylic rulers can be. No need to buy single size templates for these shapes! If you're nervous about cutting into your fabric, just cut some colored construction paper and treat it like fabric for the cutting. I do this all the time when I'm teaching workshops. If you make a mistake, it's just paper and can throw it away and start again.