A few weeks ago I featured diamonds in quilts. Today I want to feature jewels. Neither of what I'm talking about are precious gems (though I do consider my fabric stash precious). I've made a few designs and called them jewels - Fractured Jewels. The fabric is "chopped up" in small pieces, like this first one: Fractured Jewels using the Colonies Collection by Windham Fabrics Here it is hanging in my daughter's apartment several years ago. It was low so my granddaughter could see it! Fractured Jewels I made this using solid fabrics from the Colonies Collection from Windham about 15 years ago! I patterned another one using the same fabrics (and it's still a FREE pattern at their site). Fractured Jewels : 54" x 54" Then I created another concept based on a vintage pattern (Thousand Pyramids), using the leftovers from the Thousand Pyramids. First, the Thousand Pyramids quilt using 5" charm squares (solids). This appeared in the Modern Patchwork Mag...

Well, I don't have any real ones to speak of. My wedding band has a few chips. I didn't get an engagement ring (my call). But I have FABRIC jewels and they are lovely! This is my  Scrappy Diamonds to Jewels  quilt which was a workshop for a few years. Scrappy Diamonds to Jewels : 48" x 52" Here is one I made almost 30 years ago where I incorporated some vintage crochet flowers and an awesome basket into the quilt. This now lives with my oldest daughter who loves things like this. Jewels begin as diamonds. You don't need templates. They are easy to cut using your standard ruler with 60 degree lines - any size. These were cut 4-1/2" from flat side to flat side. Taking the tip off one end (there is a formula for this!) Removing small triangle to make the diamond a jewel And my stack of jewels ready to be combined with small plain triangles. Then, I added some Kona Snow triangles to two short sides of each jewel and joined them in sets of 6. Of course, no y-seams...

I was asked last week if there is a pattern for one of the quilts I shared last week. It actually is a variation of my  Diamonds to Jewels pattern . What quilt? you may ask. First the parts: Diamonds. 60 degree triangles. 30 degree triangles Here are the diamonds that we cut into jewels: Diamonds became jewels And how the jewels and triangles are joined: Joining one jewel with two small triangles Here's how they're assembled into rows. NO y-seams, of course. Who says a diagonal seam isn't a straight seam?! Assembling the parts into rows. Now, let me show you the quilt again. I used up the last of the Regency Dandy fabrics from Windham. Regency Dandy Jewels: 43" x 44" Here's a single page that would be an addendum to that  Scrappy Diamonds to Jewels pattern . Some of you may be able to figure it out without buying the pattern. It's pretty simple. But you do need to know the cutting size of each of the 3 parts! Just play around with some scraps and see how f...

Meet the Royal Court  is a delightful novelty print from Windham Fabrics, with images of kings and queens, jesters and even the Royal Pet! The other dayI pulled out the remaining fat quarters and they reminded me of this post from 2016. I wanted to revisit what I did with these fun fabrics. Let me recap: I am enamored lately with the 60 degree jewel shape (some call it a "gem"). It is basically a 60 degree diamond with a triangle lopped off of one end. I am not too keen on single size templates. I mean, what if you want to work with a different size? Then you either are out of luck or have to buy another one. Why not use the lines on your acrylic ruler? Why not, indeed! Then you can cut just about any size diamond and jewel. First, here is the fabric collection: Fat quarters of  Meet the Royal Court  by Windham Fabrics Because I only have an 18" x 22" piece of each fabric, I am limited in what I make. I love those sorts of challenges. I cut 4-1/2" strips from m...

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" hig...

I'm getting ready to (possibly) teach some virtual (Zoom) classes in the Road to California May Quilt Show. I have proposed 6 workshops (and 3 lectures). One of them is what I call Scrappy Diamonds to Jewels. I don't believe I ever shared these blocks and the quilt. First the jewels cut from rotary cut diamonds. Easy! Jewels cut from 4-1/2" diamonds Then they get little triangles added on the short sides: Sewing triangles to sides of jewel I realized this morning that I did this with some awesome Benartex batiks in 2016. Do you remember? Lemon yellow jewels with black and white triangles I sewed 6 of these together and it looked like a daffodil. But it was missing something. According to my lovely garden catalogs (and the flowers growing in my front yard), a daffodil has an orange center! Part 1 of my Daffodil block I decided to raw edge appliqué a hexagon to the center. Very different look, don't you think? It looks like I used 6 yellow hexagons and 1 orange hexagon. ...