Hexies and Jewels and Fussy Cutting

I was able to make a 3-round Grandmother's Flower Garden (GFG) block where I used a fussy cut motif in the very center. These are 1-1/2" hexagons and this block is 12" wide by 13" high. I decided to appliqué it to a background square (14-1/2") cut from the new Potpourri Collection by Laura Heine for Windham Fabrics. What do you think?

Triple round of hexagons

Here is what it looked like from the back. I had used rectangles of fabric instead of cutting hexagons, so they needed to be trimmed.

Before trimming

 And after trimming

Ready to take the papers out.

 I had a bunch of these sweet motifs leftover from the fabulous Paper Dolls Collection from 2013. Here is another block. The center patches are the jewel shape. You can see my post about the Paper Dolls fabrics by clicking here.

Variation on a Jewel block with a single round of hexagons all around

And one more. This is the traditional Star Bouquet. Papers are still in.

And some handwork is always at the ready for when I need it. These are the last two blocks. I used 1-1/4" hexagons for this. I love how Potpourri plays so well with this little block, don't you?

Grandmother's Flower Garden auditioning Potpourri

And one completed block before appliquéing to a background square.

Triple round GFG using the fussy cut center

The greens and pinks on several blocks are from older Windham Collections. The pink and green in these last two blocks are from Benartex. Hey - my fabrics play VERY NICE with each other!

Not sure where I'm going, but the fabric will eventually tell me! This is the only handwork I do and it's so portable; a few ziplock baggies, thread, needle and scissors and I'm ready to go.

Bubbles and Hexagons on YouTube

Since I'm locked out of my real classrooms, I decided to invite my students into my studio (aka, dining room) to see a quick demonstration of my Bubbles and Hexagons quilts. Check out the YouTube video (4 minutes). Lots of pics, 3 quilts, and I show you the steps to creating the illusion of whole hexagons using half hexagons!

Bubbles and Hexagons demo on YouTube

I made 2 large quilts and 1 medium, based on my first small one published in 1997. Do you remember it?

Half Hexagon Jewel, made in 1996; published in Quilt Magazine in 1997

This was a new workshop in 2019. The main quilt uses 2-1/2" strips cut into half hexagons.

Bubbles and Hexagons made using 2-1/2" strips

Then I made a larger one using a Layer Cake (10" squares). The 4-1/2" template is also included in the pattern (both hard copy and pdf). I have since put a beautiful border on this.

Larger quilt using 4-1/2" half hexagons

And you may remember this quilt made using a Benartex layer cake (Social Butterfly). Click here to see some of the steps here on the blog.

Larger quilt using Social Butterfly

So, check out my Bubbles and Hexagons 4 minute YouTube video showing how this is created. Let me know what you think. And check out the pattern in my Etsy shop.

2012 Calendar Quilts Now Available

13 Quilts for $15.00. You can't beat that! This was a wall calendar of quilts published in 2012 and I've put everything into a 92 page pdf on CD. Full color. Well illustrated. Check out the slide show I put together with Smilebox. If you view it, try to avoid a phone or iPad. It gets crazy on those devices (and I hope Smilebox can fix it for me). Pattern in Etsy shop.

Check out the slide show on Smilebox to see all of the quilts

This is NOT available for download. It's just too big. Here's the back cover of the original calendar:

2012 Wall Calendar of Quilts

Royal Star is there. This was inspired by an early 1900s block made with templates! Mine is quick rotary cut (9 patches) and easy paper piecing those corner points.

Royal Star: 49" x 49"

So is my Snow Crystals. Again: inspired by a vintage block. Also paper pieced.

Snow Crystals: 33" x 33"

Several of these individual quilts are in my Etsy shop. But you can have all 13 for $15 and free shipping. 2012 Wall Calendar of Quilts is a 92 page pdf burned to a CD, compatible with both Macs and PCs. Nothing to install; it runs from the CD. You can print whatever you wish (but not for distribution, of course).

So, check out the FREE slideshow of the 13 quilts plus see several variations made from many of the patterns.

Yikes, Those Stripes Table Runner and Tea Cozy

I was leafing through my old Quilt Magazines yesterday and came upon this article of mine from 2006: Yikes, Those Stripes Runner and Tea Cozy. The small runner is made with 3 blocks and measures 18" x 36". And the Tea Cozy is 9" x 9-1/2". I've made several of these cozies over the years.

Table Runner and Tea Cozy

Here's another Tea Cozy made with other fabrics and a single Yikes block.

Tea Cozy and table mats

This is a tea pot appliqué I've used many times over the years. Remember my 2018 Tea Party Block of the Month? I used all Kaffe Fassett fabrics. These were started 15 years ago when I was teaching a Kaffe Fassett Club in an Atlanta quilt shop.

Tea Pot from my 2018 Tea Party BOM

Yes, I put all my blocks into a quilt and quilted it. But, I lost 2 of those blocks in the process. I shared the story last year. Here is the final quilt. The blocks are no longer free, but you can find all of them in the 22 page pdf in my Etsy store.

Tea Party BOM from 2018

And one more rendition of that Tea Pot block. I designed this for Windham Fabrics a few years ago.

