Heather Brialey
HEXPLOSION
Inspiration
Inspiration came from a Maria Spiller patchwork class where we were experimenting with forming hexagonal optical illusion quilts. This coincided with my discovery of a mark-up function on my IPAD for PDF files and several doodles later, the basis for this quilt was formed, although my original idea had to be simplified a great deal (there may yet be another quilt ready to go!). I never cease to be fascinated by how the use of variation in value, tricks the eye/brain into believing it is seeing a three-dimensional object.
Materials and techniques
Black cotton base fabric. Patterned batiks used for hexagons. Superior Threads monopoly used for appliqué. Rayon embroidery thread (Victory range, Australiana) used for quilting. Wadding is a soya/cotton mix. The backing is pieced in similar fabrics to the top.
Paper pieced hexagons and diamonds were bonded to Vilene (H250) which were then machine appliquéd. Shapes decrease in size from left to right to give perspective. Simple hexagonal machine quilting broadly follows the pattern of the appliqué and is also varied in size.
Click on image to enlarge
Inspiration came from a Maria Spiller patchwork class where we were experimenting with forming hexagonal optical illusion quilts. This coincided with my discovery of a mark-up function on my IPAD for PDF files and several doodles later, the basis for this quilt was formed, although my original idea had to be simplified a great deal (there may yet be another quilt ready to go!). I never cease to be fascinated by how the use of variation in value, tricks the eye/brain into believing it is seeing a three-dimensional object.
Materials and techniques
Black cotton base fabric. Patterned batiks used for hexagons. Superior Threads monopoly used for appliqué. Rayon embroidery thread (Victory range, Australiana) used for quilting. Wadding is a soya/cotton mix. The backing is pieced in similar fabrics to the top.
Paper pieced hexagons and diamonds were bonded to Vilene (H250) which were then machine appliquéd. Shapes decrease in size from left to right to give perspective. Simple hexagonal machine quilting broadly follows the pattern of the appliqué and is also varied in size.
Click on image to enlarge