I bet you don't use the kite shape in many quilts! Maybe you aren't familiar with this patch shape, but it's part of the 60 degree hexagon family and appears in many English Paper Piecing blocks. You've seen this in my Rose Star quilts. Can you see how this quilt is composed ONLY of the kite shape?
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| Rose Star table topper was my workshop sample |
Rose Star is a vintage block and has reappeared in quilts lately. I guess our ancestors weren't too afraid of sewing y-seams! You can see how the 3 patches come together in the center.
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| 3 Patches of Kites from the back |
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| 3 Patches of Kites from the front |
And here are some more of those kite patches:
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| Lots of Kite patches leftover from my Rose Star |
I decided to make my own version of a very scrappy quilt which I call Stacked Kites. I pulled some more Kaffe Fassett prints and added them to my pile of fabric kites.
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| Kites and Kites! |
My Rose Star pattern includes a line drawing of making my Stacked Kites quilt, but I never put together a pattern for it until this week. I added borders. Here I am auditioning the rows.
Here's my final quilt. It's 44" x 54". Don't you just love those borders? I quilted it on my HandiQuilter Sweet 16 and it counted the stitches for me: 21, 462!
Then I started to cut out some kites from my 1930s fabrics.
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Kites using 1930s prints
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| 3-Kite triangles using some 1930s prints |
Here's my 1930s Stacked Kites quilt. Yes, I cut out a LOT of kites! Needs borders - maybe. What do you think? Very, very scrappy. Same units as the one above, but I added 2 more pieced triangles to each row and one more horizontal row.
Then, I had a lot of leftovers! What, you don't like leftovers? (That's a dirty word to my husband when he asks, "What's for dinner?")
Did you know that 6 kites will form a hexagon? Well, now you know!
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| 6 kites form a hexagon! |
I cut some Kona Snow setting triangles and put several blocks together into this 40" x 43" quilt center. This also needs borders. No y-seams here! The pieced hexagons finish to 8-1/2" high, so my triangles are cut 4-3/4". No pattern for this one (yet!).
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| Scrappy Kites to Hexagons quilt top |
Well, now you see all of my fabric kites and what they can do. Hope you got some inspiration!
Now I know what to do with my kite template that I've had for quite a while! Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteWell I obviously need to think outside the EPP heart block quilt I'm making with kites (after I finish it of course). These are all great ideas and I love your Rose Star.
ReplyDeleteKathleen - kakingsbury at verizon dot net