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2 CommentsWould you like to leave a link on Manic Monday Linky Party? It’s still open! I had a good response to yesterday’s knitting question and I’m still mulling over it. I’d like to do more videos, but we’ll see how the foundation piecing video goes this weekend. If it’s not a total nightmare, I may look into doing more, including knitting. That would be so fun, to knit with you all!
HST Diamond Block
For today’s tutorial, I’m going to try something a little different. Below you’ll find a link to the Word file you can download, so that if you want, you can print it off. I don’t usually do these because it makes it VERY easy for someone to rip off my work and I get very angry about it. But this is a fairly simple block, so I guess if (read: when) people steal it, I won’t be too upset. I’ve also published it in the normal way, so scroll down if you don’t have Microsoft Word or something that can read Word documents.
That said, all the same copyright stuff applies, and yes, there is a way I can check to see if someone has posted it. Feel free to link to the page though.
If you’re following along in the Sew. Happy. Quilt. Quilt Along, I’ve added a few layout ideas to the Flickr group that you might like to look at.
HST DIAMOND QUILT BLOCK TUTORIAL
HST DIAMOND QUILT BLOCK TUTORIAL
By Jenna Excell, www.SewHappyGeek.co.uk
© Copyright J C Excell, 2012. You are welcome to use any SewHappyGeek tutorial for personal use. You are even welcome to make a couple to sell, but you are not given permission to use my pictures or my words without giving me credit and linking back to the original. You are NEVER allowed to copy an entire tutorial or post.
Sometimes my pictures have my family in them and they are never intended for public use. Also, I work very hard to provide free tutorials for my lovely readers, and anyone copying or selling my tutorials is guilty of copyright infringement.
For this block you will need 4 families of fabric. The graphic above shows grey, red, aqua and white. I’ve left blanks below so you can fill in your own colours. You can either use 4 fabrics, or you can use more than one print for each family, so the number of squares listed is the TOTAL you will need for that portion of the block. For example, my inner diamond and outer diamond fabrics consist of 3 different fabrics, so I cut 2 squares of each fabric (total=6). You can do whatever you want, use as many different fabrics as you want, but you need at least 4 and you need them to contrast when placed next to each other. I’ve left big blanks so you can fill in your own colours.
CENTRE COLOUR______________________________________: 2 squares 4” x 4”
INNER DIAMOND COLOUR______________________________: 6 squares 4” x 4”
OUTER DIAMOND COLOUR______________________________: 6 squares 4” x 4”
OUTER ACCENTS COLOUR_______________________________: 2 squares 4” x 4”
You’ll be making a total of 16 HSTs (Half Square Triangles). If necessary, refer to the HST handout to refresh your memory of how to make HSTS (https://docs.google.com/document/d/17KQucBG_0bRN8nMxqMLfFCZ2x7TF0M2GN6w70_5hjQY/edit). In essence, you’ll draw a diagonal line on the back of the squares, then draw lines ¼” on either side of the centre diagonal line. Sew down those ¼” markings, cutting the centre diagonal line to reveal 2 HSTs.
But you’ll need to match them up to the right colours. Here’s how:
Both (2) CENTRE COLOUR________________________ get matched with 2 of the INNER DIAMOND COLOUR_____________________________.
The other 4 INNER DIAMOND COLOUR_____________________________ get matched with 4 of the OUTER DIAMOND COLOUR___________________________.
The last 2 OUTER DIAMOND COLOUR_________________________ get matched with the 2 OUTER ACCENTS COLOUR___________________________.
That’s it.
Once you have your 16 HSTS, press the seams open or to the side (your choice – I use a small stitch length and press open), then trim them to EXACTLY 3.5” square making sure you use the diagonal line on your ruler to match up to the diagonal on the HST.
Then you just need to arrange them in place:
And sew them into groups of 4:
Next, form the 2 halves of the block:
And sew those 2 halves together:
Yay! You’re done!
P.S. Because I write a non-Blogger blog, I am one of those unfortunates who will lose my Google Friend Connect widget soon. I really value you as a reader and follower, and I’d like to ask you to consider following me on BlogLovin’, a free service built specifically for people to follow their favourite blogs, or by Feedburner, which is an RSS feed. Thanks!! 
© J C Excell, 2011
