How to Make a Diamond Quilt Tutorial

This Diamond Quilt Tutorial came about because I had an idea for a pattern (coming soon!) that will use diamonds. First I needed to play around with diamonds to get the sizing correct for the cutting and yardage directions. Definitely save this tutorial, you’re going to want to refer back to this once you see the pattern.

When I set out to make this Diamond Quilt Tutorial, I knew EXACTLY what fabric I wanted to use. Last summer I bought some fat quarters from my local quilt shop. I requested tone on tone fabrics in blue, and specified no florals, and these are two of the fat quarters they sent me. I was so mad that I hadn’t been listened to, but didn’t want to make a fuss, so I put them into my fabric storage knowing I would get around to them eventually. They aren’t bad fabrics; they just weren’t what I asked for at the time.

Then I added a bunch of blues, greens and reds to flesh out the palette for this quilt. Those cherries and that floral are just perfect for the rest of the fabric in this quilt.

Start by cutting your fabric into 2½” strips. Or, start with a jelly roll. One jelly roll will be just the right amount for the diamonds in the quilt, with a couple of strips left over.

Diamond Quilt Tutorial Cutting Directions

I’m going to teach you three different ways to make diamonds, in singles, in pairs and in sets of four. All you need is your strips of fabric and an acrylic ruler, no special ruler or template needed.

How to Make Diamonds One at a Time

Start by placing the 60* line on your ruler along the bottom of the fabric strip.

Here’s a zoomed in view of the line. Your quilting ruler likely has one of these.

Trim along the side of the ruler, which will do two things: cut off the selvage and start the diamond shape.

Turn your cutting mat or turn your fabric strip so that the end you just trimmed is on your left. Since the strip is 2½” wide, you’re going to cut a diamond by lining up the trimmed edge on the 2½” line of the ruler and cutting.

To make all of your diamonds one at a time, repeat until you have as many diamonds as needed.

Because the perfection of the diamonds depends on always have the angle right, I recommend lining up the bottom of the fabric strip against the 60* line on the ruler every 2 or 3 cuts, to make sure you are staying accurate. I prefer to cut along the middle of my ruler, rather than the bottom, so I did not use the 60* angle for every cut, but did use it on and off to double check my accuracy.

You can absolutely stop reading the cutting directions right here, and make all of your diamonds one at a time and then skip ahead to the sewing directions.

Or…

Why do things one at a time when strip piecing is also an option?

How to Make Diamonds Two at a Time

The diamond quilt tutorial gets even easier when making diamonds two at a time. Start by lining up two strips to sew together, but have them off set just a bit.

The fabric strip on the right should be slightly higher than the one on the left. Working with strips this size, it only needs to be about an inch higher. Mine are staggered slightly further, which just means I end up with a bit more excess when I do my trimming. Sew along the length of the strip.

Both ends of the strip set will be offset.

It doesn’t matter which end you start from, but just like cutting the diamonds one at a time, line up the 60* line of the ruler with the bottom of the fabric. Get as close to the selvage as you can, as you can see, I’m trimming more blue than necessary. If I had only staggered my strips by about an inch instead of two inches, less blue would have been wasted.

Trim the selvage away.

Just like before, use the 2½” line on the ruler, and the 60* line across the bottom.

Easy, peasy, two at a time diamonds.

How to Make Diamonds Four at a Time

Guess what? Four at a time diamonds are just as easy to make as two at a time!

Start with two pairs. Always offset the strips, with the fabric on the right being slightly higher than the fabric on the left.

Sew them together to make a set of four strips. Use the 60* line to trim off the selvages.

Cut the strip at 2½”, just like before, and make your diamonds four at a time.

The reason to always sew the strips together in the same way, always the fabric on the right slightly higher than the fabric on the left, is that these units are directional. You can turn a set of four, and the diamonds will still angle the same direction. As long as you always sew your strips together in the same way, all of your units will turn out the same way, which is what you will want when it comes to sewing these units into rows.

How to Put Diamonds Together into Rows

You need 96 sets of 4, 10 pairs, and 5 sets of 5 to make this baby size quilt. If you want a bigger quilt, you’ll need more diamonds.

Now that you know how to make diamonds, it’s time to talk about how to put the diamonds together into rows. Except, they aren’t really rows. And they aren’t really going together into columns either. I guess maybe this type of quilt goes together into diagonals?

Anyway, terminology aside, the next step in the Diamond Quilt Tutorial is to sew the diamonds into longer groupings, and here’s how to do it.

I find that when working with diamonds, it’s useful to always lay the two pieces out on the table, to get the orientation correct before attempting to sew them together. This example shows sewing a pair to a set of four, to make a unit that is 6 diamonds long, but this is the way to do all steps for sewing the rows.

It looks a little wonky doesn’t it? It might look wrong, but this is the right orientation for diamonds before sewing them together!

As when working with equilateral triangles, when sewing diamonds together, there should be a ¼” overlap on the corners.

You can trim dog ears if you like. I usually don’t as I think they help with lining up points when sewing rows together.

For a quilt this size, you will need:

2 rows of 2
2 rows of 4
2 rows of 6
2 rows of 8
2 rows of 10
2 rows of 12
2 rows of 14
2 rows of 16
2 rows of 18
2 rows of 20
2 rows of 22
2 rows of 24
5 rows of 25

How to Make Rows into a Diamond Quilt Top

Now that you’ve got all of your rows made, it’s time to sew them together into the quilt top.

You know I like to recommend pinning frequently when sewing rows together, especially when trying to match up points. If ever there was a quilt pattern you were going to listen to my advice on, this is in the one! So far, even though you’ve been making diamonds, all of your sewing has been along the straight edge of the strips, just like with square blocks. But now, once you start sewing rows together, you are sewing on the bias, which is a little stretchier than sewing with the grain. As many pins as you think is necessary, add more.

Don’t line your rows up so that the seams match right at the edges that you are getting ready to sew. Instead, the seams should match ¼” in from the edge. That way, when you sew ¼” from the edge, the matching points aren’t lost in the seam allowance, but are instead right where you want them, making nice, crisp matching corners to make your diamonds.

Sew ¼” from the edge, and press towards the shorter row.

See how nicely those points match up?

Repeat, sewing the shortest rows out in the corners (the upper left and lower right corners) and each row getting longer towards the center. Until your quilt top is complete!

I’m sorry I didn’t lay all of my rows out for you for a group photo before I started sewing them together. Scout likes to scatter my fabric when it’s on the design floor. Sometimes I just jump ahead a step without a photo to skip the “help”. If you’d like to see what I mean, here’s a video of my favorite helper, doing what she does best!

Remember, it’s always best to alternate directions when sewing each new row. That’s especially important in a quilt like this when sewing on the bias edge.