Tea Pot Appliqué

I hope to share some more photos from the past. I published over 600 articles in Quilt Magazine over the years. I only have a few of the hundreds of magazines left, but it's fun to leaf through them to see what I had forgotten about!

Christmas in July with Benartex, Day 4

Today is the last day of 11 in the Christmas in July Blog Hop. Our last designer is:
Tammy Silvers, Snow Village & Rustic Village Christmas https://www.tamarinis.com/. 

Today I want to share several projects I made using Festive Season, a past collection designed by Jackie Robinson.

Here is a table topper that was featured in 2017 on the Benartex blog. Click that link to see my steps to this beautiful table topper.

Festive Season Table Topper

I even show how to fussy cut that center hexagon:

Steps to fussy cutting the center hexagon

Then I kept playing with these gorgeous fabrics. Who could resist?

Dozens of half hexagons cut but they sat for a few years

I used a few to make a large Twisted Hexagon wall banner. I was able to fussy cut some more of those awesome cardinals. I loved using the cardinal vertical printed panels for the sides. The colors are SO rich in this beauty!

Twisted Hexagon Wall banner

I also was able to use the remaining half hexagons in a braid quilt. You've seen this technique here before many times. You can find my patterns in my Etsy shop (some come with an acrylic half-hexagon template or you can buy the pdf, too).

I was able to use the last two vertical panels with 3 vertical rows of half-hexagons. I had to get creative with my borders. All the fabrics work so well with each other.

Festive Season Half Hexagon Braid quilt

Remember the greeting cards I made?

Dollar Store greeting card with cutout window

And another one:

Greeting Card #2

 One more using the black background print:

Greeting Card #3

And one last thing (though it's not the last, but I'm tired!) This is English Paper Pieced using 3" diamonds. First, from the back. After I hand stitched all the diamonds together I carefully placed it on a fat quarter of Bedrock (by Windham Fabrics) and appliquéd it by machine. Then I clipped away the Bedrock fabric from behind (this reduces the weight and bulk).

Christmas Wreath from back

And I added borders and quilted it. What do you think?

Festive Season Wreath of Diamonds

OK. If you've come this far, you are probably rolling your eyes into the back of your head! But, as you can see, I have truly loved working with this group of fabrics. And the 60 degree shape (hexagon, diamond, triangle, half-hexagon) was my inspiration for everything.

Christmas in July with Benartex, Day 3

The Christmas in July designer for today's Benartex Blog Hop is Kate Colleran. She is featuring the Joy collection by Cherry Guidry. Go check it out!

I looked in my own Benartex Christmas vault and pulled out Mistletoe. Can I show you? I did a fun blog post about these (just click that link).

Fabric postcards using Mistletoe

I have been a huge fan of Benartex fabrics since the early days of my Quilt Magazine job. I just counted the Benartex folders on my computer: 99! I'm not kidding; just one short of 100 in these past 20+ years. And I loved it all! Especially when I can make something other than a quilt. Like this vest for my granddaughter. The blog post has a lot of steps for making these fabric postcards.

Child's vest using these sweet panels

Do you remember Nordic Holiday? I made a very large (29" center) Lone Star quilt. You can see the steps by clicking on the link. You can find the pattern in my Etsy store.

Holiday Lone Star quilt: 29" block, 41" x 41" quilt

I made a few blocks using my Double Hexie Star pattern (soon to be published). Here are 2 blocks with - you guessed it - no y-seams!!

Nordic Double Hexie Star #1

 The center hexagon features one of those reindeer.

Nordic Double Hexie Star #2

I chopped up every single piece of fabric. I was able to capture 5 hexagons from the red print.

Nordic Holiday reindeer

That's it for today. You can see my blog posts about these collections by clicking those links. More Christmas quilts from my Benartex vault tomorrow!

Christmas in July with Benartex, Day 2

Today's featured designer is Sandra Walker using the Better Not Pout Collection by Benartex. It's a delightful set of fabrics by Nancy Halvorsen. Check it out!

My Benartex Christmas vault quilts for today are from Season's Greetings and  Christmas Spectacular. The first is Season's Greetings that had these awesome panels with beautiful pictures and holiday well wishes printed on them. I made several items. The first if my Big Block Lone Star with a 29" center!

Big Block Lone Star using Season's Greetings

I captured two of those panels with the black background in my candle mat. I also made some greeting cards. Check out the lengthy blog post and get the FREE pattern.

Candle mat and greeting cards tutorial

I also made a much larger Lone Star quilt using my "When 4 Blocks Become 5".

Lone Star with 19-1/2" blocks

Now for Christmas Spectacular. And I discovered that I made yet ANOTHER Twisted Hexagons quilt. Are you getting tired of me sharing these? I made a LOT of class samples and this is one using larger blocks. You can see the blog post by clicking on the Christmas Spectacular link.

Twisted Hexagon using a dark center

And this block shows the parts before sewing.

Twisted Hexagon using a light center

These are such beautiful fabrics, don't you agree? Come back tomorrow for a few more quilts from my Benartex Christmas vault and I'll have the direct link to Wednesday's designer. Thanks for stopping by.