In October 2017 I enjoyed watching the art of quilting. My friend Susan Kruse is an artistic quilter who wished to make her first Hexified Panel Quilt, which is a variation of the One Block Wonder Quilt (OBW). At Susan’s request, I ordered seven panels of my fabric design from Spoonflower.com, “Butterflies, Raspberries and Karli Star.” The design features art of Karli Star, a doll sculpted by Rose Bbflockling​, in a cameo design that looks sweetly vintage.

This fabric is digitally printed as orders are placed. The vignette-beige-oval size is 11.5 wide by 15 inches tall; the panel size is 19 wide and 18 inches tall.
See the fabric collection at Spoonflower.
Link to Panel Size in Pink
Link to Panel Size in Blue

Susan washed the fabric as recommended by Spoonflower: Wash before use with phosphate free detergent in cool water using a gentle or delicate machine cycle. Some fading as a result of cleaning is typical for this fabric and is most notable on darker shades. Fading can be minimized through use of cool wash settings and gentle wash cycles. After washing, the fabric is more soft and easy to sew.
Kona® cotton from Spoonflower is 100% combed cotton fabric with a soft hand. This fabric is woven in countries other than the United States of America. It is imported into the United States and then custom printed at headquarters in Durham, North Carolina, with eco-friendly, water-based inks.

4.5 oz per square yard    Thread count: 60 x 60    Estimated shrinkage: 2-4%

Liz Granberg-Jerome – a friendly, patient, and enthusiastic teacher – came to my town to teach a two-day Hexified Panel Quilt class. Two of Liz’s Hexified Panel Quilts are among those chosen to be in a new book by Maxine Rosenthal and Linda Bardes, One Block Wonders of the World, available at Amazon.com. Liz’s “Poppy Explosion” and “Wanderlust: Spring in Paris” are included in this new collection of One Block Wonder quilts and their variations.

Link to Liz Granberg-Jerome on Facebook     Link to Liz’s Website

At the workshop, first Liz explained the math measurements for hexagon size to incorporate the panel into the overall layout.

Susan Kruse made a stack of six fabric panels. She put a pin straight through the top panel to check if the pin would align in the same spot of the bottom panel (and the layers in-between). Susan used a rotary cutter to slice 2.25-inch fabric strips from the stack of six fabric panels. She then used a clear-triangle ruler to cut triangles from each strip of six layers.

“Butterflies, Raspberries and Karli Star” designs are available for licensing.

Phone or email me if you would like to license a design for home textiles, quilting, paper products, and fashions.

402.274.3040 USA Central Time    [email protected]

Susan matched and sewed isometric triangles into rows, using her Featherweight machine. A triangle is isometric to another triangle if it has the same size and shape. Susan clipped the triangles from the row, pressed each seam open, and then matched each twosome with a third triangle, to create half-hexagons.

I helped to press the 0.25-inch seams, the quilting seam-size standard. Pressing seams open is specific to the Hexified Panel Quilts and One Block Wonders, to help distribute the bulk where triangles meet in the seams.
I pressed as recommended by Spoonflower for its Kona® cotton: Iron using standard settings for cotton with the printed side down for best results, or use a press cloth. Steam may be used to remove wrinkles.
Instead of steam, I added a drop of distilled water to the corners of seams before pressing them open. I used distilled water to avoid mineral deposits from tap water.

Link to see the needles and threads that Spoonflower recommends for its Kona® cotton, also stitches per inch.

Half-hexagons matched, then pinned together!

Now for the fun part, making a design!

Size is 33.5 x 30.5 inches now. Sometime before January 2018, Susan plans to add border layers to create a final size of about 43 x 40 inches, a size for a baby and wall hanging.

Susan achieved an airy, graceful look with her color flow design. As the fabric artist, I kept the soft-edged oval around the girl, but varied the nearby colors at Susan’s request when I ordered the fabric to be digitally printed for her, using a new tool on Spoonflower called “How to Fill-A-Yard.”1 Yard of fabric, 42 x 36 inches plus a white borderIt looked like the image below here.

Link to a page where Spoonflower explains “How to Fill-A-Yard” with custom fabrics.

© Text and photos by Nancy Lee Moran