Amber's Sunshine Hexagon Quilt

I just love yellow!

I am totally obsessed, and from the projects I've see other folks working on around here lately--yellow bags and sweaters and shawls and dresses--I don't think I'm the only one under yellow's spell. I've been fixated on this color for a while and it has been over the course of a year that I have collected the 42 fabrics used in my newest quilt.

This is my most massive quilt yet at 110" square--in fact, the 9' high walls of the Cherry Creek bike path were no match for the size of this quilt! The piecing was inspired by the little hand-sewn, paper-pieced hexagons that I've often seen very patient people working on at craft night. I marvel at the teeny-tiny 1-1/2" hexagons and the preciseness of the basting and hand stitching! I decided to mimic the look of those hexagons on a larger scale. My big ol' hexagons are a foot across each.

There is a little secret to my piecing that I'll share with you now. If you look closely you may notice these hexagons are actually half-hexagons. They are mercilessly sliced down the middle so that the piecing of the quilt can be done in straight strips instead of  having to stitch corners. The pieces are matched back up with their partners when you sew the strips together. This little trick makes hexagons easy-peasy!

I chose the tiniest orange pinstripe print for the binding and cut my strips on the bias to make sure I could work my way around the hexagon points.

I really got my yellow fix on the back of the quilt. I love this sunny yellow polka dot from Art Gallery fabrics. There is one adorable little scrappy patchwork strip right down the center of the quilt back. It makes me happy.