Yesterday was “second Easter” in The Netherlands, a holiday when schools and most businesses are closed. I spent my free day in the sewing room, first putting together my Drummer Boy Dresdens quilt top and then starting a new quilt.

Ah, a new quilt! Starting one is the very best sewing treat, wouldn’t you say? I already knew I wanted to work with diamonds and before long had gathered a pile of fabrics to cut. I began confidently cutting only to find that diamonds aren’t as easy as I thought.

Here’s the thing, my Angled class has a whole section on cutting and sewing diamonds. I’ve made more than one diamond quilt in the past. I thought I knew what I was doing! But now I think that I was working with slightly untrue diamonds the whole time.

Let me explain. Earlier when I was daydreaming about diamonds, I found this triangle ruler in my supply. It’s the Tri-Recs tool for making triangles within squares or for making half rectangle triangle blocks. I used it to cut a diamond by folding a scrap fabric in half and cutting it folded as a mirrored triangle shape.

Then yesterday I went to cut my yardage into diamonds. First I wanted to decide upon an angle. I cut a 3 1/2” strip of fabric and then subcut the strip as a 45 degree “diamond” and as a 60 degree “diamond”, using the angle lines on a regular quilting ruler. But somehow neither of the resulting shapes was as pretty as my Tri-Recs diamond. Why?

Layering the pieces on a cutting mat reveals the problem. Whereas the Tri-Recs diamonds slant perfectly symmetrically towards a center point, my strip-cut diamonds are irregular. This is easiest to see with the pointier 45 degree shape. When I carefully align the side points of the diamond with the same horizontal line on my ruler, the top and bottom points of these “diamonds” do not fall perfectly at the center. Each is a little off. Since they are still paralellograms, the opposite sides of the strip-cut diamonds are parallel, but the shapes lack the beautiful balanced feel of a true diamond.

The thing is, I prefer to cut my diamonds from a strip of fabric, as that is efficient. Apparently, in mathematical terms a true diamond is two triangles equilateral triangles stuck together. That means that cutting strips with a 60 degree angle should yield a true diamond.

When I research online, everyone seems to be cutting diamonds in the way I have always done - from strips of fabric and using the angle lines on a regular quilting ruler. Perhaps we accept a slightly less-than-perfect diamond or perhaps there is some way to cut a perfect diamond in this manner, although it is eluding me.

For now I am cutting diamonds with my Tri-Recs ruler, although it is slower and wastes a little fabric each time, in comparison with the other method. I do prefer the angle of the shape cut from the Tri-Rec, which is not quite 60 degrees. But in the future I would like to be able to cut diamonds accurately from a fabric strip. Does anyone have any tips for cutting perfect, true diamonds efficiently?

how to cut a True Diamond?

Thanks to these Sponsors who make Stitched in Color possible!