Reversible Hexies II

April 24, 2013
My reversible hexagonal quilt,  Vice Versa, debuted in 2002 at the Empire Quilters guild show

I put the quilt away until the 2005 gallery exhibition below

Above: detail of front of Vice Versa quilt

Above: detail of  back of  Vice Versa quilt

Now, over more than a decade later, Quiltmaker Magazine has published my Reversible Hexagon method with their perfect instructions for a reversible table runner in current fabric

I ought to pull out a few other hexagon  projects from the Make It Simpler archives for publication and teaching. I've left some interesting techniques for one-patches sitting around for far too long
Anita

Reversible Hexies

April 22, 2013
The Vice Versa Quilt

Once upon a time, in my charmed life, our quilt group at Riverbank State Park undertook one-patches at my behest. Diamonds, tumblers, triangles, squares; you name it.  By hand, by machine, English paper pieced, foundation pieced, whatever method suited each quilter.

I endeavored to make this manageable for all skill levels. It's one thing to sew hundreds of one-patches together but another to complete a quilt with angular edges.  My thought was to make self-contained diamond one-patches. There'd be a front and a back sewn together and batting enclosed.  Each unit would be individually quilted and joined to others.  I envisioned a sort of quilt-as-you go charm quilt.

I clearly remember the disappointing experimental diamond units I made. They were awful  misshapen little pieces with nary a sharp corner. I stared at them on the counter top completely bummed out until I saw three sad units formed a hexagon. OMG. Rather than continue to pre-quilt individual 60 degree diamonds I sewed hexagons from three diamonds and then pre-quilted that hexagonal unit. From there I went on to make a reversible quilt, my Vice Versa quilt.

Today I opened my project box of spare parts which I'd socked away in 2002

The quilt has been stored with another fragile quilt on top of a dresser 

My telling of this quilt will be continued, but I can tell you now it will end with Peg's table runner in the May/June 2013 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine

Anita

About Time

April 5, 2013

Tempus fugit; Fabric stashes grow and my last blog post was in November 2012. My intention was always for this blog to feature my quilt work, mostly pattern and related information*. I joined Blogger in 2005 to share text and images with my C&T book editor. Since then I've treated the ensuing pages as a manuscript in draft.

Between November and now I have managed occasional Facebook posts about my quilt life.  Please make my day - "like" my page.  I've even managed some newsletters which are archived here.

Last December I spent three days in Denver recording video in a studio at Craftsy.  Earlier in the year a Denver nephew brought me to their headquarters after I'd taught at Quilt Colorado.

The taping yielded over three hours of instruction by yours truly of original technique-based blocks. Craftsy is an interactive online learning platform where crafters around the world can learn on their own schedules. I've been enjoying the platform, answering student questions and watching for their blocks and quilts to be posted and shared.

I've also been taking Craftsy classes. I'm the girl smiling on the Manhattan M57 crosstown bus watching The Quilt Show and Craftsy on her iPhone.

Sample the sixty second intro to my class Traditional Blocks Made Simple 

I've repeatedly heard quilters say "I'm a visual learner."

I'm proud of the content in my class, Traditional Blocks Made Simple, it includes the newly digitized version of my C&T Publishing book Rotary Cutting Revolution (112 pages!) as well as the high definition version of Ms Made Simpler herself:  Me, Myself & I

* I iron fabric patches to the shiny side of freezer paper. These unconventionally cut patches will be conventionally sewn by machine, they won't be paper pieced. But the reusable freezer paper will keep them in order, ready to be sewn at any hour of the day or night and I won't be picking fallen patches off the ground. 

Anita