Sunday, September 6, 2015

A diamond shaped open donut and combining fabrics

It has been beastly hot and humid once again and that cuts makes doing anything an effort but I did get some sewing done.

Remember this hexagon rosette/flower? It will represent one of the Men-An-Tol stones.


I've constructed an "open donut" to turn this rosette into a diamond. You can see that the hexagons inside the red circle haven't been stitched together to close the diamond. It will make sewing this unit to the rosette much easier.



Here they are together but not yet stitched. The colours look wishy-washy but in reality they are very nice.


I plan to add two more rounds of hexagons to this unit, one light and one dark.

The pattern for my Value Proposition Hexagon Quilt is now available on Craftsy. The patterns are available for free under Quilt Alongs by Karen H but if you are looking for them all in one place with all of the instructions you need to make the quilt (everything from fabric, selection, rapid fire cutting techniques, basting, sewing, organizing and putting the top together) then my booklet may be of interest. It is roughly 60 pages in length and it is jam packed with how-tos with loads of pictures each step of the way. You will find it here.

I had a pile of fabric on a table and two of them jumped out at me! I thought they would be great together in a hexagon rosette. I used 1 1/4" hexagons to make this one.


Sometimes I am asked how I come up with fabric combinations and the simple answer is just arrange a bunch of fabrics on the table and look at them. Move them around and sooner or later a pair of them will jump out at you and say "we belong together"! I always make the outer ring first as an "open donut". I can then audition the fabric I thought belonged with it. If they still belong together I cut the middle hexagon and add it to the donut. If they don't belong together then I just audition more fabrics inside the open donut. Sooner or later something will work!

Before I go I though you might enjoy seeing a picture of the angel's trumpets (brugmancia) blooming in the garden. There are at least 25 blossoms and each one is at least 8" long! During the day they are very pretty but at night they release the most glorious, sweet perfume.


I'm linking up with:


That's it for today. Until I post again keep cool and keep sewing!

Karen H

14 comments:

  1. Love the colors for this project Karen. Love the pop of orange-brown in the center of the grey rosette. Gorgeous flowers. I've seen this plant before and am always astounded by how large the flowers are!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is the sweetest fragrance. I was not familiar with this plant until I was at the local botanic gardens one evening, and it was in bloom. Wow! Love the diamond and the rosette - they are gorgeous. Thanks for linking to WIPs Be Gone, Karen. It's great to see what you're creating.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the colours in your diamond. Can't wait to see how this one turns out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love seeing your hexie progress. The fussy cutting is one of the best combinations I have ever seen.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well, let me try again. I love what you are doing with the center of the diamond! Love the fabrics.

    The rosette hexie flower is really striking with the red flower in the middle!
    Hang in there with the heat....it is horrible here too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice, the hexieflower in that Diamont. Groetjes, Dientje

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Angel Trumpets are beautiful! I've never heard of them before--do you grow them in pots or is it hardy enough to survive a winter? Lovely hexies!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your Angle Trumpets are amazing. I tried for years to grow them but none ever bloomed much less made it from year to year.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love the colour combination for your diamond. Can't wait to see how you will blend all the sections together. The rosette is just gorgeous too, a winning combination. so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just learned EPP this past year. I'm not a fan of hand sewing, but they are great when you need a little hand work while watching tv.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Stopping by from WIP Wednesday @TN&TN. Your fussy cutting on that hexie flower is amazing! And you chose the perfect center for it.

    The photo of the Angel trumpet is gorgeous. When we lived in Georgia, I tried growing one from a cutting I was given but wasn't successful.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Enjoy your tip of combining fabrics as I spend ages choosing what I think will work together and then I hang them on a wall opposite my bed, and contemplate them again as soon as I wake in the morning. We have lovely Angel´s trumpets in the garden too... they are poisonous so don´t go eating them :-)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Love those angel's trumpet -- I didn't realize they have a fragrance!

    ReplyDelete