My son Elliott’s favorite G.I. Joe character when he was a boy was Snake Eyes (and his pal, Storm Shadow). Both of these characters are ninjas and have the same hexagram tattoo on their arms (number 58 on the chart of 64 hexagrams in the I Ching). As a graphic designer, Elliott has used this hexagram as his logo and he also has it tattooed on his forearm. Elliott’s web site is aftercompletion.com.
I wanted to make a quilt for Elliott, but I couldn’t imagine that he would ever be interested in one of my normal quilts with the pastel vintage fabrics. Then it occurred to me that it would be pretty easy to piece a hexagram quilt block. When I mentioned this to Elliott, he suggested I use all 64 hexagrams in their sequential positions (which worked pretty well because it forms a rectangle).
The blocks were constructed using an assortment of subtle red prints and batiks. The backing is one of the red prints. It was quilted in the ditch on my machine (one of my first attempts at machine quilting). I didn’t want any quilting stitches to show in the blocks because I felt it would detract from the design.
For Elliott’s birthday last month, I used his quilt as a tablecloth. I cut a small hexagram design in quilting template plastic which Emily and I used to decorate cupcakes. I think they turned out pretty well — and they looked especially cute in my new cupcake holder from Crate & Barrel.
Hexagram Quilt
Martha Dellasega Gray, 2007
machine pieced, machine quilted
60″ x 72″
Cupcake photos by my nephew, Chris
Martha,
That is an amazing ‘man quilt’! I was not aware of the hexagams of the I Ching but it makes a great design! (love the cupcakes, too! I have one of those cupcake thingys, too. I love it for birthdays!)
That is so cool! I am having a bit of a geek moment, I’m afraid. I loved GI Joe as a kid and I also have an I Ching set. What a great idea for a quilt, using the I Ching hexagrams is genius. Elliot’s dreams may well bring him good luck!
And the cupcakes? Yes, awesome. You’re such a sweet mom to do that for his birthday. 🙂
Love! xoxox
What a cool idea. Elliot is a lucky little boy to have such a thoughtful mama. Both the quilt and cupcakes are just great.
This is totally fabulous. Great idea and great execution and totally awesome cupcakes too!
This is amazing. I love the design. What a brilliant idea!
The decorations for this party were so great! I love how you choose a theme and create all the cute variations on it. (The cupcakes were good, too.)
Where did you get those bobblehead GI joe dolls? I have that tattoo and I would love to have the toys too.
My name is Tui. I was named from the Iching. I have this Trigram tattooed on my back. Most people thought it was strange or called it a barcode. Then one day I was paying for something in a store and a woman came up and grabbed my arm, asking very insistently “why do you have Tui tattooed on your back???” I was amazed someone recognized it and explained that it was my name. She was delighted… But I digress. This quilt is AWESOME!!!! I am going to give this a go!!
This is fantastic! I love the I Ching, and this is so unique and beautiful.
Hi It’s me again.. Can you tell me how much fabric to buy for this quilt? My head is hurting trying to work it out.