More Grand Illusion Hexagons for English Paper Piecing

Back in May I did a blog post about this awesome collection by Windham Fabrics: Grand Illusion. The motifs were SO perfect for a 2" EPP hexagon. Do you remember these?

I give them the name "Marie" because that's what Katja Marek calls them in her "The New Hexagon" book. This is a traditional block, so you can call it Sally or Martha or even Debby!

Two Marie blocks using 3 hexagons and 3 diamonds

Do you remember how I fussy cut the motifs?

Fussy cutting the medallion motifs using a freezer paper "window"

And the finished motifs (wrapped around the 2" card stock hexagon). Grand Illusion has two color ways: blue and red.

Hexagons for my Marie blocks

This is what the border print looks like before I started chopping.

Grand Illusion border print

And the rest of the fabrics:

Grand Illusion fabrics

And one more Marie block with the red and black print diamonds:

Auditioning my diamonds

I cut the fabric for the 2" diamonds from 2-1/2" strips using the 60 degree line on my ruler to get the correct angle.

Cutting fabric diamonds

As I've taught 3 English Paper Piecing workshops this summer, I decided to use those motifs in the center of two blocks that use the same patches but are arranged differently.

The first one I call Twisted Hexagon. As you can see, the half hexagons can go clock-wise or counter clock-wise. I auditioned them one way, but sewed them another!

Twisted Hexagon

And the finished Twisted Hexagon:

Twisted Hexagon finished

Now for the second vintage block using the same patches. This is called Wagon Wheel.

Wagon Wheel block

I know I finished it. Just can't find it! I cut kits for my one summer class and they got to choose which version of putting those patches together they wanted. Here are the two blocks as they were in the kits:

Twisted Hexagon

Wagon Wheel

As you can see, I'm quite taken with this collection. I have several more blocks to stitch. Not sure how I'll use them in a quilt, but I have a few ideas.

And just in case you're still with me, you can see the Rose Star quilt I made using this collection. Click the link and you can read about it. And you can find my Rose Star pattern in my Etsy shop. It is a hard copy pattern with an acrylic template. Check it out!

Rose Star quilt using Grand Illusion

Thanks for stopping by and seeing some different blocks than your traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden!