Diamonds are Forever-A Free Motion Quilt Tutorial
They say “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” and “Diamonds are Forever”. I say, ” Diamonds are Forever is a quilter’s best friend!” Diamonds are a very simple and quick way to fill any space or to create a border. This pattern is fresh, modern and elegant at the same time. This pattern would look great “morphed” with a few flowers, or just combined with spirals.
THE DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER TUTORIAL
Begin by drawing rows equidistant apart. In the samples below, the lines are one inch apart.
Next, draw “tick” marks every one inch apart.
Begin stitching on the center line. Stitch up at an angle to the upper rail. Stitch down to the tick mark on the center rail.
Stitch across the center rail and down to the bottom rail.
Return to the center rail at the tick mark and begin the next diamond.
Continue stitching to create a row of diamonds.
To fill a larger area with diamonds, draw several lines. Place the “tick” marks on every other line.
Stitch two or more rows to create a more complex pattern.
The fun of Diamonds are Forever is playing with the proportions. Make the “tick marks” closer or farther apart or draw the lines wider apart.
Experiment with the sizes until you find dimensions that fit your quilt style.
NOTE: This tutorial was stitched on Kona Kaufman cotton solids with Aurifil 50 wt cotton thread in the bobbin and Sulky Rayon thread on top with Schmetz #80 Topstitch needle on my Bernina 820 (a domestic sewing machine)–without a stitch regulator– which I never use.
“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.” –Confucius
Be a diamond,
Lori
PS…All tutorials, images, and information is the property of Lori Kennedy @ The Inbox Jaunt and is intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog and Pin with attribution to The Inbox Jaunt. For all other uses, please contact me in the mines at lckennedy@hotmail.com.
Love the simplicity Lori. When you are doing the more complex one with the “ticks” every other row, how do you travel from one row to the next? I didn’t see where it looked like you went over your stitching a second time to get to your starting point again, I’m such a novice. But I’d love to try this. With my BSR, I’m not as talented as you are! Thanks for the great tutorials.
Perfect timing Lori. I am going to use this pattern for the final borders of my just finished Celtic Solstice quilt top by enlarging the scale of the quilting. Thank you.
Oh this is a lovely look – I often do cross-hatching, but this looks like such a simpler way to travel… I’ll have to try it!
Thank you Lori. Something simple that looks so good.
So simple… yet effective, and easy!. Thank you!
Hmmm… I’m just curious why you do this design with that stitching path of one complete diamond at a time rather than quilting each of the straight lines all in one continuous line of stitching. Would that require backtracking that I’m missing?