Hexagon and Blue Star Quilt

If you are making this quilt, please use these important 'straight-grain' instructions. The book instructions are not clear and should be corrected in the reprint - another instruction that was 'lost in translation!



The pattern pieces in the book are correct - just add 1/4" seam allowance.  It is important to make a template for the triangle including seam allowance, with the top of the triangle cut off and the straight grain marked.

Cut your triangles from strips and stack them.  You will then be able to quickly see that the straight grain is opposite the cut-off tip.

The hexagons can also be cut from strips, using a plastic template and then stacked so that the straight grain is on the top and bottom of the hexagons.  See the photos for correct placement of the straight grain so that your completed units and assembled strips keep the straight grain on the long sides.

Tessellations II

I've noticed that a few of you have started making Tessellations II (I've been peeking at blogs!!), so I thought you might like to see some close-ups of this quilt - and the detail in the fussy-cutting

Helen emailed me to say that there was some confusion in the instructions - my reply to her was that this is a very simple quilt... 4 shapes:  a hexagon; a square, a diamond and a triangle, all with 2 1/2 inch sides.  Start in the centre and add your shapes one round at a time, auditioning fabrics and colours as you go.  Don't get too far ahead, as you may change your mind.  I changed from cool tones to warm tones with each round to give maximum contrast and to make each round "pop".  (The pink and yellow fabrics being the warm tones, and the blue and green fabrics being the cool tones.  The white with black spot acts as a neutral to separate the colours)

The book shows the addition of each round of fabrics and the direction for fussy-cutting in the coloured step-by-step instructions.  When I teach this quilt in a class, students only have a black/white graph of the quilt with heavier lines to mark the "rounds" where the colours change from cool to warm.
Have fun with fussy-cutting this one!

Tessellations II

Lee emailed to say that pattern piece "B" has been omitted from the pattern pieces on page 207.  Clever Lee also worked out that the missing piece is a 2 1/2" square to fit all the other pieces in  the puzzle!  No-one, however, has realized that the picture for this quilt is on it's side!! Not a problem really...
I should also mention that I paper-pieced my quilt and that I have pre-cut paper pieces available on my website for Tessellations I (this quilt's brighter version).  This quilt (T-II) uses the same pieces with the addition of some hexagons.

If you find any other errors in the book, please email me, so that I can fix them here and they can be corrected in the reprint later this year.