Hexagon blocks

Couldn’t show these before Christmas because they were to be a surprise, but they have gone to their new homes and I can share them now.

I was involved in a project to make quilts for some special people.  We used stacking methods to cut large-scale prints into triangles or diamonds and added other fabrics to make 60 degree designs, with inspiration from Sara Nephew’s book Serendipity Quilts.

Here are our three quilts.  In each case the fabric that was cut up in the blocks is also used for the border.

The feature fabric here is an older Jinny Beyer print full of paisleys and wonderful shapes.  The triangles were pieced into hexagons which were set into rectangular blocks.  Setting fabrics pick up the aqua and purple.  The finished quilt is not as dark as the photo suggests.

This quilt uses a bright large-scale floral fabric.  Diamonds cut from the feature fabric are pieced into hexagons and arranged into columns.  The columns are separated with checkerboards.

A softer palette for this one. White and pastel blues and greens turn the diamonds into hexagons.  More diamonds form the dividing columns. 

Technorati Tags: sixty degree angles,vertical strip setting

Looking back at a year of Scrap Squad

 

I have completed my year as a member of Quiltmaker Magazine’s Scrap Squad for 2014 --  and I have the stack of quilts to prove it!  (Only five quilts are pictured here  – the other one is travelling at the moment.) 

From learning that I was part of the team, through getting to know the other Squad members and working on our six assignments it was a wonderful experience.  It has been an honour to work with the talented people on the Scrap Squad and at Quiltmaker magazine. 

With each assignment it was exciting to see the lovely quilts that emerged.  I was amazed each time at how different our results were even though we began at the same place!  Each quilter brought her unique sense of colour and design and all the quilts were wonderful.

As a rule I am more interested in the process than in the final product –my UFO collection certainly demonstrates that!.  But Scrap Squad members need to FINISH their quilts and there are deadlines to meet, so I couldn’t simply put a project aside and start a new one when, inevitably, a piece of fabric wouldn’t yield as many triangles or squares as was needed,  colours didn’t play together nicely, or a layout idea didn’t come together as expected,  Each time I took a deep breath, and managed to come up with a solution. 

As a result I have made quilts from patterns that I probably would not have selected on my own, and I am thrilled with every one of them. 

My last project was based on the quilt Spinning Stars that is featured on the cover of the December issue.  See the Scrap Squad post on Quilty Pleasures blog for the details.

Technorati Tags: Scrap Squad 2014,scrappy,batik quilt