Diamonds and Blooms

I hand pieced 24 of these Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks several years ago. Made with 3/4" hexagons. I had no clue what I was going to do with them. Then I saw a photo of fabric diamond backgrounds on another quilt. The light bulb went on! (My finished quilt is at the bottom of this page)

Some of my 24 GFG units

I measured and realized that I would need at least a 5-1/2" wide 60 degree diamond to fit these hexagon flowers. I can do that - I can cut one. And that's what I did. Wanna see? No templates! Now you know what to do with those diagonal lines on your acrylic rulers.

I cut 5-1/2" strips of the white fabric. Then I trimmed the left side to a 60 degree angle. Now I can measure across every 5-1/2" and cut a diamond! The diamonds measure 5-1/2" from flat side to flat side in both directions.

Cutting 60 degree diamonds

This is what my little GFG blocks look like from the back before I take the papers out. The punched holes are so that I can get the papers out using a retracted pen or pencil.

Notice how I finger pressed the vertical and horizontal lines of the diamond in order to accurately align the hexies. Now it's time to pin:

Pinning, waiting for machine stitching

I use a small machine zigzag and nylon monofilament thread to stitch these to the diamonds. Then I trim away the background fabric from under the hexagons. Here are some scattered diamonds.

Then I cut fifteen 5-1/2" diamonds from some large scale prints and put them all together into a traditional setting. The yellow-green triangles are perfect around the outside, don't you think? Very scrappy, indeed!

Diamonds and Blooms: 48" x 54"

I needed to piece the backing and found a wonderful strip of fabric that was 4" x 60", added some orange strips and it worked perfectly!

Back of Diamonds and Blooms

I quilted this on my Handi Quilter Sweet 16. Hope you like all the fun colors!