Crazy quilt stitch-along Tumbling block 8

Tumbling block 8 sits on the third row down in the left-hand side of the Diamonds are Forever quilt.

You can download the patterns for the three diamonds that make up tumbling block 8.  Here is the light tone diamond 1 pattern , the mid tone diamond , and the dark tone diamond 3 can be found here. 

The pdfs are to scale, but have 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).

Tumbling block 8 Tips

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

Remember, 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 — 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.

Light-toned Diamond 

The Pdf for the Light toned Diamond Tumbling block 8 is here.    

Embellishment notes for the Light-toned Diamond

The light diamond on this block has 7 patches of fabric on it!

The first thing you notice on the diamond is a wheatear made of beads. Each bead is wrapped with Single long tail chain stitch in white cotton perle #5. I worked the stem of the wheatear in Chain stitch using the same thread. I simply added beads to the lace that covers the seam between patch 2 and 3.

The longest seam on the diamond runs alongside patch 6. I used a commercial ruffled ribbon to cover it and added beads in each ruffle. Along the side of the ribbon I added straights stitches topped with seed beads.

Matt domed sequins are interspersed with rice beads to cover the seam between patch 1 and 5. I added a scallop around one edge using Stem stitch

This seam is a variation of Stepped and Threaded Running Stitch which is in my book Creative Stitches for Contemporary Embroidery I swapped the running stitches for detached chain stitches and worked them in two line that are offset. Using the same lacing method as Stepped and Threaded Running Stitch I covered the seam before adding more domed sequins.

A line of Up and Down buttonhole stitches are the base for covering the seam between patch 1 and 2 worked in cotton perle #5. Tucked between the arms of the buttonhole is a straight stitch that acts as stem for little sequin flowers which are simply a sequin held on with a seed bead.

The last seam on this diamond is Laced Herringbone stitch. The foundation herringbone stitch is worked in cotton perle #5 which was them laced with yarn that is a knitting ribbon.

Mid toned Diamond

The mid tone diamond and the dark diamond on this block are very similar. They are a bit too close in tone when you look at them in a group of three blocks but when they are sitting in the quilt you can see in the photo of the quilt that they work. So if ever you feel the tone between two blocks is a little close as long as other blocks around it work that block will too. The pdf for the Mid toned Diamond on Tumbling block 8 is here. 

Embellishment notes for the Mid toned Diamond

The mid-toned diamond has 6 patches and is, to be honest, at the dark end of the tonal range.

 At the base of the block, I covered the first seam with some heart-shaped hand-dyed lace. I used procion dyes to dye all my laces. At the top of the little shapes I stitched a bead and at the base 3 Detached chain stitches. The second seam embellishment you can see in the photo above is a line of fly stitches worked in hand-dyed cotton perle #8. The dye bath for this thread was the same dye bath as the lace. Then I added another line of fly stitches overlapping the first line. Following this, I worked the second line in stranded cotton. Finally, I added Detached chain stitches and seed beads.

You can see the overlapping Fly stitches in this photograph too. On the other seam I have used Herringbone stitch to couch down some ribbon before adding seed beads.

The last detail is a simple seam treatment. I use very tiny stitches to attach the lace to the diamond before adding seed beads in the middle of each flower.

Dark-toned Diamond

The Dark-toned Diamond on tumbling block 8 is one of my favourite diamonds on this quilt. Likewise you can find the pdf for the Dark toned Diamond Tumbling block 8 here. 

Embellishment notes for the Dark-toned Diamond

I attached Fargo roses to the arms using Up and down stitch. To add further interest, In I added a line of seed beads between those arms.

Using my stitcher’s templates I traced off the scallops using a white quilters pencil. I then covered the line with Stem Stitch using cotton perle #5. After that, I tucked the little heart, bugle, and seed beads in the valley of each scallop.

I worked the little line of tulips in silk ribbon. So these are all one stitch – Leaf stitch which is on page 133 of The Visual Guide to Crazy Quilting Design.

The last little detail runs alongside patch 6 at the bottom of the block I used a small scrap of hand-dyed lace along the edge and placed a vintage button in the middle.  

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:

I hope readers are enjoying this series. 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)

My book for creative stitchers