Stack & Cut Hexagon Quilts: Mix & Match 38 Kaleidoscope Blocks & 12 Quilt Settings • New Serendipity Patterns

Another fantastic quilting book from Sara Nephew and Marci Baker. I have Not Your Grandmother's Log Cabin, as well as Serendipity and Doubledipity. The instructions are clear, and the pictures are gorgeous. I like the two author books where they give two different ways to do a lot of the techniques - it makes it easier for me to understand, and I can pick the way I like. I enjoy making 60 degree quilts, and I love opening up the repeat blocks. They're all slightly different, and always a little surprising. I made a Serendipity quilt for my son and his wife with pumpkin fabric as the large print repeat and a coordinating leaf fabric for the repeats for the smaller setting triangles. I have a colorful large print Asian fabric waiting for me to pick out one of the patterns from this book. I count the number of pieces in the triangles to decide how complex of a block I want to make. There are a number of triangle blocks with only 2 to 4 pieces. I have the QTools Corner Cut 60 to trim some of the corners to help me line up the pieces. I use flat head pins (like the butterfly ones) to help me line up the repeats - I don't like hand sewing. The flat heads don't interfere with the ruler. This is a beautiful book just to admire all the pictures of colorful quilts, as well as to get inspired and plan new quilts.

Purple complex for me, but nice book

Book was in great condition and arrived before original time frame.

This is a great Kaleidoscope book. I need to make decisions and start to make a quilt.

Marci and Sara always have beautiful and interesting ideas and new techniques to try.

Fantastic book, can't wait to get started

I like the looks of these hexagon blocks and the resulting quilts; however, they are a lot more complex to make then a typical hexagon quilt.There are two quilt projects in the book: Three-Block Table Runner (24.5" x 65") and Eight-Block Quilt (65.5" x 73"). Neither are anything to write home about but their purpose is to help teach you the authors' construction methods.In Sara and Marci's method of creating blocks, you create the hexagon and then add elements around the outside. This gives a bit more space around the actual hexagon that results in more distinct blocks. This doesn't come cheap though because the designs become much more complex and there are a whole lot more fabric pieces. The book includes 38 different blocks, 12 quilt design layouts, 7 setting triangle blocks, and 5 border designs.I found the instruction good but a bit confusing at times. My favorite pages were on Design Possibilities which showed a triangle (or diamond) shape with a design element on it and then showed what design would result when turned a certain way and sewn into a hexagon (or star using the diamond). It is amazing how the look of the block can change. The remainder of the book details how each of the 38 blocks and other elements are created.Bottom line: If I was offered do-overs, would I buy the book again? No, I don't think so. It is nice to look at but even though I consider myself an experienced quilter, these blocks are too complex and time-consuming for what I want to produce in my life right now. The book would be great for anyone who is looking for a challenge and is willing to devote the required time commitment.- - - - - - - - - -If you are familiar with other hexagon quilt styles then you know that you stack up six fabric repeats exactly on top of one another, anchor the layers and then cut them as one into the pieces for a hexagon. Some people like to preview what the resulting hexagon will look like by using a mirror before cutting while others like the serendipity of just cutting the fabric and using what results. In this method you then decide where to place the sewn hexagon (halves at this point) to create the quilt. Each hexagon butts up against another unlike the hexagon blocks in this Stack & Cut method detailed in this book.If you like the look of hexagon quilts and you want fewer fiddly bits to deal about, check out the One-Block Wonders books. NOTE: The last of those is wonderful but doesn't include details about selecting, stacking and cutting the fabric so if you are new to hexagon quilts, I recommend the second book  One-Block Wonders Encore!: New Shapes, Multiple Fabrics, Out-of-this-World Quilts  because it includes all the construction details along with fun elements like adding 3D-looking boxes and shapes to the quilt.

Replacement copy for’ me. I forgot how much fun the stack and whack method produces immense and awesome hexagon quilts.

I see hexagons everywhere now!

Book arrived well packaged and within the time quoted. Book as described and proved very useful for stack and whack projects.

A lot of possibilities, all well described!