How to cut diamond shapes?

Lynette, since you asked so nicely, I hate to do this - but I'm wondering if I can talk you out of making stars with diamonds? Diamonds are mean, nasty, onerous, and cantankerous.They can (and will) stretch on all four sides plus horizontally and vertically. They don't like to be handled. You might want to get a few more quilts "under your belt" before you take on diamonds. There are so many beautiful blocks you can enjoy while you improve your quilting skills, including lots of ways to make stars without having diamonds to deal with. These thoughts are not meant to discourage you. I would just like to keep you a happy quilter. Go look at

Polly --

Wow, I think you will be getting major enabling points because of this. I must go stash shopping again!! I found so many blocks I would love to try.

Love in Stitches,

Coleen (going to bed now -- good night all, wonder if I will dream about quilts)

Look at your 6" x 24" ruler. There are lines on it indicating 45, 30 and 60 degree angles. Keep that in mind. We'll come back to them.

Now cut your fabric into long strips on the grain. Just so you understand the basic concept, choose the 45 degree angle. Place that line on the top of your strip. Now cut along the edge of the ruler. Move your ruler along the strip and do it again. Look at the piece you've cut out. You have a diamond! Eight of them will fit together into a star.

What you don't have is a perfectly measured diamond. I'll let the books explain that, but I wanted you to understand the idea before letting you get bogged down in how big to cut them.

--Lia

lynette wrote:

Hello lynette, Do you have a a particular star block in mind. Each pattern you use may require a different technique to make the star points. give us a bit more information and I am sure we can all help you out. Julasb (who loves to make star blocks)

lynette wrote:

If you don't have much experience, it's lots easier to do an 8-point star in HST (half-square triangles). To make a star block, you need 16 squares, 4X4. Cut 4 squares each of your star fabric and background. Make them about an inch bigger than you want the final square to be. Draw a diagonal line on the back of each lighter square. Layer a star fabric and a background right sides together. Sew 1/4" away from each side of this line. Cut along the line to make 2 pieced squares. Press seams to the dark side. Use a bias square ruler to trim these squares to 8 perfect HSTs. Cut 4 squares the same size of each fabric. Find a picture of an 8-point star, and you will see how the squares need to go together. Roberta in D

So glad you enjoyed Marcia's site. I go there when inspiration is absent from my head. I always find more than I really needed. Polly

I tried the diamond thing this week for practise. I had no trouble following the directions to cut it but getting the points sewn just right was a pin in the #$%^. Guess thus new quilter is not quite ready yet for diamond piecing--but I will tackle that again later!

-- Kathy in CA Quilting Stuff:

Yes Polly, I agree. Diamonds are truly difficult. A bit of starch can help keep them civilized. Also Marti Mitchell has a wonderful method of making diamonds. I used it for my Storm-at-Sea quilt and it was so easy to use.

I agree Kathy...after having my Storm-at-Sea quilt half pieced I finally found the answer for pinning those darned points. First pin through the points (to get them lined up). Then use 2 pins and pin closely on either side of the point and then take out the centering pin. (I hope this makes sense). Voila...all points now match perfectly instead of having to reverse stitch and re-sew 50% of the buggers.

Cheri On Vancouver Island, Canada

Thanks for the tip! Will try it on the $%^&*^$ pieces I didnt try sewing! I only tried it on 2 sets of points and then sewed the 2 sets together and then gave up :)

-- Kathy in CA Quilting Stuff:

It sounds like you're ready for lesson #2.

Cut out your diamond shape on a piece of paper. In pencil or pen, draw the sewing lines on the paper. That's 1/4" in from the edge of the paper. Notice where the lines intersect. Take a pin and punch a hole there. (You only need to do this once. You're not making bunches of these.)

Place the paper on the wrong side of your fabric diamonds. With pen, draw a dot through the hole so you have a dot right where the sewing lines will meet in each corner of the diamond.

Now take your 2 cut out diamonds, line up the dots, and pin.

Sew, but sew only up to the dot mark.

If you like this method, go ahead and make a template out of plastic instead of paper since the paper will wear out with little use. If this method doesn't work for you, write back; tell us the problem, and we'll think of something else.

--Lia

Thanks for the tip! Will print that and try it this next week when I am on vacation

-- Kathy > > I tried the diamond thing this week for practise. I had no trouble following

Unfortunately this technique won't work for one of my future ideas

I haven't tried it myself, but running it through in my mind, I can't see why it wouldn't work. (I have nothing against English paper piecing either so this is all academic if you like it.)

Here's how I would proceed if I wanted diamond shapes for a 5 pointed star:

First I'd need an accurate 72 degree angle. For that I'd get a little plastic protractor found in school supply stores or CVS. I'd line up the base line with the edge of a sheet of paper, put a dot on the 72 degree mark, draw a line and cut on the line. Then I'd put the paper on my 24" ruler and place a piece of tape on the 72 degree line. Now I have a ruler with a line marking 72 degrees.

Then I'd go as described before. Cut strips on grain. Using the ruler, cut pieces with a 72 degree angle. On a piece of paper or template plastic, mark the sewing lines a 1/4" in from the edge. Punch a small hole where the lines intersect. Using that hole as a guide, put a dot in ink on the wrong side of the fabric pieces. Pin the fabric right sides together lining up the dots. Sew from dot to dot.

For anyone having trouble following this discussion, I'm describing how to set in seams.

--Lia, who will do 'most anything to avoid applique and hand sewing

mel>

You can also get a 5 pointed star template. Kaye Wood makes one for example.

Pati, in Phx

Julia Altshuler wrote:

ohhhhhh, got a url? jeanne*

| nzl* wrote: | >

| Melinda wrote... | It's not the same as the one I've found, in a screensaver! | | -- | Melinda |

It's a screensaver in a Linux windows emulator, I think it's GNOME, but the screensaver is called Penrose. I can describe it (at least try to) but basically there ae two different diamonds, a small one and a large one. The large one make the star and small one fills the spaces around to join up to the adjoining stars.