Last night I threw up my hands in frustration.  I’ve worked with 45 degree diamonds before so I wasn’t expecting any issues. Ha!

First off the centers didn’t match — honestly, that was to be expected. So I ripped and started sewing again.  The centers matched beautifully.  That’s when I noticed I had yellow points instead of a red and blue point.  Eventually, I ripped again and re-sewed.   This time all was good.  We won’t discuss the setting triangles and squares.  Nearly all of my previous diamonds were appliquéd (there’s that word again) to the background.

I sent an e-mail to the SBS list and then Mary posted here that she was now concerned about making the block.  Truly, the diamonds are easy so I’m going to show a brief photo tutorial on how I made them.  It may not make sense if you don’t have the book.

#1 – after sewing the two strips sets, cut the strips as directed, making sure the colors are oriented the same way and the angles are a like.

#2 – Flip the diamond piece on the right so they are oriented correctly.

#3 – flip the piece on the right over on top of the piece on the left.  Make sure the “v” forms at 1/4″.  This is the seam allowance.

#4 – This is a trick I picked up along the way.  I’ve drawn my needle line and 1/4″ either side of it on a straight piece of cardboard and taped it to my sewing machine.  There are notions out there you can buy (and I have some of them — not that I can find them when I need them).

#5 Line up the top  “v” with the needle and the bottom “v” with the line on the guide.  Stitch the seam.

#6 – Open up the diamond.  I promise there are no camera tricks here and I didn’t re-stitch it.

When I work with larger diamonds I pin, but I was finding that pinning on these tiny pieces was causing part of the problem.  Hope this helps someone.