Sixty four diamond blocks in twelve reds, set in eight vertical rows.
That's Mahogany, a free diamond quilt pattern by Darlene Zimmerman for Robert Kaufman. It finishes at 58 by 76 inches, a good throw size, and every diamond is cut from 5 inch charm squares: six charm packs of Kona Cotton solids, from pale salmon down to a red so dark it reads as brown. The cover rates it experienced intermediate, which is fair. There's nothing hard about any single seam, but there are 512 small triangles, a specialty ruler, and a pieced border that has to be eased to fit. Below you'll find the download, how the block goes together, the ruler it asks for, and two places where the numbers come up a little short.
Free Mahogany Quilt Pattern PDF Download
Five pages, free, designed by Darlene Zimmerman and published by Robert Kaufman Fabrics. It features Kona Cotton solids.
Pattern: Mahogany
Brand: Robert Kaufman Fabrics
Designer: Darlene Zimmerman
Finished size: 58 x 76 inches
Size: throw
Difficulty: experienced intermediate, printed on the cover
Block: a diamond block, 4 x 8 inches finished, made from two triangle in a square units; 64 blocks in eight vertical rows of eight
Technique: Recs triangles cut with the Tri-Recs tools, triangle in a square units, vertical sashing, a piano key border, bias binding
Colors: twelve Kona reds, salmon to mahogany, with mahogany sashing and binding
Precuts: six charm packs, so charm pack friendly. Not built for fat quarters, jelly rolls or layer cakes
You'll also need: the Tri-Recs tools and a 3 1/2 inch square ruler, both from EZ Quilting, which the pattern lists
Download the Mahogany pattern PDF
The Diamond Block
Each block is two triangle in a square units, one on top of the other. The Quilter's Bible describes this unit as the basis of many star blocks, and notes that it can be drawn stretched and distorted to make different shaped triangles. That's what happens here. The triangles are tall and narrow, and when two units meet point to point, they make the diamond.
Mahogany builds each unit in an unusual way. The pattern doesn't use a center triangle at all. Every unit is two divided rectangles, one facing left and one facing right, and every rectangle is two long triangles, one light and one darker. So the triangle in the middle of each unit is split down its center into two reds, and the background on each side is a third and a fourth. That's why the quilt looks faceted, like cut glass.
The numbers: 128 rectangles facing left, 128 facing right, joined into 128 units that measure 4 1/2 inches square, then joined in pairs into 64 blocks. Eight blocks make one vertical row, and there are eight rows. All the seams in the blocks are pressed open, which is the pattern's instruction from the first page, and it keeps the points flat where four triangles meet.
The Ruler It Asks For
The long triangles are cut with the Recs ruler, one of the two Tri-Recs tools from EZ Quilting. Only the Recs ruler is used here, never the Tri. You layer two charm squares, trim them to 4 1/2 inches, and cut two Recs triangles from each square. Because the squares are layered, every cut gives you a mirror pair, one for a left facing rectangle and one for a right facing one.
Two things from the pattern are worth following. First, cut the little tip off each triangle along the end of the ruler. When you join two triangles, you line the cut tips up with the corners, and that small notch is what tells you where the pieces sit. Fons and Porter's lesson on the same tools makes the same point: the notch is tiny, and it makes a real difference when the pieces go together. Second, the pattern's tip is to cut only two charm squares at a time.
Each charm square leaves a 1 3/8 by 4 1/2 inch strip once the triangles are cut. Don't throw it away. Every one of those strips goes into the border.
Sashing and the Piano Key Border
Between the rows there are dark mahogany strips, 2 1/2 inches wide and cut along the length of the fabric, not across it. The Quilter's Bible recommends the lengthwise grain for sashing wherever you can, and with seams 64 inches long, it's worth doing. Nine strips are cut: seven go between the rows and one goes down each long side. Measure the rows before you trim the sashing to length, as the pattern says, rather than trusting the number.
The outer border is a piano key border, which The Quilter's Bible lists among the most popular pieced borders. Here it's made from the leftover charm strips plus ten strips of mahogany, sewn side by side, with a 4 1/2 inch mahogany square in each corner. It finishes at 4 inches wide and uses up nearly every scrap the blocks leave behind.
We Checked the Arithmetic
We check the numbers of every pattern we publish. Most of this one adds up, and two parts come up short.
The size is right. Eight 4 inch rows and nine 2 inch sashing strips make 50 inches, and two 4 inch borders bring it to 58. Eight 8 inch blocks make 64 inches down, plus 2 inches of sashing at the top and bottom and 4 inches of border at each end, which is 76.
The triangles come out four short. The quilt needs 512 Recs triangles: 256 rectangles with two triangles each. A Kona charm pack has 42 squares, so six packs give you 252 squares and 504 triangles. The mahogany yardage adds four more. That's 508. Cut two extra 4 1/2 inch squares from the mahogany before you cut the binding and you'll have the last four triangles.
The piano key border comes out about 7 inches short in total. Each strip finishes at 7/8 inch, and you have 262 of them, which covers about 229 inches. The four sides need 236 inches, or about 270 strips. The pattern sees this coming and suggests taking in or letting out a few seams until the border fits. Spread across 262 seams, that's a tiny change at each one. If you'd rather not ease that much, The Quilter's Bible's answer is a spacer: a thin strip at each end of the border. Cut it from the mahogany and it sits right next to the mahogany corner square, where it's hard to spot.
The binding is fine. The quilt measures 268 inches around, and Yvonne adds an extra 20 inches to that for turning the corners, as she shows in our straight binding tutorial. That's 288 inches, and the pattern asks for 300 inches of bias binding cut from the rest of the mahogany. If you've never cut binding on the bias, our guide to making bias binding takes you through it.
For the backing, the pattern asks for 3 1/2 yards, which is two 63 inch lengths sewn side by side, about 63 by 79 inches. That's tight: it leaves 2 1/2 inches at each side and 1 1/2 inches at each end of a 58 by 76 quilt. If you want more room for quilting, buy a little more, or use a single piece of wide backing and skip the seam.
Fabrics and Palette That Suit This Pattern
The original uses a Kona palette charm pack in twelve reds, and Kona Cotton solids are still made. The palette pack itself may not be, so treat the SKU list in the PDF as a record of what Darlene Zimmerman used rather than a shopping list.
Every rectangle in this quilt pairs a lighter triangle with a darker one. That's the pattern's own instruction, and the contrast is what draws the diamond. So the palette needs a real range, from light to very dark, inside a single color family. Twelve reds work. So would twelve blues or twelve greens, as long as some are pale and some are almost black. If you're unsure how light or dark a fabric is, our guide on fabric value, color and texture explains why value matters more than color.
Solids suit this quilt better than prints. With prints, the edge between two triangles of similar value gets lost, and the facets disappear. The sashing should be the darkest fabric in the quilt, so the rows read as columns.
If You Like This One
Darlene Zimmerman also designed Weather Vane, a throw size quilt with 720 triangles cut with a triangle ruler, Button Box, a rail fence quilt, and Butter and Eggs, a Shoo Fly table runner.
There are more in our free quilt patterns.
P.S. Make one block before you cut all 252 charm squares. If it doesn't measure 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches, check your seam now, while it's one block and not sixty four.
