Yesterday I was talking about getting organized to make my “Diamond Explosion” quilt and was pleased to find that I could piece the 60-degree diamonds easily.
Now it was time to cut the real fabrics and get started!!
I knew that I could cut the diamonds just using my regular straight ruler….I had done it back in May…..
….but it wouldn’t be as easy since I needed to cut the fabrics one at a time, rather than having them stitched together.
I really like Deb Tucker Rulers and decided to purchase her 60-degree wedge tool…..
Using this tool, I can cut out strips of fabric and then cut the diamonds easily from the strips!!
I settled on a 3-inch finished diamond which meant that my strip was cut 3.5-inches.
The first step was to make the initial cut to start the diamond shape. To do this, I placed the ruler on the strip, being sure that the lines were parallel to the cut edge of the strip…..
A quick slice, and we were ready to go…..
Next, I placed the ruler so that the 6.5-inch mark was at the point I had just created (6.5….because it was 2 times the 3-inch finished size, plus 1/2 inch for the seam allowance)….
Another slice…..
…..and I had a diamond……
As I pieced, I ended up needing some half diamonds and went back to the ruler for those.
In this case, the ruler was placed on the 3.5-inch line……
…..which meant that the top point was missing…..
And, NO….that was not a mistake!!
Having the point clipped off meant that it was SUPER easy to line the piece up when I was ready to sew it in place…..
Once I had a bunch of diamonds cut, I immediately started piecing……
…and then realized that I had other pieces that should have been added BEFORE I sewed these!!!
So, I will leave it here……with seam ripper in hand!!
Come back next week for more of the diamond piecing odyssey!!!