My Observations on Hanky Harmony

My group of CQ stitchers have been planning for this hanky project since last  fall.  Last month we had a mountain of hankies on the table to sort.  Next Saturday we will begin the "laying of the hankies"  Luckily I have lots of folding tables...enough for one for each person.

I looked at a LOT of hanky quilts and some I liked better than others....aside from the colors themselves.  But the busyness of the hankies made it difficult to pinpoint why I liked some better.  So I outlined the arrangement of the hankies of some quilts and then removed the hankies to see if a pattern emerged....and it did.

The vast majority of hanky quilts had their focal point dead center and all the hankies pointing like arrows to it... I liked this arrangement the least.

I definitely liked the hanky quilts better which had the focal point off center.  It added much more interest to the piece.


There was a wide variety in the number of hankies on a quilt as you can see.  I know I want to incorporate extra lace and opportunities for fancy seams so I will opt for a fewer number of hankies.  Also when the maximum amount of hankies were used they all ended up about the same size.  I liked the ones that had more diversity in the size of the hankies placed.

So when I start to position everything on Saturday I know now that I want my focal point off center AND will keep in mind to add variety to both the size of the hanky showing and the direction of the points...