Design Wall Monday

Last year, my Florida quilt group asked if we could make "StacknWhack" quilts this year, so over the summer I went hunting for a fabric that I just loved.  No sense making a quilt just to show the technique.  When we were travelling in the Shipshewana, Indiana area I found this lovely Hoffman floral, so 8 pattern repeats plus about a half a yard came home with me.

When I arrived in the fall, only one person had found fabric, so she and I matched repeats and cut "block kits".  She has gradually been making her blocks, but until a few days ago, my "kits" sat in a plastic bag waiting for the perfect background fabric.  DH spotted the creamy buttery fabric, and I've finally begun to make the blocks.
Here are the first 4......only 16 more to go!

I make kaleidoscope quilts, using the "Magic Stack n Whack Quilts" book, every so often.  Interesting fabrics seem to come in clusters, and it is fun to see how the blocks turn out.  This method uses the matching repeats of fabric, in this case 8 repeats, cut into triangles, with each one identical to the next in the layer of 8.  You can preview the blocks using two mirrors, but it is more fun to see the pattern revealed as you finish each one.  I always make a few blocks right away, then continue to make the rest using the assembly line method.
If the idea of cutting 6 or 8 layers of fabric at a time, you might want to try just 4.  I had 4 repeats of the fruit fabric remaining,(only partial width of fabric), and was determined to use it all.  I lined it up, pinning the layers carefully, re-cut the selvedge and one perpendicular edge.  Then I measured how much fabric I had, and determined what size of squares I could cut to use the most of the fabric.  With squares, you get to decide which corner faces toward the centre of the 4-patch for each block.  It is fun to turn them and see what happens.  Here are the 12 blocks I was able to make from the remaining fabric.

Check out what everyone else is working on at Judy's blog.