No Pain Diamonds

I had been avoiding making this block because I really don't want to sew set-in seams if I can help it.

At a Laurel Jane meeting earlier this summer, a fellow guild member told me that she had made this block using Nancy Johnson-Srebro's method from her book called "Stars By Magic". Boy, am I glad I listened to her. The technique explained in the book required no diamond shapes to be cut, only squares and rectangles. Yes, there are a few more seams than you would have if you were to sew this with the traditional set-in seams, but to me it is worth it.

The book has cutting instructions for blocks of all sizes, however I had to work a bit with the 4 and 5 inch block instructions in order to make it come out right for a 4 1/2-inch finished size. But it wasn't rocket science.

The name of the block is "G-8 Justin's Comet", an intermediate-level block. It was the first one for which I used just a rotary-cutting method, no paper piecing or applique involved.