Need a Project? Take a New Look at an Old Quilt

Are you a loss for new projects? Quarantine is the ideal time to look at your finished quilts and ask yourself a melancholy yet potentially engaging question: Is this quilt really finished?

When I finish a quilt, I usually don't love it - I mainly see flaws. It takes a while to figure out whether it needs more. But this improv-pieced quilt was an exception. I just loved it when I finished it in 2017.

Then, the people I showed it to went "Very nice, meh, next."

Then QuiltCon rejected it. Dang, I was soooo not-understood.

I held my artistic ground, and defiantly placed it into my finished quilt pile (which happens to be the same as my unfinished quilt pile), where it sat until early February. I had just attended Road to California, and one of the costs/benefits of attending a show is that it makes you want to up your game. Could I add pizzazz?

What the heck, I went for it, quilting light diagonal lines between blocks. Then I appliqued puffy circles at the intersections. Now it looks like this:

I feel like I took an opera and turned it into a jingle. But that's not always bad - Bohemian Rhapsody, right?

The great thing about digital cameras is that you can take lots of pictures of every stage of your quilt's childhood. So, even though I destroyed the first version, I will always have Paris in the form of zillions of "before" pictures.

I originally called it "Eyeshadows," because the blocks look like eyes wide open, with rainbow mascara, Now, it might need a new name: "Round Pegs, Square Holes." The circles have batting inside, and the ones that hang over the edge have a finished back.  Each was quilted with a different design before being hand-stitched in place.

I'm not entirely sure if I ruined it or improved it, but it's definitely more fun than the original! And now, I sincerely hope it's finished!

Masked Hexagons, Part II: A English Paper Piecing Variation

Help!

I'm going nuts making masks! 

These are a few of my new masked hexagons, made from the scraps of face masks I've been sewing since March. In my last installment, here, I described how I made these hexies, using conventional English Paper Piecing techniques. At the time, I had only made about 35 hexagons. 

Since then, I've made many more masks to donate. So here's the finished quilt, with a total of 79 masked hexagons, all socially distanced. 

UPDATE: The digital pattern for this quilt is now for sale on Etsy, here. All money raised from this $1.99 pattern will go to my Los Angeles Regional Foodbank fundraiser, here. 

Here are some of my new favorite masked hexagons. The "faces" are cut from assorted solids; and the "mask" prints are from my vast stash of mostly novelty fabrics that I used in actual masks. Here's a bit of casino fabric that a friend gifted me.

The (mostly) round button eyes give them a startled look, appropriate for a pandemic. (Pandemic Pat?)

While making masks, I discovered that I own TWO radish fabrics. 

And numerous cat fabrics. This cat looks bored. 

Mighty Mouse intends to triumph over covid. The patriotic buttons almost look like eyes with red-and-white eyeshadow.

The red vintage paisley below is only nice in small doses.

Yes, that's matzoh fabric. 

Rainbow triangles go with everything.

A dandelion print reminds me that things more benign than viruses can blow in the wind.  

This awesome fabric features quilters' rulers:

Harry Potter is recognized universally as a symbol of meeting catastrophe with a great deal of anxiety (but triumphing anyway).

A truly horrible brown rose print made a remarkably nice mask for a hexagon. 

Bars - horizontal, or on an angle - keep the hexagons socially distanced. 

This next fabric -  the star - was from a print featuring Spongebob.  

A 1970's era flannel. So soft  and comfy. 

For quilting, I surrounded the masks with quilted covid viruses, and hypothetical pathogen-laden swirls. 

On the white area, I made more emanations

Again, the digital pattern for this quilt is now for sale on Etsy, here.

For a much simpler version of this quilt on a smaller scale, check out my previous post, here. 

Of course, I have hexagons and English Paper Piecing on my mind because my new book was just published by Landauer, Hexagon Star Quilts: 113 English Paper Pieced Star Patterns to Piece and Applique, available from Amazon (here) and wherever fine quilting books are sold! 

My mask-making resource page is HERE. Find my simple pleated mask pattern HERE. My roomy mask pattern is HERE. 

Masked Hexagons, Socially Distanced: An English Paper Pieced Mystery Scrap Quilt

If you are one of the thousands of quilters giving time and fabric to make lifesaving masks, thank you. For me, making masks is not only a good deed, but a powerful way to reduce anxiety in a tragic  time. 

You may also be putting mask scraps aside, to someday make a  quilt. Here’s one idea that you can work on as you continue to make masks: 


And here's what it would have looked like on white:

It's not finished - it's just a top - because as I continue to make masks, I will grow it. The mystery, of course, is how all this will turn out - not just this quilt, but our lives.

UPDATE, 11/19/20 - I've finished this quilt and written up the pattern. The digital pattern is for sale on Etsy, here. All money raised from this $1.99 pattern will go to my Los Angeles Regional Foodbank fundraiser, here. 

Here's one fabrics I used in lots of masks - a purple batik featuring lots of birds: 

...And the hexagon I made from a scrap:

Button eyes are optional. Next, masks I made for border collie parents:

 And its hexagon: 

A different purple batik mask:

The hexagon

A stylish saw-blade fabric mask:

The condensed version, with button eyes, appears sweet but startled:

After making a pile of masked hexagons (most without button eyes) I decided to to socially distance them. I was heavily influenced by lines marked on store floors, and social media photos of kooky/brilliant people wearing hula hoops, pool noodle hats, inner tubes, and even wildly-oversized Burger King crowns, to keep their distance. So I gave some of my hexagon rows protuberances.  

No need for big decisions yet about the ultimate size of the quilt - you can grow it as you make more masks and hexagons. 

Solid colors on the upper portion of each hexagon represent faces; the prints on bottom are cut from my mask scraps. Button eyes are a good choice if you’re making an anxiety-reducing quilt for a youngster. We've all heard of Sunbonnet Sue - how about Pandemic Pat? 

Find my follow-up blog post, with lots more photos of masked hexagons, here. The digital pattern is for sale on Etsy, here. 

Of course, I have hexagons and English Paper Piecing on my mind because my new book was just published, Hexagon Star Quilts: 113 English Paper Pieced Star Patterns to Piece and Applique, available from Amazon (here) and wherever fine quilting books are sold!