Paper Diamond Brigade

Center of the quilt, a photo by badskirt - amy on Flickr.

Last year, Kaffe Fassett's Bordered Diamonds quilt was all the rage in Sydney. He came to town, with his partner Brandon and taught this quilt in his workshop.

I didn't go to the workshop, but I was exposed to the quilt many times over as gals popped into Calico&Ivy to buy more Kaffe fabrics. For the most part, the quilts all had quite a similar ring to them in the bright, bursting large flowers typical of Kaffe Fassett prints. There were some shining exceptions, of course, like Kim's Liberty version. Kaffe prints generally aren't my style, but I do love a good diamond quilt.

I've played with diamonds before and futzed with borders on them in the past. I think the repeated exposure to Kaffe's bordered diamonds made me want to make my own. I tucked the idea in my back pocket for about a year.

I set out yesterday armed with a piece of paper and some of my favorite prints. For those who are big into craft books, the inspiration comes from Kaffe Fassett's Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts. I don't own the book, but I imagine there are all sorts of great colour hints in there, as well as templates and tips for sewing on the bias. I'm just guessing on that as I haven't looked through the book. I've only seen resulting quilts.

I don't own a diamond or triangle template in proportions that make me happy, so I created my own. I used a sheet of A4 paper and folding it twice. Then I cut off the corner and unfolded it. This left a diamond. What I liked about this method is that it was free and if I lost of damaged the template is was supereasy to remake. I only needed another sheet of paper.

I think my diamonds are a bit squatter and fatter than Kaffe's version. For my borders, I went with 1.5" strips which finished to 1". I just chose a size that worked for me visually. If you're looking for an exact pattern and fabric requirements, then you might like the aforementioned book. Even if the prints aren't your style, the simple designs lend themselves to showing off your favorite fabrics. I just winged it. Luckily it seems to have worked.

As usual, the Sydney sun took a dive as I tried to take photos. Since this is just the middle portion of my quilt, I'll try for a better set of photos when I get the border on. I'm thinking dark grey with a patchwork stripes?


What do you think? Maybe diamonds really are a girl's best friend.