Crazy quilt stitch along Tumbling block 9

Tumbling block 9 sits middle left on the third row down on the Diamonds are forever quilt.

You can download the patterns for the three diamonds that make up tumbling block 9. Here is light tone diamond, the mid tone diamond, and the dark tone diamond.

Please Note! Each pdf is to scale, but has no seam allowances. Be sure to set your printer to print to the actual size. Do not use the ‘fit to page’ option as it will reduce the diamonds by half an inch or so. When you print them out, they should have 6-inch sides. I advise you to use Adobe Acrobat™ as a PDF reader (it’s free).

Tips

The first and most important tip is when embellishing your diamonds, feel free to follow what I have done, or adapt my ideas to your liking. Embellish the blocks as you see fit and have fun and there are no rules in Crazy Quilting!

When foundation piecing your diamonds try and make sure that you don’t have a seam ending at one of the points of the diamond. When you come to piecing your diamonds into blocks you don’t want to be dealing with bulky diamond tips or corners.

Make sure you keep beads away from the edge of the diamond. When you piece the diamonds into blocks you will break your sewing machine needle if it hits anything hard.

If you need a tutorial on curved piecing take a look a tutorial written by Allison Aller. You can find Curved Foundation Piecing here

Light toned Diamond

The Pdf for the Light toned Diamond Tumbling block 9 it is here. Links to stitches and techniques used are in the text.

There are 6 seams on the Light toned Diamond but only 5 are actually embellished with embroidery or lace.

The seam between patch 3 and 6 is decorated with Alternating Buttonhole Stitch worked in cotton perle # 5 and topped with a seed bead bead.

Using my stitchers templates and a dissolvable pen I traced the scallops along the edge of patch 4. Then I used a silk thread to work Chain stitch before adding a long tail chain and straight stitch in the V of the scallop before topping each straight stitch with a seed bead. At the base of the V I added a novelty bead in the shape of a heart.

Here, the edge of patch 5 is covered with lace before being beaded and adding silk ribbon Fargo roses

Two seams can be seen in the photograph above. The seam on the left consists of Feather stitch where Detached chain stitch is added to the end of each arm. The seam on the right is Up and Down Buttonhole with straight stitch added to the middle of each V. Both are novelty threads.

Mid toned Diamond

The pdf for the Mid toned Diamond on Tumbling block 9 is here. Follow the links in the text for tutorials on how to work the stitches.

The Mid-toned Diamond has 5 patches. Patches 1 and 2 demonstrate a freeform floral spray made up of Feather stitch, Leaf stitch (page 133 of The Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design) Detached Chain stitch and silk ribbon Fargo roses. After this, I added Seed and Bugle beads last.

For the seam next to the floral spray, which I covered with a braid along the edge, I added Fly stitches and bugle beads. Down the centre of the braid, I added red seed beads. On the other side, I added three Detached Chain stitches worked in cotton perle #5 with a seed bead at the base.

Between patches 5 and 2, I worked 2 lines of  Laced Herringbone stitch and added beads in the middle. And here I laced the Herring bone with a metallic thread.

Dark toned Diamond

The pdf for the Dark toned Diamond Tumbling block 9 is here.

The Dark toned Diamond has a freeform line of Feather stitch and 2 Detached Chain stitches worked in stranded floss with a seed bead at the base and a bugle bead in the middle. I worked the feather stitch in Rayon ribbon floss. Then I covered the seam between patches 1 and 3 with a black braid. Down the centre of the braid I added purple beads. Along the side I added 3 Detached Chain stitches worked in a hand dyed cotton perle #8 with a seed bead set at the base.

Stitchers Templates — using on a dark colour

Here, I used my stitchers templates. Also, because the fabric is a dark colour, I used a white chalk quilters pencil to trace the scallops along the edge of patch 5. I used a n a hand dyed cotton perle #8 to work Chain stitch before adding straight stitches beads

Once again I used my my stitchers templates to mark a zig zag line on the seam between patch 3 and 4. Additionally, I worked Chain stitch before lacing it with Rayon ribbon floss. I then did my usual trick with detached chain stitches before adding a cluster of 3 buttons to finish the block.

Finally, the last detail on this block is simple because it is a lace motif that I secured with tiny stitches before adding bugle beads.

Where to share and previous blocks list

If you are stitching along please share what you do in either of the Crazy Quilt Divas and/or Crazy Quilt International groups on Facebook.

The quilt is on the front of two of my books: The Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design and my new book Crazy Quilting for Beginners Handy Pocket Guide. You do not need my books to join in on this stitch along, but I strongly recommend that you have at least the pocket guide, if not the full Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design.

Previous blocks in the series

Guidelines and general information about the series:

Tumbling Block 1;

Tumbling Block 2;

Tumbling Block 3;

Tumbling Block 4;

Tumbling Block 5;

Tumbling Block 6;

Tumbling Block 7;

Tumbling Block 8;

Tumbling Block 9:

Tumbling Block 10:

Tumbling Block 11:

Tumbling Block 12:

Tumbling Block 13:

Tumbling Block 14:

Tumbling Block 15:

Tumbling Block 16:

The next tumbling block in the series will be on September 14th. (I publish a block monthly, usually it’s the second Thursday of the month)