Be A Diamond Blog Hop and Giveaway

Hi blog hoppers!
Carol has organized another fun blog hop for us! This time the blog hop is for projects featuring the diamond shape.


See the shape of this golden yellow diamond template? That's called a "round brilliant cut" shaped diamond, which provides the maximum reflection of light. I thought it was a perfect project to work on for the Be A Diamond blog hop.  Although some quilters (including me) are wary of using templates, I cut my template diamonds using 2.5" strips and it was quick and easy. 

Me, Susan, Marj and Barb all working with the diamond template

This project was started during a quilt retreat last winter. What a surprise it was to find that there were 4 of us at retreat who brought the diamond templates to start working on this quilt pattern. Two of us had a large template and two had the mini size. 

working with the layout

Susan and I used the small template and made our projects in reverse. She put the colour in the template position, and I put the colour on the edges of the template. It was fun at first, but then I realized how challenging it was to do the layout and needed to have the project laid out beside the machine as I sewed the blocks. I could have made the quilt construction much easier on myself to use one background fabric, but I didn't of course!

wrong side of a block which uses 2 foundation papers

Using this layout, a block is two foundation papers sewn together on the long diagonal side. This is how the block looks from the back. One side has the paper still on and one side has the paper removed. It was very easy to remove the papers as they are just a wee bit stronger than tissue paper. 
This project is an interesting blend of using templates and paper foundation piecing. You can watch a video on how to piece the blocks using foundation papers here. 

All the machine quilting was done with the walking foot. I stitched vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines, and then stitched 1/4" inside the light diamond shapes.

Here is the finished quilt! 

This bright and happy wallhanging wanted to called "Umbrellas". It has 144 pieces and measures 16.5" square. 
Linking up to Alicia's Finished Friday and the One Monthly Goal Finish party because this project is my April UFO.

right side of a block which uses 4 foundation papers

Because I still had many leftover foundation papers, I started another project using the easier layout with reverse values that Susan had made. In this quilt design the template is used to cut the coloured fabric and the pieced sides are the background fabric. I am using up the little scraps left over from the Tula Pineapple quilt. Four foundation papers make a block in this design and are joined on the short diagonal side.

Here are the diamond blocks I made from the leftover scraps. The plan of the moment is to sew these blocks into the backing of the Tula pineapple quilt. You can see the quilt top in progress here.





Here's the "Be a Diamond"  giveaway... a lucky blog hopper will win the diamond template and 150 of the foundation papers!  If you would like to give this pattern a try, leave a comment below. The random winner will be drawn at the end of blog hop on April 26th. The draw winner was randomly chosen... comment # 35!


A big thank you to Carol who organizes these wonderful blog hops for the online quilting community to enjoy! You can find all the Be a Diamond projects on the Pinterest page here.
Here's the list of bloggers to visit today:

Needled Mom

Keepsake Moments

Kathy’s Quilts (that's me!)

Kathy's Kwilts and More
Color, Creating, and Quilting

Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day - Say no to plastic pollution