Atoms
Please welcome my latest science-themed quilt pattern, Atomic Affair! After designing science quilts to celebrate chemistry, biology, and medicine, I felt like physics was being left out. Enter this quilt featuring the universally recognized symbol for the atom!
Atomic Affair is available in the Flying Parrot Quilts pattern shop.
This quilt was a real puzzle to design. The atoms (which were their own challenge) are, of course, hexagonal blocks, but I really wanted that center block to be rotated for aesthetic reasons. I’m so happy I worked out how to do it, and the good news is that none of this requires any templates—just you and the 60° line on you ruler, although you might find a 60° triangle ruler helpful.
On my quilt, I mostly left the atoms unquilted, but filled in the background with pebbling (which took forever, as pebbling tends to do, and yet I somehow keep deciding that pebbles are the best way to quilt my quilt!). I thought that this was a nice way of representing atoms, and also the fact that atoms are made up of even smaller sub-atomic particles. I quilted the gray background with echoed triangles to fill out the rest of the quilt.
The pattern is for a large 7-block quilt (75″ x 75″), but I’ve also included fabric requirements for a one-block hexagonal mini quilt if you’d rather just make one block!
Atomic Affair is available as a paper pattern, instantly downloadable PDF pattern, and on Payhip for EU/UK folks. You can use code ATOMS for 10% off through Sunday, 3/21/2021!
Leave a Reply