Whirling Hexagons
A 1984 vintage pattern updated to use rulers and strip piecing.
The Review
We've come a long way in quilting, haven't we? It's amazing how some things change and some things stay the same.
Recently, I had the opportunity to rummage through the Quilter’s World archive files. I mean, I literally went to the warehouse and sifted through file cabinets with hard copies of the magazine 30 years old or more. To my utter astonishment, I found many patterns that are still very popular today—not the fabrics used in these vintage treasures, but the actual block patterns that were popular in 1984, in what was then named Quilt World magazine. At present, these patterns are very much in demand and are being used not only in all styles of quilting, but also in the newly established modern movement in quilting.
I grabbed several interesting issues from 1984 and 1985 to bring back to my desk. They were on my desk for a few days until a certain pattern popped up in my email inbox. I had a vague sense I'd seen it before.
Later that evening while I thumbed through the vintage magazines, I found a nearly identical quilt. The block pattern was the same as the one in Quilt World April 1984, but the setting was just a bit different, and the assembly instructions—well, that's a whole different story.
On closer examination of the vintage pattern, I found little to no instructions and no real cutting or piecing how-tos. There were no