Bejeweled (HEAVEN'S GATE baby quilt) TUTORIAL

I got my center made, and thought I'd share the process with anyone who might be interested.



For this baby quilt, containing 9 finished blocks, 144 squares are required, cut at a measurement of 3 1/2 inches. To make the "diamonds", I used half-square triangles, cut from 2 1/2 inch squares that had been split diagonally. This quilt required 36 of those 2 1/2 inch squares

Begin by laying out your squares into a pleasing arrangement. Each block's diamonds join up to the next block, so if the diamond is of a single color, you must lay out or choose colors for the entire quilt before beginning.

The block is pieced first as four separate four-patches.
When sewing these, press your seams so that they butt together to oppose each other. When stitching over the butted seam, stitch two stitches past the seam, back up 4 stitches, then continue forward to the edge of the pieces.



Next, remove the 3 or so stitches at the end of the sewn-over seam allowances.


This will allow you to "twirl" the seams, making a nice flat join when pressed.


The 4-patch should now be trimmed to a nice square 6 1/2 inches.

Now before sewing the triangles on to make the diamonds, I trim the appropriate corners of the block with my "Speedy Triangles" ruler. It's actually called ROTARY MATE, designed by Trudie Hughes. This ruler is from 1986 (wow, I can't believe it's over 20 years old !), so if you don't have it, you can tape off a triangle on your ruler to cut by, or make a triangle template to use (the two short sides are 1 1/2" and the long edge is 2 1/4"). If using this ruler, you are using the 1 1/2 inch speedy.

Trim all four 4-patches, as shown above. (I have yet to trim the upper right hand piece.)

Now, place triangles for "diamonds" in place.


As you get farther along, you can place the proposed block beside the already pieced ones, to assure you that the diamonds are matching up to the adjoining block, if necessary as in mine.

Take your four-patch layout to the machine, and assembly line join the triangles to the 4-patches, clipping off to put back into the proper alignment as you sew.

The triangles are oversized on purpose.......eyeball center them on the cut-off edge, and sew with the normal 1/4 inch seam.


Press the triangles toward the outside edges of the piecing.

Trim the triangle by placing your ruler along the already-trimmed edges of the four-patch.

Here is one-fourth of your finished block. Trim the other three 4-patches the same way, and lay the block out beside your machine.

Sew the top two 4-patches together, and the bottom two, the same. Join your seam as you did your original 4-patches, so that you can twirl this seam also.

And here is your finished block.

Just 8 more to go, and your top will look something like this.
I hope that you try a different color combination, as I am dying to see other versions of this quilt. I realized half-way through that this is a very popular pattern for tile floors ! The quilt that I was inspired by is here........and she was inspired by Kaffe's Moody Blues quilt.

Thanks for reading !