Saturday, February 6, 2016

What to do with all the little beauties?

If you've been following my blog you know I have a giveaway running right now. I've just published five new booklets of hexagons designs in my Craftsy shop. You have until Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 09:00 EST (that's 9:00 a.m. EST) to enter. You could be one of five lucky winners of one of my Easier Than Pie & Beyond booklets of hexagon designs. To enter simply leave a comment on this post telling me which booklet is your favourite! The designs look complicated but are so easy you won't believe it! If you can baste a hexagon and sew a straight line you will have no problem mastering these elegant designs!

I've promised to show you what I did with my hexagon rosettes made using my Easier Than Pie & Beyond methods and designs. So let me start off by showing you what a bunch of them looked like tacked to a small design wall. When selecting fabrics they were not made to go together; they are all made with scraps and leftover strips of fabric. I made them simply to illustrate my designs.  Each one is a little gem but I think that when they are clustered together so closely they loose a little of their sparkle. They need some distance between them in order to shine.


So what is the solution? Well I could have cut squares of fabric and appliqued each one to a square and then simply stitched the squares together with or without a sashing OR I could have surrounded each rosette with another round of hexagons and then sew them together with a path of hexagons. Rather than make a decision right off the bat I decided to delve into my stash of fabrics and look for inspiration. My gut told me that the rosettes had a buttery feel to them so I focused on buttery coloured fabrics and this is what I pulled.


The top fabric is what I used in the centre of each rosette . The next fabric had some of the same colours. It isn't a fabric I would have normally selected when shopping but it was under $5/yard (this girl loves a bargain) so I bought a couple of yards with a view to fussy cutting them at a future date. I wasn't crazy about the fabric which made the idea of hacking it up much easier! The bottom fabric was a small piece of fabric sent to me by a friend. I love directional prints and this is right up there as one of my favourites. My plan was to surround each rosette with the bottom two fabrics.

I have also been holding on to a smaller piece of fabric that would make a lovely border and it worked perfectly with the colours I had already selected. I wasn't sure whether I would use the floral print as a border or the black and gold bar print portion. I didn't have enough of the fabric to be able to use both parts. That decision would have to wait. The first thing to do was make an open donut that would surround each rosette.


I made an open donut to surround each rosette. Notice how I captured just half of the brown print from the middle fabric. I think it looks like little crowns that will look perfect atop each hexagon in my rosettes. The buttery yellow striped fabric positively vibrates! I used the stripes as my registration marks to line up my hexagons for placement and then cutting.


I know you are wondering what the rosettes will look like when they are surrounded by the open donut. Here is the first rosette. It is called Blenderizer and it is in Booklet 4 of my Easier Than Pie & Beyond hexagon rosette patterns.


Here is another rosette, Tea Time from Booklet 1. Notice that I didn't capture the same part of the striped print as in the rosette above. That is because I wanted to use the fabric efficiently and the repeat (the distance between the beginning of the print) was quite large so the space in between would have been wasted. Instead I cut one set of hexagons and then moved just enough to cut the next set of hexagons on the strip. In doing this there was very little waste and while the part of the stripe that was used is different around each rosette they all work because they are cut from the same fabric.


Once all the rosettes were surrounded it was time to decide "what next". I have written about breaking down hexagons into component shapes such as diamonds and triangles.  My Road 66 is made with diamonds and triangles as connectors and that is what I decided to do with my Easier Than Pie & Beyond rosettes. I had a fabric in mind and hoped it would work. It did!

Tomorrow I'll announce the winners of my draw and will tell you more about the Easier Than Pie & Beyond quilt top! Don't forget to leave a comment here to be entered to win one of my books of patterns! Until tomorrow, happy sewing!

One last bit of business, I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network's WIP where Canadian textile/fibre/fabric artist bloggers share with others. If you are a Canadian blogger why not join it and if you are from other part, pop on over and see what others are doing!

Karen H

24 comments:

  1. Hi Karen! I missed the post about the give-away, so thank you, to remind us again. The booklets look all very cute. I think, I like the 4 or 5 the best.
    Have a good time!

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  2. Wow, the donut is more than nice. It looks a historic painting frame. Your Rosettes belong into The Louvre, haha. But I like it very much. Groetjes, Dientje

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  3. Oh Karen, you are just sooooo clever with fabric - those doughnuts are just perfect with the rosettes!

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  4. Wow, you see the most extraordinary possibilities in prints.

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  5. Gosh, you make it seem so straight forward, how you break it all down into these steps! I'd missed the giveaway post too so thank you for the reminder:-)how to choose between them all, all are my favorites!

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  6. Dear Karen,
    my is this wonderful, what a great way to set the stars.
    Greetings,
    Sylvia

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  7. Booklet number one is my favorite, it has a huge variety.
    Win or not, your blog is amazing!

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  8. I can't wait to see this quilt top, you are always so inspiring with your EPP. x

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  9. amazing and fabulous rosettes!,,,your imagination is great...
    congratulations Karen
    are your booklets emailed when we buy them or are they posted?
    have a nice day

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  10. I love the way way you have fussy cut the stripe, this will be a very pretty quilt!

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  11. Oh my. I can't decide between book one or two. I'd love to be the lucky winner of either on. Thank you for your generous giveaway, Karen.
    xxx

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  12. OMG!! That donut and beyond is amazingly beautiful!
    You have such an incredible gift, your eyes see things that
    aren't there - until you magically release from within!!
    Gobsmacked - is the uncouth but perfect word for me here lol

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  13. All I can say is GENIOUS.. 👍👍👍
    Bunny

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  14. This is so amazing. You have the patience of job! Well worth the effort tho

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  15. That fabric combination really brings everything up a notch or two, not that they needed it, but WOW!

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  16. You keep blowing my mind with inspiration......I'm not kidding, you really do.

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  17. You are at the right place at the right time to find the fabrics you use in your hexies they are just amazing! wonderful movement! great patterns to work with and just the right size!

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  18. You're making wonderful use of the border fabrics. It's amazing how much diversity you can create with only a few fabrics.

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  19. They don't look easier than pie to me, Karen. Thank you for breaking down your process so that we can understand how you create. I echo every comment made above mine; your work is amazing.

    Thanks for posting to TN&TN's WIP Wednesday!

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    Replies
    1. They ARE easy to make....REALLY easy. I've taught many people (beginners included) and they are amazed at the beautiful designs that they can create quickly and easily!

      I am so pleased to know that you are enjoying my work. It gives me so much happiness making these pieces!

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    2. I forgot to mention that I was unable to send you a personal note because you are a no reply blogger. :-(

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