more than meets the eye.

I'm travelling soon and need a small mindless takealong project. What I currently have in progress is too bulky or futzy to drag on a plane overseas. I've had my eye open for hand piecing projects as I watch Flickr and visit shops. Yesterday, I happened on Victorian Textile's Periwinkle Star templates. The Periwinkle Star or Hummingbird is a traditional quilt design. If you pull up a search on QuiltIndex, there are all sorts of great traditional examples which are mostly scrappy set against a white background.  It's a really good candidate or hand piecing due to all the Y seams. I thought it could be fun to try it in white, like the traditional versions, or it might be exciting to make it in reverse with scrappy octagons and black&white checkerboard in the stars.

Vacation problem solved, I decided I should get a set. We puzzled a bit over the package though. The octagon itself is fascinating. It's not the traditional stop sign octagon that we're used to seeing. Along with the kite and octagon, the package had a diamond. There was nary an explanation of its purpose in the directions. I was stumped. Belinda was stumped. Sarah was stumped. We puzzled for a bit, and then Sarah said she'd call VT later and find out how to use it.  I paid and went home.

I turned to pen, paper and  a quilt block book to work it out. I was happy to find that the diamonds could be used with the kites to make up a single octagon, or they could be repeated together for an interlocking effect.

Then I went to Inkscape. I decided to mock up a few more uses for the three templates. As it turns out, I've more than gotten my money worth. These three templates could keep me busy for years.

I can make a simple diamond layout.

Or interlock the kites in rows...

Not to mention the intended periwinkle star or hummingbird design:

The kite and diamond pattern than I sketched above....

With the addition of some simple squares, I could turn out a Missouri Wonder quilt

I'm a bit fond of these hexa-diamonds which make another kite and diamond layout.

Craig's favorite though is a variation of this which he calls the video game layout. My color choices remind him of Q*bert platforms.

All that from one set of quilting templates. There's enough in there to run an 8 week class on kites, diamonds and octagons!  I love when you buy something and there is far more to it than meets the eye. Frankly, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all of the options. Now to work out my game plan for our holidays...

Have you seen any good examples of these quilts?  I'd love to gaze at inspiration before I decide.