I bought this heavenly fabric a few months ago and finally had a chance to try Paula Doyle's fabulous "Easy Stack" technique with it. Paula's technique for making kaleidoscopic blocks is based on her new book, Easy Stack Quilts. A simpler version of the popular stack-and-whack concept, Easy Stack allows you to create a multitude of totally unique blocks from just one fabric. It is so much fun to do and and really brought me straight back to my quilting roots of sewing simple 4-patch blocks.
But after tearing the fabric half and trying to find the repeats, I realised it is a very unusual fabric indeed. Only the blue flowers on the left (above) and the red on the right (below) have any sort of repeat! I have never seen this before. And even within the repeat, there are variations due to the flowers to the left and right of the usable strips.
Undaunted (and because I had already torn the fabric and was quite determined!), I gave it a try.
Here is one block. Note the strange appearance of the pink flowers around the edges. So two pairs of squares were totally matching, but all four didn't match perfectly unless I turned them a certain way. However, I don't think it matters.
Again, for this one, the white flowers at the edges are different on two pairs of blocks, even though the middle flowers match.
I decided to use the yellow flowers for the sashing since I couldn't do Easy Stack with that section.
Here are all the blocks I made, arranged with the yellow sashing. I didn't quite have enough of the yellow so had to piece one of the long sashing strips, but just made it. I plan to frame it with the white and pink flower strips, so watch this space!
Paula's Easy Stack book came out in time for Festival of Quilts this past summer and I love it! I'll be teaching this technique for Paula at Lady Sew & Sew in Henley on November 30th. Book soon to reserve a place!
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