Help with identifying a quilt technique?

[emmiebaur]

I saw this quilt on Etsy:
http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.150803641.jpg
I'm wondering if anyone can clue me in on how to replicate this?  Looks like triangles, but is there some sort of tool I can use?  Thought I'd ask the pros. ;-)

[Confuzzle]

That was made with strips of fabric cut at a 60 degree angle, then pieced together. If the fabric with the rulers printed on it is accurate, each strip (as shown on the quilt top, after stitching the pieces together) is about 3" wide, so cut strips about 4" wide, then use a marked cutting mat or a triangle cutting guide to cut the center triangle pieces first. Use one of the triangles to get the width of the short side of the other shape. Cut those using your 60 degree angle as well.

I would personally piece a triangle and the other shape together, to make the larger pie-piece shaped wedges, then piece three of the wedges together to make half the round shape, and use those to make large strips (the width of the finished product). The strips could be sewn together with one long seam. Just make sure to lay it out before stitching to make sure all the fabrics match up as they should.

[emmiebaur]

Thanks!  I'll check out the triangle templates/tools today and see if anything has the right angles for my project.

[anaximander]

There is, actually, a bit of an easier way to do that.

What you do is sew two long strips of fabric together. For simplicity, we'll call them colour A and colour B. The height of the strips will determine the overall size of the hexagon, but really, it doesn't matter too too much how big or small they are. If you make them really big, you'll want to do two sets of each colour.

Take the fabric strips and press them, you'll probably want seams open for this one, or seams to the darker colour.

Take a plastic ruler, and cut the sewn strips into triangles, using the 60 degree mark, so that all sides are the same length. If you do it in the same way as the triangles are laid out in the photo attached, you'll end up with (at least) 6 with large A pieces and small B pieces, and (at least) six that are the reverse. (So you'll get 2 different complete hexagons out of each combination.) You'll want to repeat this step with more than enough colour combinations that it'll cover the area of your projected quilt size. You'll lose some still to seam allowances - if you come back and provide the info, I'll help you figure it out.

Then, lay all of them out however it's most pleasing to you. The ones along two parallel edges will only be half hexagons. Laying them out is important - it saves you having to do split seaming to get them all together.
Finally, sew it back together in the way I've highlighted the diagram. This way you'll end up with long rows of fabric that are pretty easy to sew back together and match seams on.



You can see in the above image how a strip of fabric is cut into equilateral triangles, and you can also see how the pieced strips are sewn back together in a decorative pattern.

(If any of this is confusing or needs clarification, hit me back - I'm a little addled this morning. I've found this technique much easier and more reliable than trying to piece the triangles for the hexagons totally separately, and then split-seaming them together)

[emmiebaur]

WOW!  You ladies amaze me!  I've got a few projects in the queue before I hit this one up, but I'll definitely post pics once I start/finish this quilt!

[grendelsmom]

If you haven't started yet, Jaybird Quilts did a quiltalong on this last year.  Her cutting instructions are dead accurate and worth reading:
http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/2010/04/hexagon-quilt-along-cutting.html
Read all of the quiltalong posts and she'll walk you right through it, start to finish.

My own advice:  I found it easiest to use my own 6x24 ruler and the 60-degree mark.  Also, don't mix-and-match too much:  the nicest results for this style of quilt (in my opinion) come from a single block done in coordinated fabrics.

[emmiebaur]

Thanks!

[Eowynt]

If you haven't started yet, Jaybird Quilts did a quiltalong on this last year.  Her cutting instructions are dead accurate and worth reading:
http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/2010/04/hexagon-quilt-along-cutting.html
Read all of the quiltalong posts and she'll walk you right through it, start to finish.

My own advice:  I found it easiest to use my own 6x24 ruler and the 60-degree mark.  Also, don't mix-and-match too much:  the nicest results for this style of quilt (in my opinion) come from a single block done in coordinated fabrics.

Thanks for the link. . .   the instructions are so easy to understand - it makes me want to quilt!!