Thursday, July 14, 2016

String Diamond Construction Details

For those of you thinking about making a string diamond quilt, let me assure you that I will not be setting in squares. I will be sewing triangles on either side of the diamonds, and then from there the construction is like a kaleidoscope quilt.

I probably will make the background scrappy, but I haven't decided yet. Here is the inspiration for the quilt that I'm making from the Mingei International Museum.  They have a nice selection of string quilts including the inspiration for my Spiderweb quilt.


The finished star block will be 17 inches. The figures in the picture are not to scale. Also, the measurement for the diamond is the finished size. To make the template you would want to draw the diamond as shown and then add a quarter inch seam allowance around it. To get the triangles to sew onto the diamonds to make wedges, you would take a 7.25 inch square (unfinished size) and slice it into four triangles cutting along the diagonals.

4 comments:

Barbara said...

Great minds run in the same track. I decided this week that my next string project would be diamonds for stars. I was going to make a big lone star from Bonnie Hunter's book but changed my mind and decided to go with star blocks using whatever size diamond template ruler I could find at JoAnn's. Got my ruler yesterday. My blocks will be a little smaller than yours.

gayle said...

But, but, but I already started a new quilt this month...
*sigh*
What's the harm in starting one more, right?
Thanks?

Cathy said...

Oh, thanks. I see now what you were talking about. Thanks also for the Mingei link. I'm hand quilting my six pointed string star now (no Y seams) and was thinking of making one with neutral/pale strings. Maybe I will try this method and make an eight pointed.

Cathy said...

I really like your string diamonds! But I will not start another project. I will not start another project. I will not....