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Feb 16, 2012

Thought About Adding .......

I've thought about adding a border of Fractured Diamond blocks to my Texas center block. Remember this one. It's been awhile since I've worked on it. Actually, it was stashed under several other projects and I just ran across it purely by accident.... anyone else been down that road before???

  You may remember these two quilts and the templates that I made from pieces of cardboard.
In the above photo each block's  first two sewn strips are of the red color tones giving the effect of an outline around the green inner diamond shape. This makes for a more dramatic quilt.
It's easy to draw your own template. Choose the size square you want. For example this is a 12 1/2 inch square.
Next, decide how much (wide) you want of  your foundation fabric to show. The illustration below shows a 5 inch gap but you can decide how wide you want your "kite" shape to be.

Notice in the bottom corner of the illustration above there is a tiny square. That is the 1/4 inch square that relieves the sewing area..... hope that made sense. 
This is what the template looks like no matter what size square you choose. The shape of a "kite."
 Place your template ("kite") on top of your chosen foundation fabric as shown.
 Press the sided over the template.
Once that's done remove the template. Now you have pressed marks to follow when sewing on your first two strips. If you are uncomfortable with this method, you can draw the marks on using a pencil or removable ink pen.
 Sew the first strip using the press mark.... do not press open yet.
 Only after you've sewn the second opposite strip over the mark, do you press.
You can chain sew the blocks which is a wonderful way to see results as you go along.

Here, you can see the beginnings of the secondary design.
If you're going for an old fashion look, use muslin or a tone-on-tone type fabric as the foundation.
Note: The smaller the blocks, the more design possibilities.

I decided on "half" blocks of Fractured Diamonds which means to sew one half of each block but be careful if you choose to make these types of blocks because they are sewn in the left and right direction. I used 3 1/2 inch gray squares and varied strips of fabric in tones of browns, red and black. Black was my beginning strip and red the last.
My "kite" was 1 1/2 inches wide by 3 1/2 inches long.
I'm using the photo below to illustrate and remind you of the shape of the kite.

I like the way the border looks... so it's onto the next round.
Any thoughts?????

6 comments:

Beatriz said...

Looks like a great border to the Texas center. Don´t let it go underneath other pieces again!
Way too pretty to get lost!

Betsy said...

Love the Texas block Rhonda.did u embroider it?

Gene Black said...

oh wow! the half diamonds make a great border for the embroidered blocks!

Pat said...

What an excellent idea for bordering your state block!!! AND...what a SILLY question to ask if any of us have every found an incomplete project hiding underneath other things in our sewing rooms!!!

Needled Mom said...

That really does look fabulous.

Merilyn said...

Very creative Rhonda, I really enjoy seeing your creations. I love the first border of half diamonds, great idea!!!

;-}

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