In-Kure-Able...Pile and Cut Projects

Sunny, sunny, sunny! It may be chilly and a bit windy but the sun doesn't fail to brighten up the days. Each morning I get up, make some coffee and head down to the nearest store to get a paper. When the tide is low, I try to walk back by way of beach to see what nature has to offer up each day. I am rarely disappointed and this morning was no exception. I could see the dolphins rushing the fish from across the street so I went to the beach to get a closer look as I never tire of watching the dolphins especially when they are engaging in interesting behavior. I spotted this Bufflehead drake darting in and out of the waves and actually got a shot. Last year I had seen the female who isn't nearly as striking. It is amazing to watch these birds as they dive under the waves just as they are breaking and pop up again on the other side.

I don't take my serious art quilt projects with me on vacation simply because I don't want to lug the vast amount of fabric and paraphernalia that I need to do the pictoral quilts. So, I play with stuff I have set aside for retreat days and vacations. This time it was a couple of wild prints out of which to make baby quilts using a trademarked method whose name I won't post for fear of lawsuits. I love doing radial symmetry and the surprises that the fabric brings. I do enjoy the challenge of coming up with interesting sets as well which is the alternatives I am looking at in these three pictures. The top one illustrates what would happen if I place hexagons separating the patterned ones. I may use this one but use a piece hexagon block instead of a plain one. I should add that I have probably done 25 to 30 of these quilts and vowed to not get started on more but it is always so much fun to see how they recombine to form new lines and shapes and this is vacation....

This illustrates what they would look like all squished together with no intervening triangles or hexagons (ala One Block Wonder -- a new book published by C & T). Don't think this is a good fabric for this technique.
This is my usual set for the hexagons -- separating the blocks with equilateral triangles and some half hexagons made from a solid.
I have 27 blocks and I do like to utilize as many as possible. Probably would do 4-3-4-3-4-3-4 which would use 25 of the blocks or 5-4-5-4-5 which would use 23 or 4-5-4-5-4 which uses 22. Might do this set. I hate investing too much "design" into these projects!

Onward to the animal hexagons and then bags of strips that think they want to be fabric and may just be. I was going to make a tote bag that I had carefully cut all the pieces for -- or thought I had cut all the pieces for but hadn't so that will wait until Spring Fling at quilt club.