Diamond in a Square Block - How I do it + calculations (tutorial)

Tweet

Pin It

I know many of you have seen the blocks with a Diamond on point in the middle.  Some people make the block using HST with the diamond being all the same color, as shown below:

Then there is the way of sewing small triangles in the corners of a square, as seen below.  This way is simple but I find that it decreases the size of the inner circle and wastes the white triangle corners for this block.  You can always use the blocks for another project.

I sew with LOTS of Fat Quarters because they are smaller and easier to work with.  Plus they give me lots of variety of fabric for my money.  For this type of block, I like to highlight the inner squared area as much as possible.  So I figured with every FQ I could get (2) full blocks with very little left over, maximizing the fabric.  Out of each FQ you would cut (2) 8.5" squares which will be the inside square (Diamond) and you would cut (4) 6.5" squares to be used for accent triangle corners on random blocks.  Each of these finished blocks should yield an 11" block.  This method is great for if you have a large print fabric that you don't want to cut up the picture.  YOU WILL NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW MANY FQ'S YOU WILL NEED FOR YOUR PARTICULAR FINISHED QUILT SIZE.

1) For each 11" finished block you will need (1) 8.5" square and (2) 6.5" squares

2) Cut each of your 6.5" squares in half

3) After you have cut up all the squares and triangles that you will need, this is when you will figure out the design placement as you normally do

4) Sew your triangles to the flat sides of your squares

5) Trim each block to 11".  Your inner squares should NOT come all the way to the edge, they should sit inside the edge like a picture frame.  YOU WILL SEE THAT FOR MY #6 PICTURE I MADE THAT MISTAKE OF CUTTING TO THE EDGE.  This is where you should do as I say, not as I did!  SMILE!  This was a practice square for demo purposes only anyway.

6) Refigure out your design placement to include sashing and borders if you want a larger quilt.  You can also incorporate some solid fabric into some of the blocks.  I have seen some quilts with alternating solid blocks and Square in a Diamond blocks.  You can do whatever you like.

You can do opposite triangles like shown above, or you can use 4 different triangles for each block which I think would look really cool.

From my calculations, if you want to make a larger or smaller block, the smaller squares should be cut 2" smaller than the larger inside blocks.  For the blocks I made, to figure out what total size block I would get I added the 8 + half of the 6 which is 3.  So 8 + 3 = 11.  So for say an 8" total block, you will need a 6.5" larger square & (2) 4.5" smaller squares for the triangle corners...................6 + half of the 4 which is 2 = 8.

Does this make sense?  If you have any questions please let me know.