Tessellations for fun

I’ve been very busy this weekend, but I haven’t finished the quilt from the last blog. I’ve been a little distracted because I suddenly thought that I need to get some quilts finished for my grandchildren – before the next one is born ( due around 20^th May)!!

You see I’ve made one for Oona the youngest, and Daniel, the eldest already has a couple of quilts, but Kieron and Abi  are still waiting for me to complete theirs, and I haven’t started one for Eve – until today.

So I hope you’ll bear with me.

I’m featuring just one die – Tessellating Pinwheel 659584 http://www.sizzix.co.uk/catalog#q=tessellating% – but with about 5 different layouts/colours.

You do need to be careful cutting - if you are using patterned fabrics you will need to make sure that the fabric is always the same way up so that all the pinwheels tessellate in the same direction - for plain fabrics it doesn't matter ( but you do need to make sure that you stitch plain fabrics to keep the tessellation correct)

The first 2 samples are of cushion covers – the first shows the easiest layout – just using 2 fabrics, so each block is the same.

The second cushion cover uses more fabrics but they are laid out in rows - so it’s still really easy.

 

Now this quilt is for Abi – she loves elephants – so these fabrics are ideal for her – and the quilt will be bordered with fabric with just elephants. This is the most challenging layout – you need to lay all the pieces out in rows – so that all the blocks make interwoven pinwheels – you need to do careful pinning and labelling (and even so I still needed to relay the last 3 rows again before stitching.

I think it's worth the effort - at least I do now all the rows are stitched!!

The next photo shows the beginning of Kieron’s quilt – now he decided that he wanted the pieces to be put together in a random design – I couldn’t quite cope with that so I’m creating pinwheels with random fabrics around each one – it’s easier – but I’m not sure how it will look when it’s complete – I guess the important thing will be that Kieron likes it.

It will be interesting to see this progress!

Now Eve has said that she would like to make her own quilt, and she can use my sewing machine quite confidently, but at the age of 6, I think this might take her quite a while – so I’ve started this quilt – and it’s so easy!

As long as I make sets of 4 matching pink with 4 white pinwheels – then the lay out is so simple because the blocks can just be joined together –

The great thing about this one is that I'm using some of the fabrics from my stash, and I also think Eve will love it.

So 5 looks from 1 die – I reckon that’s very good value for money.

Will I have them all finished by next week – no – but I’ll keep you updated, and hopefully complete them before the newest member of our family arrives!

So enjoy this Bank Holiday weekend, and I’ll be with you again next week.

Angela