Cue the trumpets! It’s pattern release day. I’m super excited to present my newest pattern - - -

Honeycomb Stars!

What began as a photo of basketweave, snapped during a trip abroad, turned into machine-sewn patchwork fall of 2020. Sewing the snazzy hexagon shape without fussy y-seams and at the speed of regular patchwork - well, I ate it up and you were pretty intrigued as well. That’s my favorite way to come by new quilt patterns. The designs I make spontaneously and for no reason at all can become the best ones to share!

I gave the finished quilt to my local friend, Hanneke. Luckily I can visit it on her sofa from time to time. Each time I see it I’m a little surprised that something so elegant in terms of color palette emerged from my studio, haha!

Starry Night close up. Stitched in Color.jpg

This summer I decided to develop the quilt as a pattern for an October-November sew-along. I thought it would be nice to offer a larger size quilt in the pattern, but it struck me as unnecessary to sew so many, many, many more pieces to achieve that result.

How much better to offer the pattern with two different scale shapes? Thus the Honeycomb Stars pattern includes two sizes; the original throw size quilt with 2” hexagons and a new queen/king size with 4” hexagons. The large bed quilt actually has slightly less pieces than the throw! How’s do you like that, friends?

Templates for both sizes are included in the pattern, of course. If you prefer an acrylic ruler, they’re shipping now from Tales of Cloth (Australia, ships worldwide) or Dragonfly Fabrics (USA).

The pattern assumes no prior experience with sewing angled shapes. Lots of pictures break down the process of working with triangles, hexagons and diamonds so that you can accurately align pieces for happy seam allowances and sharp points.

Would you like to try your hand at creating a glowing value-based blend of Honeycomb Stars? This pattern is part of my Color Mentor series. As such it teaches more than just patchwork piecing. The pattern includes the basics of color value for quilting. Fabric requirements, cutting directions and layouts show how to group your colors by value to achieve a sense of beautiful radiating movement with your patchwork fabrics.