Friday, March 28, 2008

One-Block Wonder - Getting started


I'm using this book as a guideline to making my own one-block wonder quilt. The book has pretty clear instructions, and the photo illustrations are really good. The technique isn't new by any means (anybody remember Stack and Whack by Bethany Reynolds?!) and it uses a ton of fabric, but at least it's just ONE fabric. And there's the beauty of it - one fabric that produces a hundred different blocks. You'll see. Follow along with me.....

The fabric I'm using isn't what I would have picked out for myself since I'm not much of a fan of black backgrounds. But I chose this particular fabric with an eye toward my parents' new condo - I think the black with touches of reds, yellows, greens and a hint of blue will go in their new great room really well. I can almost ALWAYS count on finding what I'm looking for at my local quilt shop (Kindred Quilts). Take a good look at the fabric - when it's all said and done, you'll never know that was the base of it all.


The following is going to be really abbreviated, for the whole, entire, complete she-bang, you really will have to get the book! The first step is to find the repeats in the pattern of the fabric and, to make hexagons, you'll need to cut 6 (some icky math : hexagon = 6 sides) sections of the fabric. This is why you need some major yardage - I used a little over 4 yards. Carefully stack the 6 sections on top of each other. Use pins to line up the edges by pinning through the exact same place in all six sections. This is the real pain in the butt part - time-consuming, and nitpicky. Haste makes waste. 


Now that the sections are pinned on all four sides, I carefully lay this out on the cutting board and make the first cut to trim up one edge. I only cut about 1/2". Then I make the first, gulp, real cut. It's a 3 and 3/4" strip from selvage edge to selvage edge. Put a couple pins in the large section and cut another strip.



Laying one strip out on the cutting board, I used my equilateral triangle (icky math alert: all 3 sides are equal) ruler and cut the triangle sections out. I have to take the time to pin each section together - after all, I'll have... hmm, I didn't count, but surely more than 70 of these sections, and I sure would hate to drop them and they get all mixed up!


I felt like peeking at a couple of the sections. I fanned four of them out to see what the final image will look like.


Now that's inspirational!! I can hardly wait - each one of the triangle sections cut from 6 strips will be a slightly different version.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amy, I love it and can hardly wait to see it on the wall above the fireplace!

Kathrin said...

Thank you very much for this simple Tuto, I'm very glad to have found this.
Wonderful fabric :-)))
Best wishes from Switzerland, Kathrin

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this, I saw this done today at a classes in a store. They didn't have the book and the class was full, but I want to make this quilt. Thank you so much! They told me that you need to use a fabric with a 12" to 24" repeat and an 60 degree triangle.

~Nan~ said...

okay it's been over a month! the suspense is killing me! :-)
purchased my ruler today now i'm hunting down that "just right" fabric. does it matter how many inches the repeat is?

Charlotte said...

My quilting sisters have all made one of these, and we were all together when most of them cut theirs. I didn't get mine cut, and am on my one. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this tute. I can now proceed without having a sister to guide my hand.

Anonymous said...

Your blocks are gorgeous. Okay, I'm totally confused. What you just described is what I would call "stack n' whack".

Tracey said...

Thank you so much for this post!! I'm pretty new at quilting and have recently heard of these quilts, but really did not understand at all how they can come from one fabric. I have found many pictures of finished and in-progress one block wonders, but never one that showed how this is done from one fabric. Amazing! I can't wait to try it...when I've had more practice at simpler quilt skills :D

Tracey said...

Oops.

Amy, aka ABB said...

This is totally just like the method from Stack and Whack (by Bethany Reynolds)... just an updated way to do it. I wouldn't say one is easier than the other either. I made another similar quilt where the repeat was only 8" and I did have more blocks that were really close duplicates... BUT I got around that a little bit by moving the start line of my cut by about a half inch on each strip.

Ms. Jan said...

A friend just helped me do this, and I think it's going to be addictive. I love your blocks!

Audrey said...

It's gorgeous so far! It will make an amazing quilt. I bought the book but haven't started this project yet. I look forward to seeing how yours turns out.

liloca, liloquinha said...

Sua postsgem me servem de inspiração. Vou adiante mesmo sem o livro.
Abraços
Liége

liloca, liloquinha said...

Sua postsgem me servem de inspiração. Vou adiante mesmo sem o livro.
Abraços
Liége

Unknown said...

What I have seen....these blocks are cut smaller....easier to distribute the color and move around....and it takes a lot more blocks.......will use more fabric

dee said...

Love this easy to follow pattern but now I need to see it sewn together, please.

Unknown said...

Found one on Facebook. Researched on Etsy and Pinterest. Just bought the book. Cannot wait to start