Merry and Bright – Day 10

Happy Monday and welcome back for Day 10 of the Merry and Bright Quilt-along!

Today we’ll work on sashing strip #3.  We’re making diamonds with a simple straight stitch and sprucing them up with a French knot in each center.

Here’s a look at today’s stitching:

First let’s mark our sashing strips:

1. Referring to the diagram below, make a mark ⅜” in from the left edge of your strip and ¼” down from the upper edge of your strip.
2. Make a second mark ¾” to the right of the mark made in step 1—again the mark should be ¼” down from the upper edge of your sashing strip.
3. Continue in same manner, making marks every ¾” along the length of the sashing strip (always ¼” down from the upper edge).  The last mark should end up ⅜” from the right edge of your sashing strip.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 along the bottom edge of your sashing strip—this time all marks should be ¼” from the bottom edge of the sashing strip.
5. Make a small mark at the center of the left edge of your sashing strip.  The mark should be ⅝” from the top and bottom seams.
6. In the same manner, make a mark every ¾” along the center and length of your sashing strip.

Embroider Diamonds:  

1. Place your marked quilt top/batting sandwich in an embroidery hoop.
2. Thread an embroidery needle with two strands of embroidery floss.
3. Referring to the diagram below, start at the top and bring your needle up at point A and down through point B.
4. Bring your needle up at point C and down again through point B.
5. Bring your needle up at point D and down through point C.
6. Bring your needle up at point A and down through point D.
7. Bring your needle up at point E and down again through point D.
8. Bring your needle up at point F and down again through point D.
9. Continue in same manner until you’ve stitched diamonds across the length of your sashing strip.

1. Thread an embroidery needle with a least two strands of floss.  If you’d like your knots to be bigger, you can use three strands of floss.
2. Bring your needle up through the center of a stitched diamond.
3. Wrap the floss two or three times around the end your needle.
4. While gently pulling the floss so that the wrapped floss tightens on the needle, insert the needle right next to the point where you brought your needle up through your work.
5. Pull your floss through to the back until a knot is formed.
6. Move over to the next diamond center and repeat steps until all diamonds have a French knot stitched in the center.