Saturday, June 6, 2015

Midnight Snack Hexagons

To encourage newer quilters and build friendships, several members of SCVQA started Quilting 101. This open-membered group meets monthly to sew. There's always a short lesson taught by someone in the guild. Needless to say, Q101 is very popular.

Jane demonstrated a fussy-cut hexagon quilt last month. She's made many of these from Asian and African inspired fabrics that are beautifully sophisticated. Although I admire them, I need another baby quilt. Think small and happy. A bit more than two yards of cheerful fabric created this top measuring about 48" by 52".

Multicolored print of fast food mixes with blue and yellow-green solids to form kaleidoscopic patterns.
Midnight Snack quilt

Could you determine the print of the original fabric? Look at all this drive-in food: hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, soda, cupcakes, ice cream sundaes, popcorn, popsicles and candies.

Midnight Snacks by Alexander Henry

Fabric is cut at the repeat and then stacked six deep. When the equilateral (60 degree) triangles are cut, there are six alike. Then the fun begins. The kaleidoscopic effect changes depending on which triangle point is in the center. This is definitely a quilt that benefits from a design wall. No matter which arrangement is originally chosen, changes need to be made.

The first layout was too busy. (Funny. I usually use 50-200 fabrics in a quilt but using one is "too busy.") I wanted a place to rest my eyes. I forgot to take photos until solids were added but you can get a feel for it by looking at the lower right of the completed top.

Trying out two possible solids to mix with this fabric
 
I found three solids that might work. Two are above. The darker one looked better against the yellow sections so I thought yellowish green might work against the bluer sections.

Previewing blue and yellow solids 

I cut some of each and rearranged the triangles on the design wall. The two solids are also being tested as borders.


One of my favorite sextets is the group of cherries in the lower left. They are lost in the photo above so I added more solids and rearranged again to give them more presence.

A third yellow star added to the lower left of the design.

Here are some detail shots. My favorite hexagon has a spinning ninja star effect.

Spinning ninja star from soda bottle and cherries.

Hamburger buns form the hexagon at the center of this star.

Hot dogs surround this hamburger star.

Lara at BuzzinBumble wrote an intriguing post on matchstick quilting with different threads. Something similar might work here.

Enjoy the day, Ann

12 comments:

Teresa Duryea Wong said...

Awesome kladiescopes. I would have never guessed these prints came from that food fabric. Amazing. Love it.

audrey said...

I've never tried something like this, but I can see why the solid areas seem important. What a interesting and very fun project!

Mystic Quilter said...

I agree you do need the solids in this quilt. I love the effect of these kaleidoscope style blocks and have both books but still pondering which fabric to use.

Ann said...

It has been interesting to see what diverse patterns emerge from different fabrics. Usually they are quite unexpected.

Ann said...

I think mine needed some solid because it was such a busy fabric to begin with. Some people chose fabrics with more open designs and they had some "quiet" spaces in their quilts. The other thing I liked about this project is that you use every bit of fabric. No scraps... or very few.

Ann said...

I think I would have pondered for quite a while but the deadline of a class meant I had to choose something. It was fun to use such odd fabric. It finished to a toddler quilt size, Perfect for me because I have lots of friends to give them to.

Lara B. said...

So fun Ann! I always enjoy seeing the original fabric in these types of One Block Wonder quilts. The comic book style graphics here look great. Love the touches you added with starbursts in solid fabric to calm the busy pattern and highlight sextets you particularly liked!

Ann said...

I hadn't paid attention to these quilts before but it is amazing to see how the different fabrics cut up. And adding fabric to calm things down really made me laugh. I think this will be a great toddler quilt.

Cathy said...

Oh what fun! I love it. I've seen that fabric before and might have some of it somewhere here but I never would have thought to use that fabric for a Stack n' Whack. Those primary colors are perfect for a toddler. I'll have to try one of these some day. I have a four patch posy UFO and loved seeing all the different patterns emerge in that.

Ann said...

Thanks, Cathy. I'm pretty pleased with it, too. Paul Burega wrote me about four patch posies yesterday; I'd not heard of them. (Guess I have my head in the sand.) It was fun to create kaleidoscopes and your posies will be interesting to see. Get them done soon, please! ;-)

Elaine/Muddling Through said...

What a neat quilt! You really edited it well. And what a brave woman you are!

Ann said...

Thanks, Elaine. I don't know about brave. You can hardly go wrong with a baby or toddler quilt. It's the larger ones that have issues. It was so enjoyable to make something with this odd fabric. AND I got to see all the beautiful ones my friends made with their sophisticated fabrics. Mine is funny but theirs are gorgeous.