This quilt has been around a while, too, but is finally finished. It was last spotted here, back in January. Under a year isn’t bad, for me, with so many ideas swirling in my head.

I suspect this pattern has been around since the beginning of quilting, it has enough names to have been, anyway. Whirligig, Kansas Twister, Texas Trellis, Whirling Triangles in a Hexagon…. are just a few that I  have heard.

I see others currently making it and calling it all kinds of crazy “new-fangled” names. For me, I try to stick with the traditional quilt names when possible. You?

I hand-quilted this one 1/4″ inside the twisting shapes, using Aurifil 28wt thread, leaving the little background triangles unquilted. I used Quilter’s Dream Select batting, in cotton. It creates such a nice, old-fashioned feeling quilt, but still easy to quilt through as opposed to some of the other cotton battings out there.. Every so slightly thicker than Request. I love them both.

This pattern is made up of 60° triangles cut from 2 contrasting strips. The higher the contrast the better, that is the key to making them pop. No match-matchy here. The strips  are cut 2 1/2″ wide then sewn together. To make a whirling hexagon, you need to cut 12 triangles, 6 matching triangles with the same color on all the bottoms, meaning as you cut, every other one will match. My  fabric is two deep, so you are only seeing half of what you need.

You end up with enough triangles for two hexagon shaped blocks, one with the light on top, one with the light on bottom. You have to decide whether you want them all in one quilt or not. It does change the look. I used them all, in this one. My goal was to use up as much old fabric as possible.

I had some larger pieces of calico that I was struggling to use up and this turned out to be the perfect spot for them! Some hand quilters refuse to use a quilt back with seams. Obviously, I’m not one of them.

I think it matches perfectly. I’m finally beginning to see my fabric collection evolving from the 1980s to current times. It feels good. 🙂

What do you call this pattern? Have you made it? Did you use matching tips (the background fabric behind the twister)? All light tips, all dark tips or some of everything?

Kansas Twister
a vintage inspired quilt by Sewfrench
58″ x 70″
machine pieced
hand quilted
using Aurifil 28wt thread

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