Cocoa Revolution

Cocoa RevolutionThis weekend I went on the annual Guild retreat, that my Quilters Guild, (NOTYQ) runs. It was a pretty nice reward at the end of all the driving required during the last two weeks.  This was my fifth retreat, and the third for this quilt top, which is understandable when you consider that it is all hand-pieced.  The inspiration for this quilt was Cathy’s quilt, or I should say, her two quilts, as she has made this twice.  Cathy English-Paper-Pieced hers, but I have been using traditional hand piecing methods.
Wheel Of Fortune - 11th ring
It took me all year to piece this last ring, made up of the 88 cocoa coloured diamonds, although to be fair, I haven’t touched it much at all since our holiday in January.  Next I have 48 squares to add, for the last full revolution.  24 of these will end up being trimmed back to triangles, when I square up the quilt, and there will be 5 lots of partial revolutions in the corners to fill in the square.
Auditioning Green Fabrics
The 48 squares will be green, and I spent the morning cutting them out.  I am lucky enough to have three kids home sick today, with a mild tummy bug that I am still recovering from (my kids bring out the sarcasm in me).  It’s too hard, with them all home, to concentrate on any pattern writing, so I figured that I may as well use the opportunity to do something quiet and happy.
Quilt on the Ironing Board
Looking up from writing this post to see my quilt, (which was still draped over my ironing board from the previous photo) silhouetted against the sunshine through the window, made me really happy too.
Does hand piecing make you feel happy too?

5 thoughts on “Cocoa Revolution

    • I could choose to cut through all the squares in the next ring, turning them all into triangles, and I would be left with an octagonal shape. Even though it looks circular, the pieces all align along octagonal faces.

      While some quilts are finished with angles along the edges, I believe these angles are too steep to bind, so I would end up cutting it either way.

      I’m planning on creating the squares, that make up the corners, in quiet colours, so that the eye is mainly drawn to the final cocoa ring.

  1. Hi Claire
    It’s a lovely quilt top. I started teaching myself to hand piece with hexies. I wasn’t interested in English Paper Piecing. It seems just a bit too much work for my taste!
    Cheers

  2. I am intrigued, what is the difference between traditional hand piecing and paper piecing? I always assumed that with shapes like hexagons or diamonds you would have to paper piece but obviously that is not so. That stained glass effect is lovely.

  3. I am cracking up here Claire, how did you make your blog go all gangsta, then revert back to ‘normal’ when I clicked on the comment? That is hilarious. Thanks for the linky love and oh wow, now I’m thinking I need to make a third one of these….just like yours! Adoring these colours, they are deeevine! xo

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