Penrose tiling – what on earth has that got to do with crafting you may ask?! Well DH recently bought me a quilting book called Geometrical Quilts by Pat Store which is full of quilts all based on – you guessed it! – geometrical patterns! They are all beautiful but some are more complicated to make than others. So while I am going to my weekly patchwork class but not able to carry heavy things like a cutting board and templates etc, I thought I would try one of the quilts which is based on English Paper Piecing (EPP) method.
My choice was the Penrose Tiling quilt – the book describes this as “two differently shaped diamonds (36 and 72 degrees) to make tesselating shapes based on a regular pentagon or decadon which do not otherwise tessellate” [Storey In practice this has meant drawing lots of paper diamonds and covering them with fabric in the traditional EPP technique
covering the paper shapes
Of course before I started I had to choose my fabrics and plan out which colours would go where in the design. I chose a fat quarter pack of various shades of purple as well as the lovely green batik fabric from my stash! I chose these as there is a photograph in the book of a quilt which I really liked and so I have based my design on this.
arranging the shapes to build up the layers
trying to get the pattern right!
It’s quite hard working out how all the diamonds fit together and deciding which fabric to use for each round of shapes. At each round I have to keep trying out the pattern!
arranging all the layers
So although this Penrose tiling is quite complicated and tiring it is a good project for when you can’t walk/carry/machine sew any much at all. (Boo sciatica – how I loathe thee!) This as far as I have got at the moment but I really hope to show you the progress to a mini quilt over the next couple of weeks!
Now I am going to link up with Handmade Monday as usual but over on it’s new home at Lucy Blossom Crafts Thank you to Vicky for taking over the hosting!
I love your choice of fabrics and the geometric patterns. I have stashed in my craft room a mountain of hexagons both with and without fabric that have yet to be made into anything nice. Thanks for joining the link with me today.
thanks – I have posted a comment on your HM blog post but it seemed to disappear! I will check back later and see!
It’s fascinating to see how you make each piece and how they all fit together. You must be so patient to have each piece a precise size. It’s really beautiful and I hope you can share your completed project. I admire your quilting skills of which I have none. Happy Handmade Monday 🙂
Thank you – yes its a precise task indeed and I’ve already had to re do several of them!
I love your choice of colours. I feel your pain! I sympathise with you as I am making 6 x 4″ Somerset Patchwork blocks to make a placemat! Do you think we may be ever so slightly mad? 🙂
🙂 lol yes – must be mad – will hop over to your blog to hopefully see your patchwork block!
Oooh no pressure! Will post a piccie next week, it’s going to take me a while to get through this one!!
Wow! It looks rather a challenge to get all of those shapes tessellating! I don’t think I’d have the patience!
I do admire your patience in tackling EPP quilting. I tried it once and it nearly drove me mad !!!!
I love the colours.
As a fellow sciatica suffer, I agree BOO…. xx
Your patience is impressive, looking forward to seeing progress next week:)
Goodness, what a complicated design, i admire you for taking it on. Its going to look amazing when its all finished, i can’t wait to see it! x
Wow this looks complicated but wonderful and lover the colours
I like doing the eep method, it can be quite relaxing. I love the colours you have chosen, it’s very striking 🙂
Jan x