Canadian Diamonds Quilt Pattern

They say diamonds are a girl's best friend... whether that's true or not is up for debate, but I know a Diamond quilt pattern should be a quilter's best friend. The Canadian Diamonds quilt pattern is perfect for showing off some large scale prints. The quarter square triangles and pieced borders make this quilt look intricate, but are quite simple to piece. This baby quilt pattern comes with lots of diagrams to help those who are less familiar with these techniques.

Canadian Diamonds Quilt

This blue version of the pattern, using Cotton + Steel fabrics, was featured in Make Modern magazine's issue 22. You can get the pattern as part of the magazine's digital issue at the (affiliate) link above, or directly in the pattern shop.

This one is the second version I made of the quilt, and the one I used to test the pattern after making my first version more or less on the fly.

The Mushroom Version

The Canadian Diamonds quilt pattern started with this mushroom fabric and some random half-square triangles that I decided to cut again and see what would happen. I quickly got an idea for a layout and started cutting the rest of the fabric with this idea in mind.

This first, mushroomy, version of the quilt was made in our temporary accommodations, a school portable turned into a cottage of sorts on my in-laws' property, while we were waiting for our new house to be finished. We had most of our things packed away, with the exception of clothes and other important bits, and of course my sewing machine and boxes of fabrics. They are part of the "necessities", right?

Great for Large Scale Prints

Canadian Diamonds is a great pattern to show off large scale prints, like this arrow print, and it looks more complicated than it actually is. It's important to trim the blocks properly to make sure the border fits, but the main body is just a simple combination of half-square and quarter-square triangles and comes together really quickly.

Pieced Back

One of my favourite things on this quilt is the pieced back. You could just use a wideback, or piece two lengths of the same fabric together, but having the extra little strip of interest on the back gives you so many options. In the first version of the quilt, I simply added a strip of an orange print to this otherwise busy scene of deer frolicking in the forest.

In this second version, I decided to change things up and use a solid backing, but I made all the leftover bits from the front into a long strip to add to the back and make it into a proper reversible quilt

Canadian Diamonds quilt colour options

To play with some colour options for yourself, the Canadian Diamonds quilt pattern is available on PreQuilt for you to colour in yourself.

I've had a few ideas for other colourways, such as a more coordinated version, or going completely scrappy. Every time I play around with the randomizing function on PreQuilt, I end up with another colourway I love and would like to try out.