Thursday, July 19, 2012

Japanese boxes templates

As a result of my last post I've had a few requests for the EPP template sizes used for the JB diamond block.    
I always tend to cut my own paper templates for EPP as I have a ton of card stock left over from my card making days.
To start with I fished out my Darlene Zimmerman 60 degree diamond & Sue Daley 2.5 " diamond fabric cutting templates.
I traced around the large diamond, then placed the smaller one inside & traced around that one (is this making sense?)
Next draw a line from the smaller diamond's lowest point to the edge of the larger diamond, which gives you the 3 pieces you need to form the block as in the photo below. 
If you click on the photo above, you can see that the distance from one diamond edge on the side to the other is 2 inches, so alternatively, if you do not have a smaller diamond to play with, you could measure 2 " from both side points of the large diamond to draw a line to form your trapezium.
Is this as clear as mud? If not, drop me a line and I'll answer any queries you may have :)
Please note that you can make your diamond block templates smaller or any size you wish, I just used what I had to hand to make big ones as it makes the quilt top grow faster!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Resistance was futile........


9" across (point to point)
I just had to have a go at this design which I saw in Quiltmania Issue #81 & absolutely loved!


I was in need of a bit of a colour fix & a little break from making baskets, so these diamonds were perfect & really quick to make up using the EPP method.



.......... the quilt top is growing quite quickly, I love the optical effect this pattern produces.



Now I need to get back to appliqueing some more baskets!
Happy stitching G x