I love these kite quilts from Teaginny Designs, Film in the Fridge and these wonky diamonds from Sew Katie Did. I particualarly love the quilting on this little one at Materials and Method. What about the bubble quilting on this one by SUPPOSE – create – delight on Flickr? Isn’t that amazing? What I like about all those quilts is the negative space surrounding the kites/diamonds.

I love the design but I wanted to try it out on a larger scale to have a block that would be great for bees. Since the diamonds would be bigger, I thought it would be nice to add some details in it. When I saw the roman stripe block at Quilter’s Cache, I thought that might be it. Did you see the wonky version in the Block Party: The Modern Quilting Bee book? Yes, stripes using improv piecing. This would be a great way to use some scraps from our stash.

So, this is what I came up with. Here are 4 blocks to show you the wonky diamond/kite.

I wrote a little tutorial to show you how I did them. I did not reinvent the wheel here. This is mainly inspired by a tutorial by Ashley from FITF.

The final block size is 12.5″ x 12.5″. So, you start off with your background fabric cut out to that size.

For the stripes, search your scraps. Use stripes of varying width, about 1″ to 3″. No need to cut them with a ruler, as long as the curve is gentle. You can sew two pieces together (in those cases, I’ve pressed the joining seam open). Just make sure that your stripes, once sewn and flipped over, will be long enough  to cover your initial 12.5″ square.

Go ahead and position the first stripe, right side down on the background fabric. In the picture below, you can see pins at 1/3 and 2/3 of the square edges. I suggest to make your stripe’s top edge (the one that will be sewn) cross your square in between those two pins on each side. To have wonky diamonds with edges that don’t meet, vary the angles of your stripes in each block corner and from a block to the other.

Pin in place and sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Cut the excess from the background and press your seam towards the exterior.

Continue to add stripes this way.

Until you have enough to cover your original 12.5″ square:

Then do the same for the opposite corner.

Once you are done, trim the excess on each corner to get back to a 12.5″ x 12.5″ square.

These are pretty quick to make!