One that I did awhile back as a hand piecing project was an around the world quilt using 2-1/2" squares. I chose to do mine starting in the center and adding the squares in stairsteps around that dark center square. I used all different shades of green going from dark to light and back to dark. I did not paper piece. Since I wanted the diamond shape orientation, when it was as wide as I wanted, I started decreasing the # of squares per row until it was a single square of the color in each of the corners.
I'm out of state at the moment so can't post a picture until next month.