Start of a new quilt - Diamond 4-Patch

This pattern had been in my mind for a while, and after a neighbor gifted me with some lovely batiks, I had the right fabrics.  She had been wanting me to make her a quilt for some time, and since she picked out these fabrics I thought she would like them together in a quilt.

Drawn out in Electric Quilt, I played with the sizes, at first thinking I would use a Tri-Recs ruler, then decided on larger blocks.  EQ gives rotary cutting directions, and I played with the block size until the size for cutting was simple (5” x 8.5”.)  The finished block size isn’t quite standard, but it doesn’t really matter if the finished quilt size works.  I sized the quilt to fit the backing fabric I purchased, 73.5” x 110”.

I also played with the fabric selection – there were more fabrics, but they didn’t all play nicely together.  The photo shows half the fabrics, as they were folded into pairs for the diamond blocks after washing and ironing.  I dropped out two brown fabrics as they really stood out when laid out together, and that also simplifies the cutting, as there will be 42 blocks (3 in halves for the offset columns), and there are 7 pairs of fabrics.

The sample block is for a pressing sample, so the seams of the blocks will nest nicely when assembled.  I also realized that I can simplify the cutting by keeping the pairs of fabric right sides together and can cut all the angles the same direction without needing to mirror them.