Rella’s Diamonds is a FREE pattern that I wrote for Benartex, specifically for Pat Sloan’s fabric line, “Gratitude and Grace”. You can get that FREE pattern from the Benartex site HERE. I also made a bunch of tutorial videos for you while I was making this quilt: a fat quarter cutting demo for the pattern, 4 at a time half square triangles, free motion quilting paisleys, and joining the ends of your binding with a diagonal seam. I made a playlist with all of those videos so that you can have them all in one place. I’d love it if you check out some or all of them. You can view that playlist HERE.
For this post I want to talk a little bit about how I got the idea for this pattern… who’s Rella, and why did I name this quilt after her? AND, how does that tie in with why I love this fabric line SEW much?
You can see all the fabrics in this line laid out on my counter in that picture above. Isn’t it gorgeous?! Something about the lime greens and oranges look so retro to me. I was excited that Benartex chose my design to be the free pattern for this line. The colors remind me of an old quilt top that I finished for my Aunt and Uncle. There’s some differing opinions amongst my mom and her siblings as to who made that old quilt top. My mom thinks it was made my Great Grandmother, Rella, but some of her siblings think it was made my Grandmother/their mom, Sarah Elizabeth (Peggy). You can see a picture of that quilt below, and read about how I finished that one HERE.
A few years ago, I decided to make quilt patterns in honor of my grandmothers and two of my great grandmothers who were also quilters. This is one of those patterns. They are all finished and available in various places. You can read the post about that HERE.
Here’s the list of all the patterns in the series:
Sarah Elizabeth
Chappel Windows – This one was featured in a magazine, Quick + Easy Quilts!
Rella’s Diamonds – This one is a FREE pattern that you can download from Benartex.
Bonnie’s Time Chain
The Inspiration for Rella’s Diamonds quilt
I was at my parents’ house a few years ago, and my mom was showing me some old quilt tops she had that she thought were made by Great Grandmother, Rella. The quilt top pictured below really caught my eye. So much old quilt top fabulousness in this one. I love how she ran out of her original fabrics and just kept on piecing with completely different fabrics in that last row of sashing and cornerstones. I love how our quilting grandmothers just used what they had to make their quilts.
I had this pattern idea in my head for a long time before I finally got it out and into pattern form. I changed it up a little to make the pattern my own: inverted the color scheme, changed the construction, and made the diamonds four colors instead of just one. I even made a test run in a smaller version but never wrote up the pattern. When Benartex sent out the design call for patterns using “Gratitude and Grace”, I knew exactly what design to use it in. I was SEW excited that Rella’s Diamonds was selected for this pattern!
Some mockups using this beautiful fabric line
Just because I wanted to play with this lovely fabric line a little more, I’ve mocked up some of my previous patterns in this fabric. Check them out below.
That’s all I’ve got for today
As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog!
I hope you enjoyed it.
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Happy quilting!
Thank you for being part of the Benartex and Pat Sloan’s Gratitude and Grace tour. The quilt mock-ups are so nice to see, and what you did with the fabric is beautiful. I love seeing things that mix traditional with modern.
Both of my grandmothers quilted, but my maternal grandmother was an avid quilter. I remember the excitement of seeing whatever quilt she had on her quilt frame being hand-quilted. She only ever had a treadle sewing machine. My biggest recollection is how many of her quilts were star-themed–a lone star was a common one.
Hi Kathy! I’m glad you like the quilt. What great memories with your grandmother and her quilts! That old quilt top in the photo looked like it was pieced on a treadle machine too.
Beautiful Quilt
The link to Rellas quilt works, but the pattern is incomplete. There are 3 pages but no specifics. No yardage requirements and no cutting instructions. Am I missing something? It is a beautiful quilt.
Hi Gail,
I want you to be able to use the pattern, so I did some digging and played around with this myself. I was able to open it and everything was filled in when I went there from my computer. So, I checked it on my phone too (it’s an iPhone), and I got the same issue as you. I actually even tried downloading to my computer and emailing it to myself and still got the same result: looks great on my comupter but words are missing when viewing it on my phone. Are you by any chance looking at it from your phone or iPad? I’m not a tech person, and I will let them know so that their tech support can look into why it isn’t working correctly on all devices. If you are able, try pulling it up from a computer. If not, google tells me it may be an issue with my phone and the viewing app or some other techie stuff. Anyway, here is what I was able to do to get it to work from my iPhone. I got the Adobe Acrobat app from the app store. When you get the app installed, launch it and go through the sign in stuff. I skipped any step that it would let me skip. It will take you to a part asking you to pay but just exit out of that part, because the acrobat reader function that allows you to view just about any PDF is free. This should set up the app to work. Now go to the link for the pattern from your iPhone and click the little box with the arrow thing at the bottom of the screen. Scroll down and click on Open in Acrobat. This worked for me and allowed me to view the complete pattern from my phone. I hope this helps.
I love your rendition of your GreatGrandmother Rella’s beautiful quilt. I can see why it inspired you to create a redo with Pat Sloans gorgeous new fabric line. Thank you Sarah.
Thank you Luella! I’m so glad you like it!
I enjoyed your quilts with Mrs. Pat’s lovely fabric. I would love to win! I signed up for your newsletter. I look forward to receiving it.
Hi Tonia,
I’m so glad you like my quilt. If you already subscribed and haven’t recieved an email yet with a free pattern in it (my Partial Dreams pattern) please let me know. You should get a welcome email immediately. If you didn’t get it, I can make sure you are on the list and send the pattern out to you.
Such a happy, summery diamond quilt constructed in Pat Sloan’s fabric line. What a fun picnic quilt to use with my grandchildren!
Thank you Regina! I do end up using that 80″-ish square quilt size a lot because i feel like they are perfect for picnics!