(Frosty) Diamonds are a girl's best friend!

We all love a good red and green holiday project, but by the time January rolls around, are you starting to tire of those holiday colors? 

The solution? 

Choose blue and white for a design that can last all winter (and beyond)! 

Then add in diamonds, and you'll have a project no woman could refuse!

Diane Arganbright of The Quilting Hen saw the frosty palette appeal in our Summer Breeze collection and designed the "Winter Breeze" table runner, featured in the December 2013/January 2014 issue of The Quilter magazine. 

"Winter Breeze" designed by Diane Arganbright,
pieced by Denise Combs and quilted by Shawna Crawford;
featured in The Quilter December 2013/January 2014

We spoke with Diane, who explained how she came up with this cool runner design and even shares some tips for working with diamond templates!

Q. What do you like about the Summer Breeze fabric collection?

Diane: We didn't want to cut up the beautiful designs in the fabrics and the colors blue and white have become so popular for Christmas decorating. The fabric looked stunning, with great contrast, so we were excited to sew with it.

Q. Why did you decide to use diamonds in the design?

Diane: Our quilt shop has noticed that templates are experiencing a strong comeback with customers. We chose to use diamond templates to create something slightly more advanced for our quilters, but also easy enough that a newer quilter could give it a try.

Q. Any tips, either for cutting the diamonds?

Diane: In general, a good tip is you can cut a strip of fabric and then put the diamond template on that strip to cut it instead of working with the entire piece of fabric because the 2 long sides are on the straight grain.

Also, lay your ruler over the top of your template to give you extra stability when you are cutting.

Q. What do you like best about the runner?

Diane: The runner looks beautiful in the photograph taken for The Quilter magazine.  Many homes seem to have dark wood, and this blue and white fabric look elegant on that dark wood.

Q. Can you talk about how it was machine quilted?

Diane: This was machine quilted by Shawna Crawford of Lewistown, Montana, and she used holiday themes machine on the table runner.  I have used Shawna for all our machine projects and her work is stunning!

Q. What do you envision this table runner being used for?

Diane: This was designed for the holidays but could be created in many different fabrics for your needs.  It would make a great gift and by switching up the fabric, you could make it more masculine as this diamond style would work for the man in your life too, perhaps as a lap quilt.

See the entire Summer Breeze collection here.

Find the kit for this project here.

Find The Quilter here.

p.s. Can't get enough of this fabric line? 

Check out this free quilt pattern using it here!