My favorite shape is the hexagon. I love using it with the half-hexagon shape! The possibilities are endless. Here is a fun quilt (yet to be quilted) where I combined my Half Hexagon Braid pattern with the vertical panels of cardinals. Less piecing, too! Festive Season leftovers: 50" x 50" Yes, I used two different prints for the borders. And I didn't have enough length, so I added those corner squares. Here's a closeup of that awesome cardinal border print: Vertical cardinal print Another quilt that I made was featured in a Benartex blog several years ago. I got carried away with the design on this. You can see the process shots for this (and several other projects) HERE . Be sure to check it out because I give the cutting dimensions and show you how to make this! Festive Season with beautiful Cardinals: 31" x 36" Here is a closeup of fussy cutting that awesome cardinal in the center: I also made another wreath using 3" diamonds for English Paper Piec...

Just because a block is presented in a quilt pattern as a hand piecing technique doesn't mean you can't convert it to machine! I do that a LOT, though I love creating English Paper Piecing blocks by hand. The February 10 block from Katja Marek's Hexagon calendar was calling my name, but I could see an easy way to create it by machine. Allow me to share the details! We have 3 half-hexagons, 3 tiny triangles and 3 elongated diamonds (all 60 degree). But look at that center - cold sweats here! - that is begging for a y-seam (and got it, btw). February 10 prototype block Many times I cut and sew a sample block before cutting out the parts for a larger project. If I don't like the one block, who can guarantee that I'll like 16 of them?! Here are the colors and fabrics that I chose for 3 blocks. Yes, I stitched a y-seam! Here's the y-seam from the back: And I was beginning to run out of fabric! What to do? You tell me. I only had small bits of the blue and white print...

This lovely calendar of English Paper Pieced blocks is no longer in print, but I was inspired to make several of them from month to month in 2016 and 2017. This is the block for today, January 17th. But I "cheated" and decided to rotary cut and machine piece the patches. January 17th block Here are the two halves. Yes - you've heard it before - no y-seams! Triangles, diamonds and half hexagons are all cut using my rotary cutter and standard rulers. I've covered those lessons many times here on my blog, so do a search! Two halves in another set of fabrics. (Wish I could find this one!) Here she is quilted - all straight lines. Quilted block Here's another one done in browns. These blocks measure 12" high and 13" wide. I quilted the blue one and put binding on. It makes a lovely table topper. Another orphan block rescued and given a life of purpose! Table Topper inspired by the January 17 block in Katja Marek's New Hexagon Perpetual Calendar Here's...

Today is January 13 and a few years ago I was making a block here and there from the New Hexagon Block a Day calendar by Katja Marek. 6" Block inspired by the January 13 English Paper Pieced version While I am quite comfortable with EPP and these patches were not difficult, I wasn't too excited about the sizes of the patches. I realized I could easily rotary cut the diamonds, half hexagons and triangles and put them together with my sewing machine. I did just that! Here are some photo steps: Two 60 degree triangles (finish to 3" high) Added a half-hexagon to one side. Added a second half-hexagon to the other side. Rotary cut two more half hexagons and diamonds. Notice there are NO y-seams so far.  Stitched those last 2 seams and I was done. Hey - this was easy. Let's make some more! And I did! Notice that each of the six blocks uses a different gray print to set them into a larger triangle. But the other fabrics are the same throughout. Six January 13 blocks stitched ...

This was a post that was featured on the Benartex blog last year featuring Jackie Robinson's collection called   Festive Season . I'm sitting with my morning coffee in my living room, looking at my finished quilt hanging over a very old chest of drawers. We moved into a new house (actually, 40+ years old) last week and I haven't hung any quilts yet. So, I've draped a few and this one "told" me to blog about it today! Here is what I wrote: I received a bundle of many of the prints, and what I was most excited about were the vertical panels of cardinals! I had plans to make a strippy quilt and use these birds. But, even after cutting dozens of half hexagons and piecing several vertical strips, I walked away and started something else! Vertical border print from  Festive Season  These are the half hexagons I cut, but then moved on to another idea! Half hexagons cut from most of the prints  Here are the fabrics that I began with. Fabrics from  F...

I have a LOT of diamonds. Oh, not the shiny, rock, EXPENSIVE kind. I just have chips on my wedding band! I cut about 200 diamonds from some blue and green Kaffe Fassett fabric prints last year. Did I have a plan in mind? Not really! (Can you believe that?) A bundle of 6" strips that inspired me Here are some of the diamonds: Just some of the nearly 200 diamonds I cut I also used my basic 6" x 12" acrylic ruler. Really? Yes, really! Have you ever wondered about those 30, 45, 60 and 90 degree diagonal lines on those? They have a great role to play in quilting. You really don't need all those extra, superfluous templates that are out there. RHOMBUS? Whoa! What's with that bad word from math class? You can cut diamonds with your regular ruler. And that's how I cut these. (And saved myself about $15 for another useless template, I'm just saying . . .) Now, where was I going? First approach was to combine these diamonds with some 60 degree triang...