Hexie in a Hexie Pattern Release

The first time I made a hexagon quilt, was years and years ago, as a gift for my mom.  She’s the one who taught me to quilt.  She had a brightly colored house, and I wanted a quilt that would never clash.  Enter neutrals.  White.  Cream.  Sand.  Tan.   Ecru.  Etc.

I loved how it turned out, and always kept it in the back of my mind as a quilt to make again.

Fast forward to 2017.  I had a friend I wanted to make a quilt for.  Her favorite color is blue.  But I didn’t want to make an all blue quilt.  I spent a year or so thinking about a pattern to use, and looking for the perfect mostly blue (but with lots of other colors) focus fabric.

I wasn’t sure which would come first, the pattern or the fabric.  I think each can be instrumental in creating a quilt, and each can drive the other.  As I worked on other projects, this quilt was always in the back of my mind.  Knowing I wanted it to be mostly blue, but able to hold lots of bursts of other colors, led me back to the Hexie in a Hexie quilt I had made.

Settled on a pattern, I continued to look for just the right fabric to draw together all of the colors in my mind.  My mom shopped with me, and kept offering up fabrics, and I kept turning her down.  I think she thought I was high maintenance.  We looked at lots of florals, all beautiful, but just not right. 

Somehow, I knew that not only did I need a floral that was mostly blue, the background needed to be navy, not white.  Don’t ask me why.  I just knew.  And then, voila!  The perfect fabric appeared.  Not in a neighborhood quilt shop.  In my Instagram feed!

I’m not normally an online shopper, but this fabric, called Flower Child by Maureen Cracknell, just called my name.  In a way that has never happened before.  It was navy.  With flowers in many colors, including light, medium and bright blue.

Flower Child also came with a neutral background in the same print as the navy, and a second leaf print that drew some of the same pinks, purples, teals and greens, and as well as more vibrant hues.

Finding additional fabrics that pulled all of these colors together was fun and easy, because the focus fabrics were so pretty.

This time around, I paid special attention to all my measurements, and just how much fabric I used, as I cut fabric, and pieced the hexagons.  I didn’t intend to write a pattern as I made a quilt for this friend, but it just sort of happened, and I love both the finished quilt and the finished pattern. 

I might need to make another, to keep one for myself.

I wanted an amazing name, to go along with a fabulous pattern!  I wasn’t thinking about quilts at the time (2016) that I was walking across the tops of basalt columns in Southern Iceland.  I was thinking about how they were my favorite type of lava.  Really, who has a favorite type of lava?  Apparently, this girl!

Seriously though.  This is what basalt columns look like where the land around has eroded. 

We have these in Washington State too.  They’re cool.  But they’re not waterfall or on the beach cool.

But, I’d never seen basalt columns from the top.  A little cross section of them really shows off their hexagon shape.  Quilt inspiration is everywhere!

This place is called Kirkjugolf.  I thought for quite some time about naming my quilt pattern Kirkjugolf.  But to many Americans, that’s probably unpronounceable, which doesn’t make for good marketing.  So, as wonderful as basalt columns are (the side view and the top view both!) this quilt pattern is hereby named Hexie in a Hexie.

The Hexie in a Hexie pattern is available in my shop, go check it out!

And, if you’re ever in need of a vacation, I highly recommend Iceland!

Hexie in a Hexie is available in my Etsy shop – and that link is www.etsy.com/shop/darcyquilts