English Paper Piecing - Appliqué Tutorial

Hi! Happy Monday folks. I've been making a start on the next phase of my diamond paper pieced quilt. A couple of people asked me "How do you join all the diamonds once you've finished basting?". There a tons of tutorials online on how to baste the shapes to the paper, but not much in the way of joining them to form blocks. 

So I thought I'd share a couple of photo's and instructions to help if you're a little unsure… 

1. Decide on your finished block size you would like. In my case, my diamonds measure 10" square so I have cut the blocks 10.5" square to allow for seam allowances - as I would like my stars joining together at the points, like this quilt - which was my inspiration for the quilt ;)

2. (EDIT: As my very helpful reader's pointed out :) I failed to mention to remove the backing paper from the diamonds before the next step). Pin your paper pieced shapes to the background fabric. Take a neutral thread and knot the end and pull from the background fabric to the top of diamond, push the knot inside the diamond point with the next stitch. 

3. Use a blind hemming stitch to attach the diamond to the backing fabric, pull slightly every few stitches, this will allow the stitches to almost disappear. 

4. Once you get to the tips of the diamonds, trim of the excess 'dog-tails' - be careful not to take off too much. Use your needle to to tuck the excess into the diamond point, and carry on stitching as normal. 

Background fabric: Kona Pearl Pink | Diamond Fabrics: 1930's Reproduction | Thread: Aurifil 2410

Voila! Easy as that! ;) hope this helps friends. xo