Sunday, September 13, 2015

One diamond down and more about directional prints

The final round has been stitched to one of the diamonds that will flank the centre medallion in my quilt The Meadery. I used a deep honey gold fabric and I think that it worked perfectly! The diamond is made with 3/4" hexagons so it is quite large. Now I have to stitch the gold to the second diamond.


Quite often  I write about directional prints and the concept of paying attention to the direction of the print when constructing any type of block whether it is a simple nine patch or a hexagon rosette. This is a simple little nine patch made of scrap. Notice how I've used two directional prints, the white in the corners and the beige stripe that makes the cross. The block would not have been anywhere near so effective had I not paid attention to the direction of the print.


Stripes are a great example of a directional print. Make them work for you, not against you. In the following picture I've used the same fabric in two different ways but it both I paid careful attention to the direction of the stripes.


This hexagon rosette is a directional print and I made sure that the white chrysanthemums were radiating out from the centre. 


Again you can see that the pale vines are radiating out from the centre. 

You can look at some fabrics and you know they are directional but others may not be so obvious. This first fabric is clearly a directional print.


But if you weren't sure here's a simple little trick. Make a fold so that you have a right angle. If the fabric looks the same on both sections it likely isn't directional but if it looks different then it is directional and you will want to bear this in mind when cutting and sewing. You can see in the following picture that the little trees are on their sides on the folded fabric.


This first rosette was stitched without giving any thought to the direction of the fabric. It would work just fine in a quilt.


However I am a firm believer that it is the little details that take a quilt block (or hexagon rosette) from fine to much better! You can see that in this block the little trees are radiating out from the centre and it makes a difference to the look of the block.


Some fabrics may be more challenging. At first glance you may not thing that this is directional but look closely at the little green and yellow figure 8s with the white cross bars. The green is in the upper left and the yellow the lower right. The little white bar runs from lower left to upper right.


When the fabric is folded you can see that it is a directional print. Not is is a subtle difference so it wouldn't make a huge difference in a block but I think it is worth noting the direction of the print and placing your fabrics accordingly.


In this block I did pay attention to the direction of the print when I positioned and stitched my hexagons.


It feels like Autumn the past two days - cool and drizzling rain. I went for a good long walk yesterday and picked a bunch of crab apples for my Mom to make jelly. Aren't the colours glorious. I think that they would make a fabulous quilt! I might just go pick some more today before I settle down for sewing.


Until I post again, happy sewing!
Karen H

15 comments:

  1. An interesting and informative post, Karen. We grow as quilter as we read your offerings. Thank you!

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  2. I enjoyed your post today. i agree that it is worth taking the time to consider fabric direction, especially with hexie flowers. Very interesting.

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  3. ohhh Karen thanks a lot for your new tips.....very interesting post....it will help us ..sure....

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  4. Thanks for the tips. You're right ... paying attention to how we use directional fabric changes an acceptable block to a spectacular one.

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  5. Great post Karen. Thank you for the information on directional prints. I love your hexagon. I now know how to make mine look as nice.

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    1. Thanks Sew Bea (cute name)! Sorry I couldn't reply to you directly but you are a no reply blogger. :-(

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  6. Great post. It just shows that paying attention to the little details can make a big difference. I love to see your projects grow.
    I love those crab apples for preserves. However, I always find that my jelly sets up too firm but I keep trying.

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    1. Hi Katie - thanks for taking the time to comment. Sorry I couldn't send you a personal note but you are a no reply blogger.

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  7. That diamond is looking fabulous, the colours are so calming to look at. A great post this and it never occurred to me to simply turn over the fabrics corner like that!
    I'm always in awe at your fabric selections, they wouldn't jump out at me and yet in your hexis they burst with life!

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  8. Thank you for the info on directional prints. Your explanation was really clear, the best I've seen. I've just subscribed, but I'm going to look at your past posts to learn other things :)

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  9. It is nice to see how different the flower is by tuning the hexagons. The deep gold hexies gives the Diamont a great look. Groetjes, Dientje

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  10. Very fun lesson! Your crab apples look like a work of art--lovely!

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  11. I love all of these fabrics and thank you for the lesson :)

    I have a crab apple tree in my back yard and while we had a rainy season early on, when we went into drought for awhile, they started dropping early ....but while I have made other jams I have never made anything with the crabapples; it's on the bucket list :)

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  12. I love all of these fabrics and thank you for the lesson :)

    I have a crab apple tree in my back yard and while we had a rainy season early on, when we went into drought for awhile, they started dropping early ....but while I have made other jams I have never made anything with the crabapples; it's on the bucket list :)

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  13. It's the detail that make the difference and you certainly have an eye for details. Thanks for showing the rest of us how it's done.

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