Not Quite Done

...with reflecting on 2010.
But, before I go back, I've got to go forward and announce the winners of the giveaway:
 
DianeY said...
Really nice-love the colors you used!

and

bekki said...I love your work, your quilts look soo simpel but very beautiful

If you two will please email me at malka@stitchindye.com I'll get your PDFs over to you faster than Al Gore can re-invent the internet.

Now back to the past. It dawned on me the other day that if I had to pick one motif or shape that defined 2010 for me it would be the hexagon. My passion for this six-sided cutie probably started back in 2009 when I started re-purposing blocks from an old Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt into pillow tops. Then I discovered Y piecing and the world of machine sewing hexagons opened up for me. My new book includes two hexagon based quilts and a pillow sham that features a hexagon flower in the center. Add to that the supersized hexagon quilt I designed for Quilt Scene magazine and you've got a lot of hexagon action in my life.
To quote my mother, " The more things change, the more they stay the same," (I know she's not the first to say that, but let's credit that quote to her anyway) it looks like I'm not done with hexagons in 2011.

Looks like my first FO of 2011 includes hexagons.

 The center block is actually something I created for my Open Studios event at Quilt Festival. It sat around for a couple months before I decided that I didn't just want to admire at the bottom of a stack, but that I wanted to make something with it.

So, I bordered it with a solid in cotton in a pale gray, quilted it in concentric circles from the center out and backed it with this super graphic print I bought at festival.

 I think my favorite thing about this particular hexagon interpretation is the complexity that all the different prints give the block. I don't think such a variety of prints would work though if the palette wasn't limited to basically two colors, orange and gray.
The block itself is the same block I designed for the Modern Baby Quilt in my book with a bit of a twist in that I divided the center hexagon into six equal triangles and string pieced them.
I can definitely see a quilt top made this way. Who knows? Maybe 2011 will be as six-sided as 2010 was.