Garden Rendezvous Hexified Panel Quilt

We showed you this gorgeous Garden Rendezvous quilt in our Market recap post; today's the day we're introducing designer Liz Granberg to tell us more about it! 

Q. What appeals to you about the Garden Rendezvous fabrics?

Liz: I absolutely love irises. My mother and auntie both grew irises, so I grew up around them and have always been drawn to them. The idea of a garden bouquet framed with a Celtic border (on the panel) intrigued me. 

Q. How did you get started making hexified panel quilts?

Liz: I had made a one-block wonder about 8 years ago. The one-block wonder concept was great fun and I loved working with the triangles. But once you’ve made one, you’ve made one—they’re all kind of the same in many ways. It’s color flow, but unless you do something different with it, there’s no big dramatic shift. About a year ago I joined the One-Block Wonder forum on Facebook and someone mentioned using a panel. I thought that was interesting and started playing.

Q. Tell us a bit about your technique.

Liz: I framed the panel with the one-block wonder concept. So it’s a hybrid. I work with seven repeats—six to get cut up and sew together and one to frame. I One-block wonders are typically made using 3-3/4 or 4” strips. have gone to cutting 3” strips so I have more hexies to play with. I get more color focused within each hexie, which gives me more flow to play with. I like to work with lights and darks and shots of color going diagonally. I also came up with the idea of adding a little flange frame around the panel itself so it was separate from but surrounded by the color flow.

Q. Do you lay these hexified panel quilts out on your design wall?

Liz: I have come up with a streamlined assembly technique that I share with the gals who take my class. I cut all of my strips, and then all of my triangles. I sit at my sewing maching and lay out hexies one at a time. Each hexie has three possible layouts because you’re working with equilateral triangles. You make 2 halves and pin them together. Then I take the panel, stick it up on my design wall and throw the hexies up on the wall randomly. Once they’re all on the wall, I start sorting, playing with shots of color.

Q. How do you come up with the layout?

Liz: I take a digital picture every time I move hexies around. Looking at these quilts from the perspective of a photo changes the dynamic completely. You can see where the design works and where it doesn’t in ways that the naked eye doesn’t notice. From the perspective of the photo, you can see what needs to be shifted. I’ve had color flows be done in a day and color flows stay on a design wall for two weeks! My oldest daughter ia puzzle freak and she can see how things fit together. More often than not, she’ll help fix a problem that I know isn’t right and she’ll spot what I’m missing. Sometimes it takes two of us to do it.

Q. How many hexies would you estimate are in your Garden Rendezvous quilt?

Liz: Close to 150.

Q. What do you like best about the hexified panel quilts?
Liz: Because they all come out so different, they’re completely addictive. Now I’m always looking for panels when I walk into a quilt store. I don’t know where it’s going to go until I get it on the design wall. Each one is a creative effort by itself.

See Ro Gregg's Garden Rendezvous collection here.

Learn more about Liz and her work on her website, gypsydreamerquilts.com.

Read her post about this quilt (and see more pictures!) here.

She is currently scheduled to teach the hexified panel quilt at these quilt shops:

Quilter’s Paradise, Baldwin City, KS

Quilting Bits and Pieces, Eudora, KS

Meadows Quilting and Sewing, Leavenworth, KS