Bali Blog Hop: Day 6

It's Saturday! Welcome to the last day of our Bali Blog Hop. We hope you've enjoyed all the block tutorials we've featured this week. Up today is Debby Kratovil with a lesson in ruler use that you'll enjoy! Debby always likes to say that she lets the fabrics tell her what they would like to become. Whether they whisper to her or send text messages to her cell phone - she trusts what they say! Check out her tutorial on how to make hexagon flower blocks and then head over to her blog for a chance to win a bundle of Rio and Dolce fat quarters. Let's join her as she tells us how the  Rio and Dolce Collections of batiks guided her.

Batiks from the Dolce and Rio Collections by Benartex

Hello, blog readers! 
Here are the five colors I chose for my project from the lovely Dolce and Rio collections. 

Five fabrics for Debby's flowers

I am still enamored with hexagon shaped blocks and patches. The most recent is the jewel (some call it a gem). I discovered how to cut it using a standard acrylic ruler with 60 degree lines and a 60 degree multi sized triangle ruler. For a finished 6" high jewel, I cut 4-1/2" wide strips. Then I cut the selvedge off on the left side at a 60 degree angle as shown below. I measured 4-1/2" from that edge and cut again. I was able to get three of these diamonds from each 4-1/2" x 22" strip (remember, I'm working with fat quarters).

Cutting 60 degree diamonds

I did this for each of the four bright batiks. The black and white will be my background fabric.

4-1/2" 60 degree diamonds

Then, to make the jewel, I needed to cut a 2" triangle off of one pointed end. Why 2"? Because the diamond will finish to 4". Other than that, I just know it works, ok?

Cutting a 2" triangle from one end of each diamond

Jewels and cut away triangles (which I don't use in this project)

I then cut 2-1/2" triangles from my black and white batik. These are cut using a multi-sized 60 degree ruler which I bet is in your sewing studio!

2-1/2" high 60 degree triangles

Here's is how these patches work together:

Sew a small triangle to each short side of all the colored jewels

And then what? I used 6 of the units above to make my daffodil block.

Sew 3 jewel/triangle units together into a large half-hexagon; repeat

I pressed the triangles away from the yellow fabric (toward the black batik). All other seams were pressed open.

Here is my "Daffodil" block, which finishes to 12" high.

Daffodil Block #1

And then I sewed a block using two each of the other 3 colors:

Tri-colored Block #2

And then I sewed one last block, also using two each of the other 3 colors, but this time I put each color together and if you use your imagination, you might see hearts!

Three Hearts Block #3

I hope you enjoyed seeing how versatile your acrylic rulers can be. No need to buy single size templates for these shapes!

For a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the Dolce and Rio fabrics we're featuring in this blog hop, head over to Debby's blog. Let her know which of the 3 blocks you like (#1, 2, or 3).

Click here to see the entire Rio collection.
Click here to see the entire Dolce collection. 

Stop back each day this week to catch all of the tutorials!
Monday: Chris @ made by ChrissieD
Tuesday: Stephanie @ Stitched Together Studios
Wednesday: Benartex Blog Design Team
Thursday: Kirsten @ KD Quilts
Friday: Alison @ Little Bunny Quilts
Saturday: Debby @ Debby Kratovil Quilts

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