Tumbling block 17 sits third row down, on the right hand side of the Diamonds are Forever quilt.
You can download the patterns for the three diamonds that make up the block. Here is light tone diamond, the mid tone diamond, and the dark tone diamond. When embellishing, 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!
Just to remind you 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 for Crazy quilt stitch along Tumbling Block 17
When foundation piecing your diamonds 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 see the tutorial written by Allison Aller. You can find Curved Foundation Piecing here
As you stitch keep beads 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.
As usual stitches mentioned in the article are linked to tutorials in my Stitch dictionary so people can know how to do them.
Light toned Diamond on Tumbling block 17
The Pdf for the Light toned Diamond is here.
The first thing you notice on this block is the spray of silk ribbon flowers that run up the middle of the block. The flowers are created using Leaf stitch. The directions are on page 133 of my book The Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design. French Knots form the centre of the flowers. The stems are two threads twisted together and then couched down. The lighter foliage is Feather stitch. I topped each of the arms of the feather stitches with seed beads.
The seam of patch 1 and patch 2 is Buttonhole stitches spaced to allow room for bugle beads. I changed the height of the buttonhole stitches and added a seed bead to the top of the highest ones. The thread is a variegated cotton perle #8.
Patch 3 is a long thin awkward strip of fabric which I felt was a bit too thin so I covered it some vintage ribbon secured with Herringbone stitch. I added small ears in leaf stitch. The directions are on page 133 of my book The Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design. I then added seed beads to the center of the leaf stitches. The flower shaped plastic beads were added last.
The edge of patch 5 was covered in apricot lace then decorated with 3 straight stitches and seed bead.
The final embellishment is another piece of lace along the edge of patch 6. I added the little gold bead to finish it.
Mid toned Diamond on Tumbling block 17
The mid tone block is mainly in golds and browns. The pdf for the Mid toned Diamond on is here.
Alternating Up and and Down stitch coverers the seam between patches 1 and 2 worked using cotton perle #5 thread. I topped one arm with silk ribbon Fargo roses and the other with a seed bead.
In this detail of patches 3 and 4 you can see how I worked Buttonhole stitches using a gold cotton perle #5 thread and topped them with seed beads. The other seam was created using my stitchers templates. I traced off the 2 scallops using a water-dissolvable pen. Using a brown cotton perle #5 I covered the line in Chain stitch. Detached chain stitches further decorate the scallops before adding seed beads and a larger bronze bead at the base of the scallop.
Patch 5 was a very simple treatment as all I did was cover the seam with a commercial braid then added some straight stitches and see beads. The last thing i did was to add the wide vintage lace along the edge of patch 6
Dark toned Diamond on Tumbling block 17
As you can see the dark block is mainly dark blue and browns. The pdf for the Dark toned Diamond is here.
The most noticeable seam runs up the middle of the block between patch 1 and 2. Using cotton perle #5 I worked a line of Feather stitch before adding bugle beads and quarter rounds of Buttonhole Wheel Cups. These are worked in hand dyed blue wool. At the base of each cup is a black seed bead.
Over a black and gold ric-rac braid I used a blue cotton perle #5 to work straight stitches and Detached chain stitches. Small straight stitches were worked in gold metallic thread. Beads were added last.
Buttonhole stitches cover the seam along the edge of patch 3. I whipped the base with a fine metallic gold sewing machine thread.
At the top of the diamond patch 6 is embellished with two line of laced herringbone stitches worked in cotton perle #5 thread. The rows are laced with a metallic thread.
The last detail of the embellishments on this block is a lace butterfly motif that I beaded with dark blue seed beads.
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:
Tumbling Block 17:
Tumbling Block 18:
Tumbling Block 19:
Tumbling Block 20: (to be published 15-08-2024)
Tumbling Block 21: (to be published 12-09-2024)
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The next tumbling block in the series will be on June 13th. (I publish a block monthly, usually it’s the second Thursday of the month)
Have you seen my Stitchers Templates?
Create your own designs with Sharon’s easy-to-use stitchers templates. Combine shapes to create hundreds of patterns and designs to embroider. It is the ultimate mix-and-match fun for stitchers of all skill levels. I created them to be as versatile as possible. I include four multi-patterned templates in each set. You will find them easy to use, totally clear to help you position them on your work, and they are nice and compact to fit in your sewing box. Each set comes with an e-book filled with patterns and designs that you can create and use as a jumping-off spot for your own designs. They are available now in our shop here!
Happy stitching!
