Strip-piecing tips: How to strip-piece diamonds

Strip piecing is one of our favourite methods for creating identical units quickly and accurately. Angle-cut strip piecing is particularly brilliant for creative blocks such as chevron designs, Patience Corners, Lone Star, 45-degree diamond blocks and more. Here’s how it’s done. And if you’re on the hunt for more quilting tutorials, why not try our Essential Guide to Flying Geese Quilts?

Step 1

Piece together strips of your desired width(s) to make a strip-pieced unit. Stagger the strips by approximately 1in to minimise wastage.

Markings on the ruler are spaced 1in apart, so to make a strip-pieced unit with single-width stripes, cut 1¹⁄₂in strips of fabric.

To make a strip-pieced unit with double-width stripes, cut 2¹⁄₂in strips of fabric and so on. Your strips can all be the same width or you can choose to vary them if you prefer. Your unit should measure no more than 4¹⁄₂in wide.

Step 2

Place your ruler on the strip-pieced units with its markings aligned with the seams. This will ensure your angles are precise and your seam intersections will match up neatly. The ruler can be positioned slanting left or slanting right.

Mixing and matching left and right will create chevron and zigzag designs. Cutting in the same direction will create 45-degree diamonds and Lone Star blocks. Angled pieces can be combined with straight-cut strip piecing for interesting designs.

Step 3

Cut along either side of the ruler with your rotary cutter and continue along the strip until all pieces are cut.

Step 4

Join the segments together in your desired order. Due to the 45-degree angles, you will need to offset the pieces by ¹⁄₄in either end in order to match up your seams.

Place pins at the ¹⁄₄in point at each seam intersection for the best results. You can trim your block to a square or rectangle, if desired.

If you missed the chance to get your hands on our ruler, you can find links to similar useful quilting rulers below which will enable you to try this technique.

Zoe Williams

Zoe launched Gathered.how as editor in 2019. A keen crafter, quilter and sewist, she has worked with the UK’s best-selling craft magazines – from Today’s Quilter to Love Patchwork & Quilting, Simply Sewing and The World of Cross Stitching. With over a decade of craft publishing experience under her belt, she loves crafting with her kids and curling up on the sofa with a spot of hand patchwork. Zoe has previously written for radiotimes.com, Simply Knitting and The World of Cross Stitching and was previously Deputy Editor of Papercraft inspirations magazine. She has guest-lectured at Bath Spa University. She’s a keen quilter with 5 projects in progress at any one time and another 12 or so planned. Specialist skills include hand modelling for YouTube craft tutorials and fabric foraging (she has an inbuilt radar for local haberdasheries and community craft gatherings).

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