Matching up the points on your half diamond shapes for quilting perfection

Yesterday we completed the ‘grassy meadow’ portion of the beach scene on our impressionistic quilt using the Sew Easy Triangle Ruler 60° – 8″ x 9¼”, which really did make it easy.

Today we’re going to make the sand dunes for our piece of art with a little help of another triangular shape ruler the Sew Easy Half Diamond Ruler – 4½” x 14¼”.

For this part of the art quilt, I decided to use 3½” strips. You can use any width of fabric but I don’t recommend wider than 4½” which is the max width of the Diamond ruler.

As with any ruler you line it up with the height measurement you wish your half diamond shape to be.

Cut the fabric strips. Once finished cutting the strips don’t discard the remaining pieces, they too will be used. After the first cut rotate the diamond ruler as many times needed to cut more half diamond pieces.

Because these half diamond shapes are longer than the average triangle, I wouldn’t advise you to use the ¼” tape piecing method I showed you in yesterday’s post, to sew the angled corners.

Instead, each long triangular piece of fabric needs to be marked on the corners that intersect to get a ¼” seam allowance.

In the next photo, you’ll see the fabrics are facing right side down, matching short edges together as in the photo. Insert a pin through the mark on the top fabric through the mark of the bottom fabric, repeat for the other side.

Once intersections match, pin both pieces of fabric together.

As you sew, follow the pencil line ensuring a perfect ¼” seam.

Perfect matching point using the technique.

This part creates the beach portion of the art quilt making 4 rows. I also added a couple of pieces of green fabrics to create a transition from the grassy section to the beach section. You’ll need approximately 9 to 10 half diamonds per row.

When it’s all sewn, you’ll notice that these rows are wider than the rows sewn yesterday using the tumbling blocks and where all the rows aligned. These rows will be somewhat staggered, therefore creating a random look.

The beach portion for the Impressionistic quilt is completed using the Sew Easy Half Diamond Ruler – 4½” x 14¼”.

Come back tomorrow to see how the KOMFORT KUT Slash-N-Circle Quilting Ruler – 9⅞” x 12½” adds waves to the water portion of our Impressionistic beach scene.