Teardrops and Diamonds

Here is today's, or should I say tonight's, block - Teardrops and Diamonds. When I looked at this block it reminded me a little bit of a Dear Jane block, but larger. Who better to aid in the construction of such a thing than the inimitable Anina of Dear Baby Jane and Twiddletails. She has been leading an ever-growing group in Dear Jane block construction while I looked (lurked) on. I used her reverse applique technique that utilizes freezer paper. Her tutorial is fantastic, you should go check it out.

Briefly, here's the steps I went through:


I cut the freezer paper to my block size (9 1/2"), then put lines through the middle to give me guides for the shape placement. I traced the shapes on, measuring the distance from the center so they'd be even.


I cut out the shapes, leaving this nifty lace-looking piece of freezer paper. Very chi-chi for Reynolds, I think. I pressed it on to the right side of my background fabric.


I did the diamonds first, so I cut holes through the background fabric, then positioned the brown fabric and basted through all the layers.


I needle-turned the seam allowance under the freezer paper shape, ripped out the basting, cut away the excess brown, then repeated the set-up with the yellow.


Lather, rinse, repeat - this is how the back ended up looking.

There were definitely faster ways to get this block done (took me about 5 hours), but I was really excited to try this technique. Thanks, Anina!