Hexagon Calendar Blocks

What? I'm making blocks from someone else's calendar? Why not? The New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar  by Katja Marek is the latest from Martingale (who publishes my own perpetual quilt block calendar) and is filled with a lot of intriguing patterns for English Paper Piecing (EPP).

The New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar

I love all things hexie, based on the 60 degree angle. (Go visit my Pinterest board: Turning 60, The Joys of Hex to see dozens of my own quilts based on the 60 degree triangle.) While I do enjoy EPP, many times I will convert the patterns to simple rotary cutting and stitching by machine. I can work out the math and I've decided I'm going to make a few blocks a month from this calendar.

Let me show you the blocks I've made from the January 5 page. Notice that I've also put sticky notes on many others!

January 5 star block

I used the Sakura Collection by Benartex for the first block. It's quite a bit larger because I already had these units cut out for my Seven Sisters workshop. I trimmed the light triangles to make this work. The block is about 10-1/2" high finished.

January 5 star made using the Sakura Collection by Benartex

And the same block using the recent Sgrafito Collection. Do you remember the Modern Double Wedding Quilt tutorial and FREE pattern I shared? You can still read about it in the Modern by the Yard eBook.

Modern Double Wedding Ring melons

And the January 5 block using a current Benartex collection of fabrics. First the parts:

Each of the six diamonds with 30 degree triangles

This block is 6" as measured for EPP, from side point to side point:

January 5 block using the Sgrafito Collection

And I made one more block using some Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I also took pics of the process:

Larger diamonds with attached 30 degree triangles

 Just to show you that the diamonds/triangles become the KITE shape, as shown by my Creative Grids Kite ruler.

Six star points and the Kite Ruler

 And the units sewn into a half-hexagon shape

Sew the units, 3 by 3

 And the larger block (measures about 12" from point to point). I rotary cut the diamonds from a 3-1/2" strip.

I have been making several other January blocks and hope to show them to you throughout the month. No patterns for these other than to encourage you to check out the calendar! It's quite inspiring and is not tied to any one year.

Of course, I will also be sharing more of my own blocks as created by Patricia B. of Australia. She has done beautiful work using my own perpetual calendar. So many blocks; so little time. Sigh . . .