Sewing Diamond Shapes
 

I'm starting a new quilt in a class and we are doing the English paper piecing method, which is no problem except there are a lot of pieces and I would like to do the diamond shapes on the sewing machine. I know how to do the "Y" seam but I have read a little about Inklinko and wonder if it's worth purchasing? Also, how does it make it easier to sew?

I haven't used Inklingo, but I know some on the QB have. My understanding is that you iron fabric to freezer paper, then run it through your printer. Inklingo prints both the cutting lines and sewing lines onto the wrong side of the fabric. This makes it easy to cut shapes accurately and also to pin them together accurately for sewing.

Because diamond shapes will have at least two of the four sides cut on the bias, it is a good idea to heavily starch your fabric before cutting. Starch stabilizes fabric so that the bias edges will be less likely to distort and deform as you handle them.

Edit: (This advice is meant for machine piecing. If you are using paper piecing, there wouldn't be any need to starch the fabric as the paper provides the stability.)

Edit 2: You may run into problems matching machine-pieced Inklingo blocks with paper pieced blocks in the same project. This is because there is no guarantee that the paper dimensions will exactly match the Inklingo dimensions or that the shapes sewn by means of two different techniques will exactly match.

I would check on the class details... If it is a class to teach English Paper Piecing it is going to be teaching you how to do it by hand- expecting to be able to use a sewing machine may be quite disruptive to the class. If you want to take the class you should go planning to do it the way the class is going to teach you, then on your own time experiment with other ( machine) methods.

This class is for English paper piecing, which is a technique I have done before. But there's one block in the quilt that has 10 diamonds & 5 triangles and there are 20 of those blocks & I thought it would move the quilt along by sewing the blocks by machine.. The alternating squares are appliqued using some paper piecing. The teacher does not mind if we do the block with all the diamonds an alternate way. This is the reason I wanted to know more about Inklingo whether it would make sewing these diamonds easier?

If you are interested in sewing the diamonds by machine.....simply cut from strips....then I would pencil dot the 1/4" seam intersections, just to make sure....and sew........

I sewed recently some diamonds for a friend's swap. I just starched the heck out of them before I cut the fabric. You must be VERY careful pressing. That is why these patterns are popular with doing it the EPP. You may find it too difficult to do. I have never tired to do Inklingo. I have an old H/P printer and I just don't want anything to jam. I think what Prism99 said may be true.

Strongly agree with this advice.

What might be an easier way to make those blocks is by means of regular paper piecing. In this case you would draw the entire block (finished sizes) onto paper, divide the block into component pieces that can be sewn together by machine, sew fabric pieces together through the paper, etc. If you have never done this kind of paper piecing, though, it can be quite confusing until you master the technique. I would never use this technique for simple patterns, but it can be a life-saver for complex patterns such as you describe.

Inklingo could work too (provided you heavily starch the fabrics before running them through the printer). You do need the right kind of printer and one that will not jam when running through fabric ironed to freezer paper.

I guess I will try a couple of the various suggestions especially the starching, which I have been doing more of these days. I think I'll forget about Inklingo. Thanks everyone.

One of the very best tutorials I've seen on sewing the dreaded "Y" seams is the Kay Woods Hexagon Tutorial. Way faster than marking; Kay Woods has a set of established rules for setting in "Y" seams. Also, the "Little Foot" is a great foot to use when setting "Y" seams rather you are sewing Hexagons or Diamonds; just start and stop your diamond/hexagon piece at the marked front & back red lines. Kay Woods "Easy "Y" Seams" Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLkHfcuNzCA