Class Announcement: 'Hexatopia' returning to the CQ in September

I'm happy to announce that I will once again be teaching

the 'Hexatopia' class at The City Quilter in NYC!
We'll be English Paper Piecing Unusual Hexagonal Blocks

The class will be 3 sessions this time: 

Thursday nights, 5pm - 8pm, 

September 4th, 11th, and 25th.

As I say in my official blurb, the class is designed to liberate and empower your English Paper Piecing adventures! We will be leaving basic store-bought shapes in the dust, and instead draw from an infinite vocabulary of polygons to create intricate hexagonal blocks!

Although we will spend time exploring traditional-style hexagonal blocks, the emphasis of the class will be on tweaking those traditional blocks to make them unique to the individual quilter, and most of all, improvising entirely new ones unlike the quiltiverse has ever seen!


Notes on experience level:

Interested students should be already confident with basic English Paper Piecing. 

Luckily, it's a super-simple technique that anyone can pick up quickly. 

Check out this video, and you'll see what I mean. 

Students should also be comfortable working with small pieces, small stitches, and understand that (as with all hand-sewing), best results come with plenty of time and care. 

The good news is that

THERE WILL BE NO MATH INVOLVED. 

You won't even need to use the numbers on your ruler unless you really want to. (I don't.)

Some more specifics about what we will be doing:

On the 1st day we will warm up by drafting simple, traditional-style blocks, get comfortable with this system of working (all the things I learned the hard way), and play with fabric selection and fussycutting.

The 2nd day will be tweaking the shapes and lines of those traditional blocks to make them more unique, and most importantly, improvising entirely new ones!

We will spend most of the 3rd day exploring the Reverse Window Shopping technique that I used to design the Strawberry block from my first post, and the Montpelier Ducks block. We'll also take some time to talk about ideas for projects one might make from the finished blocks.

Deets:

Again, the class will be 3 sessions:

Thursday nights, 5pm - 8pm, 

September 4th, 11th, and 25th.

All sessions will be held at
The City Quilter
133 W 25th Street NYC
(btn 6th and 7th avenues)

To sign up, you can call the CQ at 212-807-0390
Or just stop by. (Hours and directions here.)

Supplies:

In the interest of including absolutely everything there is to know about the class, I thought I'd go ahead and publish the supply list here.

Most items are available at the store and can be picked up before class.
Items that the CQ does NOT carry are marked with an asterisk*

- Precut paper pieces: 3.75" Hexagons, Small Pack of 12 pieces
    (If you already have hexagons in your stash, any hexagons with sides between 3" and 4.5" are great.
- Colored pencils*
- Something to use as a straight-edge - at least 7" long, but try to avoid anything longer than 15"
    (The Creative Grid non-slip acrylic rulers are ideal)
- Regular ol' pencil with a good eraser*
- X-Acto knife*
- Pins
- Needles: applique sharps
- Fabric scissors (small ones are nice for this)
- Paper scissors*
- Non-fancy thread for basting (whatever you've got laying around)
- Cotton thread for piecing (we will discus thread color selection in class, but bring a selection from your stash if you've got 'em)

Fabric:
Quilting weight cotton (avoid batiks to start)

We will be using small pieces in this class, so if you've got a stash of fat quarters and scraps, go ahead and bring a whole bunch! (Look especially for blenders, tone-on-tones, solids, and small-scale prints that you'd be excited to fussy-cut.)

If you are shopping for the class, go ahead and get:
- 1/4 yrd or more of 1 or more interesting small-scale prints (for fussycutting!)
- 1/16 or more of 3 or more blenders or solids that look nice with the prints


And that's everything I can think of to tell you about the class!
Let me know if you have any questions!

As always, thanks for reading!!!
All the best,
Reyna

Completed Blocks: Montpelier Ducks + Starthistle Fish

Well, I finally finished these two blocks!

The Duck print featured in the first block, I purchased at a totally great little shop called A Quilters Garden a few years ago when I was visiting Montpelier Vermont. That was really an awesome day - there was also ice cream. Fabric AND Ice Cream.

Visiting A Quilter's Garden in Montpelier VT

This block with the Montpelier Ducks has been all basted and waiting to be pieced together for over a month now because I couldn't decide on the fabric for that center triangle. Finally I went ahead and pulled the trigger with this pink flower.... someone please convince me I did the right thing, because I'm not sure! Eep! Perhaps when it's in with the others, the pink will feel more at home. Plus the other ducks will then have company and will therefore also feel more at home. :)

I designed this block specifically for the Duck print with the same Reverse Window Shopping technique I used for the Strawberries in my first post.

This next one with the Fish is a block design I've been calling by the nickname Starthistle, but if you know a traditional nickname for it, please tell me in the comments!

For some reason, I am convinced that these fish are distant cousins of the Montpelier Ducks.

Thanks for reading!

All the best,
Reyna

Teaching 'Hexatopia' at the CQ

Thursday, June 19th was the 2nd and final session of my 'Hexatopia' class at The City Quilter! (I'm teaching folks the method I've been using to improvise blocks for English Paper Piecing - like all of the blocks featured so far on this blog.)

It really was an inspiring adventure for me. I'd never taught anything before in my life, and I was super nervous. Most of the students in the class were advanced quilters, and on the first day it was hard not to notice that between the 9 of them, they probably had probably more than 200 years of years of quilting experience - and I only have 10! Fortunately, they were also totally cool folks - fun, enthusiastic, and supportive!

I will certainly never again try to cover all of this material in just 2 (3 hr) sessions. On the first day I powered through what is probably enough material for 2 or even 3 sessions. As I walked away that evening, I was a little worried that I had overloaded everyone, and rushed through all of the tips and tricks that help make this system manageable. Coming back for the 2nd session (two weeks later), I budgeted a good chunk of time for troubleshooting. But then, as students started arriving, I found that there was actually very little trouble to shoot. Everyone showed up with very cool work (or the beginnings of it), and we had plenty of time to cover everything I had hoped. Never again will I try to squeeze all that material into just a few hours, but I will also never again underestimate all these brilliant quilters!

Big thanks to my students Maureen O'Niel, Maureen Hyslop, Judy Stadler, Sue Dipple, Barbara Peterson, Mimi Sherman, Cassandra Knight, Rene Colwell, Margaret Umansky! <3 <3 <3

Here's some pictures!

Awesome bunch of quilters!

Cassandra Knight with block in progress

Cassandra Knight's block in progress. So cute! 2-axis symmetry w/verticalness! <3

I wish I had a picture of the block Susie was working on - giraffes with sun-like rays! Mimi had some lovely blocks in the works as well - classical geometry with delicate florals.

FOUR completed blocks by Margaret Umansky! I love the geometry of the yellow one, and check out the fussycutting on the green one! Rotational symmetry FTW!

THREE completed blocks by Barbara Peterson! Fireflies and sailboats and kittycats!

Judy Stadler with her rendition of the Oregon Vortex block. Delicate fussycut flowers!

Maureen O'Neil's rendition of the Oregon Vortex block. Love these colors with the slightly-twisted Tula Pink fussycut!

Renee Colwell demonstrates her specialized system for managing millions of tiny pieces. 

Completed block by Renee Colwell - lots of motion!

Block in the works by Maureen Hyslop. Love the twist + fussycut Paula Nadelstern print!

Classic Peppermint Twist block by Maureen Hyslop.

Cassandra slicin' and dicin'

Margaret Umansky with block bags. Zip-locks will save you!

Block in the works by Margaret Umansky - love the twist of the "outside" shape and the slight slant of the stripe through the middle. 

Finished block by Barbara Peterson. Laurel Burch Kittycats!

LOVE this geometry by Judy Stadler. Can't wait to see the finished block! (Those are super skinny/pointy pieces at the edge there, but I believe!)

Block in progress by Renee Colwell. TINY pieces! <3

Gifts from Judy! Classic summery prints, and kittycat scissors! Can't wait to fussycut!

New Block: Space-Time Continuum

Finished this one!
I call it "Space-Time Continuum".
It's got one "spoke" for the spatial dimensions, one for the temporal, and one for the other 11 mysterious ones (the magical).
Plus there's a frog.

"Space-Time Continuum"

I'm really happy with how this came out! :)
The colors are strange, but I like it. Will be interesting to see how it jives with the other blocks from this series since they're all away from home on the wall at The City Quilter.

Since time is symmetrical, here's a few pictures of the process... going BACKWARDS!

Pieces for the Space-Time-Frog Continuum are all chopped up!

Colors are selected. Dubious, as always!

"Space-Time Continuum" paper pieces all sliced up!

I will definitely use this shape again!
I'm especially happy with the very slight twist of the center hexagon. I think it's a great example of how a tiny little tweak can add movement, and give it a more original/organic feel.

I can't wait to try it in pastels for my other hexagon project! And when I do, those diamond "spokes" might have to glow in the dark fairy frost. :)

Thanks for reading!

Best regards,
Reyna

Beginning in the Middle

Greetings, and thank you for reading!

My plan is to use this blog as a journal of my adventures in (and probably meditations on) quilt-making. I'm also an actor, and I often find myself straying into other mediums as well - I'm sure some of that will find it's way in here too. It might turn out to be a hot mess, but in my experience, art (like some kind of magical bacteria) thrives in hot and messy places - so here goes!

As this is my first blog entry ever, I am tempted to attempt beginning at the beginning, but then, I am immediately overwhelmed and confused; therefore instead of beginning at the beginning, I will begin where I find myself now - the middle.

My current quilting obsession is English Paper Piecing - specifically pieced hexagons. I've been doing some very classic-looking blocks, but my real interest is in improvising new and unusual shapes.

Here's a few blocks that I've recently completed:

Yes, that's my knee in the corner, I had to get up on the cutting counter to take this pic. :)

I've nicknamed this block Oregon Vortex after a very cool place near my hometown. (Firefly Fussycut FTW!)

I designed this block specifically to feature this strawberry print using a technique I've been calling
'Reverse Window Shopping'

If these blocks look familiar, maybe it's because they're currently on display at the City Quilter (NYC) where I'm teaching a class on making blocks like these. I've titled this class 'Hexatopia' - you might notice, 'Hexatopia' is also what I've titled this blog. (Consistency is the cutest among hobgoblins.)

It's my first time teaching ever! (Yikes!) I've definitely learned a lot about teaching (the hard way), but the students are all so positive and supportive, so I'm very much looking forward to our 2nd and final session this Thursday.

That's all for now.
Thanks again for reading!

Best regards,
Reyna