Thursday, February 6, 2014

Sidekick Diamond Tips


I wanted to share some tips with you that can help you to align diamonds cut with the Sidekick ruler. (This tip can also be used when working with Triangles.)

(To see this demonstration in action, watch the video demonstrations for my Sidekick or my Super Sidekick rulers.)

1. Cut diamonds from the Sidekick ruler. 2 1/2" diamonds are shown below.

2. When starting to piece a row of diamonds, arrange the first two pieces as you see below.  It can be hard to judge just how far the pieces should overlap. Pay special attention to the points that creep past the edges on the far right sides. Let them be your guides. Don't start piecing until you are sure those points are showing.

If that doesn't quite work for you and you want to line up clean fabric diamonds from edge to edge before piecing, you can take your cutting a step further to piece from edge to edge.

3. Place a diamond under the Sidekick ruler as shown. Align one side of the diamond to the 60 degree angled edge of the ruler and the other side to the triangle cut line. Trim off the small triangle that peaks out from under the ruler. Turn the diamond around 180 degrees and repeat.

4. The result is diamonds that look like this. 

5. Now it is easier to get proper alignment. 

6. Sew the pieces together with a 1/4" seam allowance. 

7. The result is the start of a row! 


I press all of my seams open. I have found that seams pressed open help the pieces to lay flat. Since the diamond pieces are 60 degree angles, there is no way to "nest" them.

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Want to link to this tutorial?
Here is a button you can use. 

(To see this demonstration in action, watch the video demonstrations for my Sidekick or my Super Sidekick rulers.)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! 
Additional free tutorials can be found here.



© 2014-2022 Julie R. Herman. All rights reserved.
No part of this tutorial may be reproduced without written consent of Jaybird Quilts.
For more information visit http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/

15 comments:

Sandy said...

Thanks for these useful tips! Great ruler!

mascanlon said...

Thanks for the tutorial! Love the sidekick ruler.

ruthshelton10@att.net said...

Very helpful. I have a hard time aliging peices. Sometimes they turned out sewed right and more times not.I have have to try this.Thanks for the tips and showing them visually.

Hope@Acworthga said...

Thanks for tutorial. Just finished Giggles Quilt using Sidekick ruler....wondered why ends weren't cut to help match diamonds. Thanks again.

Auntie Pami said...

Works for me! I prefer pretrimming points on odd angles.

Ken said...

Had been using fabric marking pens but this will be faster. Thanks for the tip.

Ken said...

Had been using fabric marking pens but this will be faster. Thanks for the tip.

Karee said...

yes, very helpful! I am a ruler junkie so remembering how to use them all is too much. So I just pin your tuts and voila!

Terry@ a quilting blog said...

Appreciate the tips Julie…just received my sidekick ruler and can't wait to start creating with it!

kitty said...

Thank you, Julie, for the tips!!I hope to start working with your beautiful Night Sky pattern soon, so the advice how to pretrim points with the Sidekick Ruler is very useful for me!

Denise in PA said...

Great tutorial - thank you! This will help make sewing the diamonds really easy. I love when things come together perfectly!

rubyslipperz1052 said...

Great pictorial tutorial! It really was a big help, thank you!

Unknown said...

I can't find the price for your side kick ruler. Would you please tell me where on your website i can find it?

Katie Reed said...

I'm so glad you posted the part about trimming the points off to make the perfect edge to line up. I had a hard time with Giggles, but now I'm ready for Rock Candy!!!
Thank you!!

PS Love, Love, Love the rulers!

Marilyn said...

Nice picture tutorial. I purchased my sidekick ruler at a quilt store in the Hill Country (Texas). I do wish you had a talking and actually showing how to use the ruler tutorial.
Thank you - you have some beautiful quilts.