quilting hexagons

[Kathryn S.]

Here is a picture of how I press my hexies:

[Kathryn S.]

Oh my! I'm so impressed! My head is spinning,looking at those. Mine were arranged in rows, I'm pretty sure that figuring out how to press to one side would have exploded my brain. If I do a flower garden type quilt, I will remember this though.
PS those colors are so beautiful, are they hand dyes?
Kathy

[Kathryn S.]

Ritzy, I am trying to wrap my brain around what you are showing in the picture. All the hexies I have seen have been made with their seam allowances either glued or basted down towards the center of the hexie. Then they are whip stitched together. I've never made a hexie, they just seem like so much work!

How did you make these without doing that?? I'd love to see the front of these too, to admire the lovely colors.

[Kathryn S.]

Not hand-dyed--just bought where ever I could find brights.

OK--this is how these were made. I found a site that had hexies lined up in a way that when you tried to cut them out they had enough space that you could use a rotary cutter. Then, because they did not have 1/2" size I printed off the 1" size, ran it through my scanner and printed it at 50%. This gave me just less than half-inch.

I then printed it on DecorBond(bought at JoAnn Fabrics). Cut them out and ironed them on the back of the fabric. I tried doing it using Ricky Tims' stable stuff and glue and wasn't happy with the results. Anyway, with the hexies on the back of the fabric, I could just stitch along the DecorBond to stitch them together.

Then when I pressed them, usually after I had the unit pieced, I pressed the center one with the edges flat and then press around the center one to press them to one side. They pretty much want to do this. A little spritz of water, press and put a ruler on them until the piece was cooled and it was nice and flat. Any other questions--let me know. I will try to remember to get a picture of the front tomorrow morning. Eli's coming to visit grandma tomorrow afternoon for a couple of days so it will have to be in the morning.

[Kathryn S.]

Ritzy, I had to read this one a couple of times to visualize it. So you hand sewed the seams but not whipstitch, right? you put the pieces right sides together with the seam allowances not folded back? And used the DecorBond as the sewing line. Genius!!

This sounds a little bit like Ruth McDowell's way of piecing, and it leaves the seam allowances free to go whatever way you want.

And, I can't get over the half inch size!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

I've always wanted to do that quilt called Inner City with half hexagons. I've seen it in a Jinny Beyer book and also Sara Nephews books. You have three half hexies of one color sewn in a "y", tessellating all over the quilt. You have to put this up on the design wall first, I'm sure. Then you would sew the half hexies into a hexagon and then sew the hexies together as usual. This could be doable with your idea. Hmm........

Kathy

[Susan B.]

I found this quilting pattern in an online advertisement.

[Susan B.]

Yes Kathy--that is correct.
Here is a picture of the front of the hexies:

Oops, should have removed the stray threads. ops:

[Susan B.]

Thanks Ritzy and Kathy for showing and explaining how this done. I do think I'd enjoy this method better than glue or basting and whipstiching if I decided to try a Hexie quilt.

Ritzy your hexie's are so lovely! What is the overall pattern design?

[Susan B.]

Ritzy your hexie's are so lovely! What is the overall pattern design?

Well, there IS the problem, I don't have a clue what to do with them.

[E.M. T.]

:roll: Oh...I think you'll find something to do with them......of course, you could send them to ME ! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[Lois B.]

Ritzy your hexie's are so lovely! What is the overall pattern design?

Well, there IS the problem, I don't have a clue what to do with them.

They are beautiful. How many do you have?

[Lois B.]

Just what is shown there

[Kathryn S.]

Thanks for the pic, Sue- it looks like a spiral with straight edges. Something like that might work, if i can figure out how to transition from hexie to hexie. I just really have to sit down and draw out designs, I guess!

Kathy

[Kathryn S.]

I thought I would post an update. I quilted a variety of freeform flower shapes in the border using a warm pink that blended with most of the hexies. When you get up close you can see the quilting but from a few feet away you don't notice it, which is what I wanted. I did quilt around every motif in the panel and the borders using Aurifil 50 weight thread. I'm still going to make a "real" hexagon quilt one of these days, will look up that fabulous quilting posted earlier!
Kathy

[wendy w.]

.........and post some pictures.