Daffodils, Jewels and Hearts

This is a repost from May 2016 when I shared on the Benartex blog about how I used some of their new batik fabrics. I hope you'll enjoy this and take a new look at your own batik stash!

Today I have a lesson in ruler use that you'll enjoy! I always like to say that I let the fabrics tell me what they would like to become. Whether they whisper to me or send text messages to my cell phone - I trust what they say! 

Batiks from the Dolce and Rio Collections by Benartex

Here are the five colors I chose for my project. I'm going to make flowers - perfect for Spring, right?

Five fabrics for my flowers

I am still enamored with hexagon shaped blocks and patches. The most recent is the jewel (some call it a gem). I discovered how to cut it using a standard acrylic ruler with 60 degree lines and a 60 degree multi sized triangle ruler. For a finished 6" high jewel, I cut 4-1/2" wide strips. Then I cut the selvedge off on the left side at a 60 degree angle as shown below. I measured 4-1/2" from that edge and cut again. I was able to get three of these diamonds from each 4-1/2" x 22" strip (remember, I'm working with fat quarters).

Cutting 60 degree diamonds

I did this for each of the four bright batiks. The black and white will be my background fabric.

4-1/2" 60 degree diamonds

Then, to make the jewel, I needed to cut a 2" triangle off of one pointed end. Why 2"? Because the diamond will finish to 4". Other than that, I just know it works, ok?

Cutting a 2" triangle from one end of each diamond

Jewels and cut away triangles (which I don't use in this project)

I then cut 2-1/2" triangles from my black and white batik. These are cut using a multi-sized 60 degree ruler which I bet is in your sewing studio! (You can find my own multi-purpose triangle ruler in my Etsy shop in either a 6-1/2" or 8-1/2" height).

2-1/2" high 60 degree triangles

Here's is how these patches work together:

Sew a small triangle to each short side of all the colored jewels

And then what? I used 6 of the units above to make my daffodil block.

Sew 3 jewel/triangle units together into a large half-hexagon; repeat

I pressed the triangles away from the yellow fabric (toward the black batik). All other seams were pressed open.

Here is my "Daffodil" block, which finishes to 12" high.

Daffodil Block #1

I added a small orange hexagon to the center for a variation. This is raw edge appliqué over the center. No y-seams or fussy tweaking. This is going to make a beautiful table topper (if I can first: find it and then: quilt it!)

And then I sewed a block using two each of the other 3 colors:

Tri-colored Block #2

And then I sewed one last block, also using two each of the other 3 colors, but this time I put each color together and if you use your imagination, you might see hearts!

Three Hearts Block #3

I hope you enjoyed seeing how versatile your acrylic rulers can be. No need to buy single size templates for these shapes! You can check my Etsy shop for my two sizes of these rulers.