Hello! Welcome to my stop on the Tessellated Leaves Blog Hop! Thanks for stopping by.
In a past life I used to teach Art and one of my favorite projects to do with my 5th graders was to study Escher’s tessellations. So when I saw Quilting Jetgirl Yvonne’s tessellated leaves pattern it brought back all kinds of memories and I was intrigued to try it in fabric form.
When she announced her new pattern and asked for testers I signed on. The quilt actually looks a lot more complicated than it really is, which is how I like them! I made the 4 color lap size quilt. It finishes at a perfect throw size at 60×72.
Yvonne was very generous with her fabric estimates for the lap size. I was left with about ten inches for each color. This is good because it gives me a little extra for my stash. Also, I misread my ruler and cut a strip too small at one point, so I had plenty of extra to cover that error.
I had to make 30 blocks (120 quarter blocks) and I worked on about ten at a time. Due to various errors, I had a few to fix up at the end. One of my fabrics was easy to mix up right and wrong sides so I needed to redo some blocks for that reason. The first set of blocks, I didn’t pay close enough attention to the fact that it matters which side you put your hsts on. I had a few where I flipped the HST pointing the wrong way…. So, It is good to pay attention to how to assemble your blocks! Once I got through that first batch, it was much smoother sailing with the rest of them.
Sneak Peek
My time with this quilt was not without various issues. I took a lot of pictures through these steps, and then my phone fried in a storm. I had to totally replace it and lost everything. Somehow, I was able to recover a couple pictures, but not many.
Once I had my blocks assembled, I spent an entire day getting the top completed. I was on a roll. And then I went to spread out my finished top and look at it all put together…. and it was covered in glops of white goo. I still have no idea what the goo is or how it got on there. I was so devastated. Then I spent the evening trying to get it out. I had to scrape it off and tried scrubbing the spots with warm water and toothbrush, but you can actually see the goo in the fabric weave. It looks better, but it is there.
I selected the Lotta Jansdotter grey squares that I got from the clearance bin of my LQS for my backing and I just love how it complements my fabrics. I usually like to piece the back too but for time’s sake I chose not to. I also forgot to add a label.
Again, time played a role in my quilting decision. I usually like more quilting, but let the pattern and time lead me. I quilted diagonal lines through the center of the leaves. It makes a large diamond pattern. It is hard to see the quilting through the black and white leaves in the pictures, but it is there! I used grey Aurifil for all my piecing and quilting.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to bind it, but as I looked over my fabrics this awesome black and grey Benartex fabric jumped out at me and I knew it was the one.
This is the first time I have ever made an entire quilt from cutting to binding in less than a month. It feels good to know I can do that. I pretty much didn’t work on anything else, though the holidays and travel were factors as well. If I didn’t have that going on, I may have been able to do it quicker.
I had every intention of giving this quilt as a gift, but now I am completely in love with it. I love the colors and the backing and the binding and everything together. I just might have wished I did a little more quilting on it.
The pattern is now available for purchase in her payhip store, and if you buy it this week, you can get it for only $6, which is a great price. This deal ends on the 31st.
Thank you again for stopping by and please take the time to check out our other hoppers’ quilts –
Sunday, January 25th – Introduction by Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl
Monday, January 26th – Debra @ Quilting Makes My Heart Sing
Tuesday, January 27th – Audrey @ Hot Pink Quilts
Wednesday, January 28th – Laurel @ Drowning in Fabric
Thursday, January 29th – Shauna @ Shauna’s World
Friday, January 30th – Pamela @ PBarrettHill Fashion
Saturday, January 31st – Wrap-up by Yvonne @ Quilting Jetgirl
This quilt was also my January finish for ALYOF –
Here is my goal post
You create your HST two at a time using the diagonal line method. I did find on my first block that following the given measurements was a close call. Some of my HSTs were a little short. Even so, that block still finished larger than 13 inches somehow. For the second block I bumped my HST squares up just a teeny bit to 3.5 inches and that gave me enough to trim a little bit which made for more accurate HSTs and easier trimming of the ears.
Other than that one adjustment, the pattern is very clear and fun to make.
You can view a video tutorial here.
Tula Pink, Lizzy House, Kate Spain and Sarah Jane take up the majority of my shelf space (pretty much in that order.) I also love to swap! So much that I’ve been running a 
Drowning in Fabric 