Crazy quilt stitch along Tumbling Block 12

Tumbling block 12 is actually the block of 3 diamonds and an extra mid-tone diamond that takes the design to the edge of the quilt. This unit sits on the third row down on the left-hand side of the Diamonds are Forever quilt.

You can download the patterns for the three diamonds that make up the block. Here is the light tone diamond, the mid tone diamond 1, the dark tone diamond, and the second mid tone diamond 2 here.

Please remember that the PDFs have NO seam allowances but are to scale. 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 Tumbling Block 12

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.

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

As usual, stitches mentioned in the article are linked to tutorials usually in the stitch dictionary section of this site. I hope it assists you to learn how to work new stitches.

When you add beads and hard items keep them away from the edge of the diamond and give yourself a generous seam allowance. When you piece the diamonds into blocks you will break your sewing machine needle if it hits anything hard.

Light toned Diamond

The PDF for the Light toned Diamond Tumbling block 12 is here.

Probably one of the first things you notice about this section of the diamond is the rice beads used to create a wheat-ear-like motif. The stems are worked in Stem stitch and each rice bead has a Detached Chain stitch looped around it.

To embellish the seam between patches 1 and 2 using a silk thread I worked a line of Buttonhole stitch. Between the spaces, I added bugle beads and topped the arms of the Buttonhole stitches with seed beads.

I used vintage blue lace to cover the seam between patches 2 and 3. I threaded a fine ribbon through the lace and added novelty beads and seed beads.

Hand-dyed blue lace is used to cover the seam between patches 1 and 5. I decorated it further with straight stitches and seed beads.

The seam that runs along the edge of patch 4 was first covered with an apricot ribbon before I added Arrow stitch that was then laced with a metallic thread. Tucked into the valley of each V is a second V, that I topped with seed beads. I worked both lines of stitching in cotton perle #5.

The first Mid toned Diamond

The PDF for the Mid toned Diamond on Tumbling block 12 is here.

This diamond is monotone, being made up of a range of blues. Modern hand-dyed cotton lace forms the first seam. I stitched it on before adding Fargo Roses in silk ribbon and seed beads.

Hand-dyed vintage hand-made lace covers the seam between patches 2 and 3. I used my stitchers templates, to trace the scallops and the V shapes on the other side of the lace. I then worked the V shapes in Chain Stitch before adding long bugle beads and the butterfly novelty beads. Between the V shapes, I worked 3 Detached Chain stitches and added a bead in the middle. Next, I added beads to the valley of each scallop and worked a single Oyster stitch and two straight stitches above the bead.

The final detail on this diamond is a single Feather Stitch – or a slanted Buttonhole stitch with rice beads added to the spaces.

Dark toned Diamond

The PDF for the Dark toned Diamond Tumbling block 12 is here.

A large floral spray dominates this block. It consists of Feather Stitch worked as a beaded stitch over Feather stitch worked in Silk Ribbon before adding Fargo Roses also worked in silk ribbon. The colour changes because I used variegated silk ribbon.

The other two seam embellishments on this block are simple. After that, using some green seed beads, I secured the Metallic Ric Rac. I used the same hand-dyed variegated silk ribbon for more Fargo Roses

Here, I covered the last seam in a commercial braid before adding 3 Detached Chain stitches worked in cotton perle #5. I also hand-dyed this in the same pot as the silk ribbon. So the colours of the thread are similar. A seed bead added to the middle finished it off.

Second Mid-toned Diamond

Since we are dealing with 1 and a half tumbling blocks this month we have an extra diamond. The PDF for the second Mid toned Diamond is here.

The seam between patch 1 and 2 was first covered in velvet ribbon. I then secured it with Chevron stitch. Additionally, as I worked the row, I crossed the bars at the top and the bottom. Using Detached Chain stitches I then worked a line of half flower shapes in a pale green strand floss thread (3 stands). After that, I used the same thread to go back along the Chevron stitches to work a tiny Cross stitch over the bars. Attaching the brass flowers last, I added a bead to the middle to secure them to the row.

The seam between patches 1 and 2 was first covered in a fine braid. Next, using my stitchers templates, I traced off the scallops using a water-dissolvable pen. I then worked them in Chain stitch. I then added the square metal beads to the valley of each scallop. Additionally a straight stitch forms the stem of the flowers that sit in the valley. I made the leaves using Detached Chain stitches and the flower is a Cast on Stitch.

Final details

The last two small details are the seams between patch 3 and 4 which is simply a line of Buttonhole stitch topped with seed beads. Finally, I used a commercial to cover the seam.

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 January 18th. (I publish a block monthly, usually it’s the second Thursday of the month). I hope you have enjoyed this series so far and I will see you again in the New Year! In the meanwhile Happy stitching