Pentagon Week, Day One

What do you do when there's snow and ice outside? Oh. You live in Florida? I'm not talking to you!

We had a few days of the wintery mix and I got in the mood to finish more quilts. I even stitched a few from scratch (yes, I'm fast). Here is one I made from start to finish in 2 days (not full days, mind you). This is a combination of a few Benartex prints, one of which is Winter Games for those athletes in the center of 3 blocks. No y-seams, pieced very similar to my Twisted Hexagon quilts.

Yes, I know these are NOT pentagon blocks; patience!

Winter Games Swirling Hexies: 38" x 46"

Blocks are 12" high. The centers are 8" hexagons from flat side to flat side. I pieced it on Sunday, quilted it on Wednesday and bound it on Thursday.

Here is how I fussy cut that snowboarder. I used a window template made from freezer paper.

I surrounded the hexagon with six 8" 30 degree triangles. Someday I'll show how this is done. I realized too late that I didn't take any photos of that step!

NOW I'm getting to the pentagons (did you think I got sidetracked?)

This next one was pieced last year and I "rediscovered" it hiding in my closet (with about 4 dozen other quilt tops - easy to get lost in there!) This is a combination of English Paper Piecing for those pentagon centers and machine appliqué to get them stitched down on the background squares. I quilted and bound this on Thursday. This uses a wide variety of fabrics from Benartex, but mainly the Festive Chickadees Collection.

Pentagon Festive Chickadees: 44" x 44"

Here is one of these blocks up close before stitching. Isn't this so cute?!

Pentagon block parts

I digress again and I'm back to hexagons.

I taught a Zoom class 2 weeks ago called Fractured Jewels. The next day I got an idea on how to simplify the cutting and piecing and to make the blocks larger. I was able to cut and piece the entire quilt center in a few hours. I was working with a set of fat quarters and had to improvise for the side setting triangles. It works, I think!

Fractured Jewels Block: 16" high

Here are the 4 blocks I stitched from the fat quarters. I actually had some yardage from a previous quilt to use for the borders. It's next in the quilting lineup.

Fractured Jewels quilt top: 42" x 47"

There are no y-seams. You stitch two strips together and then cut pairs of 30 degree triangles into diamonds.

Someday I'll write the pattern. It was fun to update my smaller quilt (which was published in Modern Patchwork Magazine in 2014). This quilt was made using leftovers from making my Thousand Pyramids quilt - and that was made using charm squares!  Here that is:

Fractured Jewels

That's enough for now. I have another quilt waiting for binding. And 2 more layered with batting, waiting in the wings. So many quilts, so little time!

Tomorrow I'm sharing another pentagon creation that I've been able to get almost done (borders added). And everything was done with just a stack of fat quarters. See you then!