Month #5 Diamonds are a Girl's BFF!!!

Happy Month #5 and let me just take a moment to congratulate you on getting this far...

Your quilt is really coming along, isn't it?

Well, this month is really all about the cutting.

If I could give you one word of wisdom it would be to cut like your life depended on it because that is going to help you be as accurate as possible.

Of course, cutting is always important to the accuracy of your quilt, but sometimes cutting that is slightly askew can be made up for with clever sewing and pressing, but this month, not so much.

With this in mind, and with the help of the lovely Misses Nadine and Rebecca, here is a tutorial on how I cut my diamonds:

From each of your 3 diamond fabrics, cut (3) 2 1/4" strips.

Using clear template plastic, cut out your template for border 4A. This will be used for getting the correct angle from your 2 1/4" strips and also for double-checking the accuracy of your diamonds once they are cut.

Lay your diamond template for border 4A on top of the 2 1/4" strip, as in picture, so that the 2 edges of the diamond align with the long edges of your fabric strip.


Lay your ruler on top of the template to get the correct cutting angle and make a cut.







Next, lay your ruler so that the long edges of the ruler lie parallel with the cut you just made.
Now you can cut every 2 1/4" and get perfectly accurate diamonds! How exciting! Double check your accuracy by holding the cut diamond shape up against your Border 4A template. If your diamonds aren't absolutely perfect, try, try again.





Thanks, Nadine for helping me demo this technique for tackling the cutting o' the diamonds!

Next up, we are going to tackle those spiny little side triangles (also known as Border template 4B) in a similar manner... this time with the lovely Miss Rebecca as my hand model.

From your Border Template 4B fabric, cut as many 2 3/4" strips as you can get.

From clear template plastic, cut out the template Border 4B triangle shape. You will use this for cutting an accurate angle and for double-checking your cut triangles.

First, lay your triangle Template Border 4A onto your 2 3/4" strip as in the photo below.



Next, lay your ruler on top of the template to get the correct angle and make a cut.



Now you can cut every 2 3/4" for as many parallelograms (not triangles...bear with me) as you can get.



Finally, cut each of these parallelograms in half the long way to get your triangles.





Check these triangles against your template Border 4A for accuracy.

If they aren't perfect... well, you know what to do.

If they are perfect, we can move on to tips and tricks for sewing!

Tips for sewing these babies accurately:

Remember your dog's ears! Those little triangles should be hanging out exactly 1/4" on each edge of your pieces as you sew them together. Nothing new here, right?

I laid out one "control strip" of diamonds and triangles so I could see what they were supposed to look like as I was sewing them together. Refer to the book for what this should look like. It's all right there on the bottom of page 98. Pay attention to the order in which you lay the fabrics out!!!

From the control strip, I sewed 15 pairs of adjacent diamonds together and 15 pairs of adjacent diamonds and triangles together. Then I added on the last triangle to the set of diamonds and finally sewed the two sets together for a strip. Using this method, I was able to sew a long strip together fairly quickly.

I would go so far as to recommend that you sew a giant strip set together and then just cut from that strip to get your four sides. Having finished 2 of these babies, I think that would be easier and more accurate than trying to sew 4 small strips together for the sides.

Having said all of that, please be aware that I (quote/unquote) "know what I am doing" and my diamonds are by no means perfect. The fabric is very busy and hides a multiple of sins, so please don't beat yourself up if your's doesn't come out perfect, either. Just smile and remember that next month is Nine-Patches which are a buh-reeze compared to these tricky ol' parallelograms and triangles!!!

See you again soon for an easy-peasy month!

XO,

Rhea

PS... as always, call or e-mail me or post comments with any questions you might have!

Month #4 Can you learn a new trick?

Hello to all those of you on Month #4.

Let's do some Card Tricks, shall we?

This month is truly not a bad month at all, and the gals in the class will back me up on this one.

Ready to do some rotary cuttin'?

Alright, having said that, I DO think everyone should go ahead and make their templates for Border 3A and 3B. Why? Well, not so that you can cut everything out by template, but just to have and use for reference and persnickety-ness. Once you've done your rotary cutting of this month's shapes, check them against your template shapes as well. You will have some extra pieces this month, so also use your templates to preview which of your cut fabric pieces will look the best.

Have I convinced you yet?

Oh, and by the by, that last paragraph pretty much applies to the rest of the quilt. Go ahead and make all your templates anyway, even if you don't think you're going to use them. You never know!!!

Some hints for cutting the Card Trick:

• Rotary cut, baby! Each of the 3 fabrics this month can be rotary cut (finally!).

For the 2 "3A" fabrics (which will become the "rectangles" or "cards"):

Cut (3) 2 7/8" strips from both fabrics. Cut these every 2" for 2 7/8" x 2" rectangles.

For the "3B" fabric (which will become the "side triangles" for the cards):
Cut (3) 2 3/8" strips. Cut these into 2 3/8" squares. Crosscut each square ONCE diagonally for triangles.

Note: I didn't list a specific number of rectangles or triangles to cut, as we are going to make these borders longer than they need to be and then chop them to size. You will have extra shapes, but use the extras to get the BEST parts of the fabric.

Before you sew:

Lay out one Card Trick border beside your sewing machine (or, if you are lucky enough to have a design wall, use that). It takes about 10 card trick "units" to piece together a border. Lay out just one side at a time, and make a mental note about the direction in which the cards are leaning. It's okay if your cards don't lean the same way as they do in the book (mine don't), but you do need to consistently lean in one direction.

Sewing the Card Tricks:

• I pieced the borders together one side at a time. I counted out 5 of my 3A pieces from one fabric and then 5 of my 3A pieces from the other fabric. Then I chain-stitched those pieces to 10 of my 3B triangles. That was round one. Then for round two, I fed the chain through the machine again, only this time I sewes triangles to the other side of my 3A pieces. You will be amazed at how quickly the card trick border goes when you follow this method. Once I had 10 "units" pieced together, I sewed them into ALTERNATING pairs (as in the book/picture), the pairs into quads, and so on until I had 10 units sewin together in a diagonal row. I gave it a quick press and checked to see if it was long enough. If it's not long enough, keep adding units until it is long enough. Once it is long enough, use your rotary cutter (again with the rotary cutting!) and squared my edges off.

• You are piecing diagonally, so make sure that you have 1/4" "dog ears" hanging off the ends of your piecing. If it looks wrong to you, take a pin and do a trial run. Adjust accordingly. Don't get frustrated by this step: you will have mastered diagonal piecing by the time it is all over and that is sooooo good for your brain! Lucky YOU!!!

• For the corner posts, pay attention to the cutting suggestions on the Color Key. Get the most kick-ass parts of your fabric. Those of you with reds will be able to get 4 squares that look exactly the same. Those of you with blues have a little more freedom: you will notice that I cut 2 squares of one "flower" and 2 of a different "flower" in my blue version.

Have fun and next month we'll discover why "diamonds" are a girl's best friend!!!

XOXO

Rhea

PS You should read my Love Letter to Kaffe... It's very funny (If I do say so myself!!!)

Month #3: It gets easier, I promise!

Hello ladies,

I get it, I get it!

Month#2 was hard!

Well, it's good for your brain to be challenged!

Some months will be easier than others, but just take it one piece at a time.

And, Month#3 is truly not that bad.

Speaking of... here are my tips and words of wisdom for Month #3:

To make Border Template "2A" and "2B" you can either cut using the templates (if you're really bored and want to kill a lot of time) OR... do what I did, which is to rotary cut squares and then crosscut diagonally ONCE to get your triangles.

Here's how I did it:

For Template border "2A"

• Cut (2) 2.25"x 45" strips

• Cut these into 2.25" squares, making sure that you get at LEAST (30) squares

• Crosscut each of these squares once diagonally to make at LEAST (60) triangles.

• Check these triangles against the template border "2A" shape in the book for accuracy.

*A little note: in the book, it says that you'll only need 56 of these shapes, but I found that I needed a total of 60. Put another way, each side of your block will need a total of (14) finished "Flying Geese" units, but I found that I consistently needed (15) units per side. When we did this in class, some of the gals only needed 14 units and some needed 15 and some needed a mix of both. I recommend piecing the 14 units together and checking to see if you need the 15th or not. Why does this happen? It's a testament to how different everyone's .25" seams are!


For template border "2B"

• Cut (3) 1 7/8 x 45" strips (I know that's a finicky measurement, and you may be tempted to cut a 2" strip, but trust me, that 1/8" makes a HUGE difference!)

• Cut these strips into 1 7/8" squares for a total of at LEAST (58) squares

• Crosscut each square ONCE diagonally for a total of at LEAST (116) triangles

• Check these against the template border "2B" in the book for accuracy.


Piecing the Flying Geese Units:

• Finished units should measure approximately 1 3/8" x 2 1/4".

• Make sure that your Geese are flying all in the same direction (either clockwise or counter- clockwise around the center of your quilt)


Template C (the corner posts):

• One little note about this: in my block, you will see that I pieced the Template "C's" into the corners according to how they did it in the book. I am kind of regretting this and wishing that I had done my own thing and experimented with something a little more "symmetrical," as in the corner posts from last month. I encourage you to play around with the composition of the corner posts a little bit and see what you come up with.

And... I think that's it!

Have FUN piecing your quilt: It's getting bigger and bigger, isn't it?

See you again soon!

XOXO

Rhea