A path for Birds

On Monday I wrote about making the round of rosettes that will frame the medallion in my Birds in the Loft hexagon quilt. I neglected to mention that the units made of three caramel prints will also need to have a path fabric added in order to fit everything together. There are eight of these units so the sewing will go quickly.

In the past I've written about constructing the path for a hexagon quilt. Hexagon rosettes will surround the medallion in my Birds in the Loft hexagon quilt and they will be separated by an off-white path. The easiest method of constructing the path is to sew together five hexagons and then these hexagon unit is stitched to the rosette. My thread colour will match the path hexagons.

I'll need to cut and baste 900 hexagons. The cutting will be fast and easy. I'll start by cutting 2 1/2" strips of path fabric and then I'll quick cut the fabric using the method I wrote about here.  So how many strips will I need? I can cut 18 hexagons from each strip so I'll need fifty strips which translates into 3.25 meters or 3.5 yards of fabric. I sure hope I have enough but if not I'll pull something similar and add it to the mix! I will need to prepare more path hexagons to finish the outer edges of the rows of rosettes but I'll write about it when I get to the point where I need them.

I will attach the path units of five hexagons to 180 of the rosettes. The remaining 20 rosettes will surround the medallion and many will require a different number of path hexagons. They are attached to the caramel connector units that go around the medallion will also need the path hexagons attached to them but they will need different numbers of hexagons depending on their position in the ring around the medallion. In the following diagram you can see the medallion with the rosettes. Inside each rosette I've indicated the number; it corresponds to the diagram that shows the placement of the 100 pairs of rosettes. Beside the rosette I have placed a number and it tells me the number of path hexagons that need to be stitched to the rosette. From this point on the rosettes with the path of five hexagons shown above will fit perfectly around the medallion. I'll explain how in an upcoming post.

For now how about another rosette or two? Well your wish is my command so here we go! I struggled with selecting a centre for this rosette. I just set it aside and every now and then I auditioned it on different fabrics until I found a good fit!

The dragonfly in the middle is cut from the same piece of fabric that I used for the four bees in the medallion. I really think it is a good idea to repeat fabrics in this way to control the scrappiness of the quilt.

Time for me to do some cutting and basting so until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H