Skip navigation

Tag Archives: easy sewing hexagons on the machine

Half Hexagon Tutorial Part Four…finishing your quilt


We are now at the final stage of constructing our hexagon quilt, table runner, tablecloth, cushion, bag…whatever it is you are making…the possibilities are endless with this method! Depending on what it is you have made prepare a back for your quilt top. As mine is a cushion I pieced mine from the remains of some fat quarters which contrasted nicely with the front. You might prefer to use one piece of fabric…..it is possible to buy fabric wide enough now so that piecing is unnecessary.

Once pieced press the back well and check the front is still well pressed and ready for the quilt sandwich.  Oh and obviously check that all your threads are trimmed and that none are caught in the seams and showing at the front…a good idea to save heartbreak later.

Sandwich your quilt using batting of your choice ….then you are ready for quilting. Ruth drew up these quilting graphics for us earlier this year. I quilted my grandmother’s garden cushion by machine using the below design. It worked really well and was a pleasure to work on the machine. The seams which were pieced did not get quilted with this method…they simply become part of the design.

3614273432_43e4b04cc1(2)

Another way which looks like a lot of fun is this one….I love this design…and will be using this on one of my wips soon.

3614421791_c91f5a5ac0(2)

Ruth recommended this one for grandmother’s garden or scrappy ones

3613473491_eb291fc368(2)

and this one for hand sewing.

3614273624_bdfc6c6ae0(2)

I recently made a little tote bag and did my usual free hand circles…hand quilted with cotton perle thread. You might need to click on the photo and enlarge it at flickr to see the effect. It actually seems to work quite well with the floral garden look.

shabby hexies quilted

Lastly…a lot of people stippled their quilts…free motion quilted. The most amazing ones I have seen are alissa’s pebbles

and cathy’s swirly flowers.

So all you have to do now is quilt it however you are most comfortable…or challenged…tee hee…and bind it and then…go on show it off!

I will eventually be adding tutorials to different style hexagon quilts….my antique style hexagon and the grandmother’s garden style…as a matter of fact I am inspired to try out lots of different ideas…inspired a whole lot by the researchong of this tutorial!

By the way when I was researching this tutorial I found a link to a free pattern on one of the quilting magazine sites…it is in PDF form and has a template…a large one and similar graphics to Ruth’s …you might find it useful.

I would again like to thank Aneela of Comfort Stitching who hosted our first half hexagaon quiltalong and Ruth of Ruthdesigns …whom I am hoping will wrote a pattern for this…her patterns are fabulous and are available here.

Half Hexagon Tutorial Part Three…the sewing of the strips

Now we come to the sewing together of the half hexi blocks into strips!

02

I prefer to leave my half hexies up on my design wall. Aneela in our our original quiltalong advised, amongst other things, placing them in labelled zip lock bags, that is useful for people who cannot leave their work out but I find it easier to work direct from my design wall. I found that when I took the first strip down and placed the pieces in a pile that I reversed the angle of the seam somehow! It works better for me to keep the work up so I can see it…I guess I am a more visual person than I realised.

003

 

Hexagon Assembly

So take the strips one by one and sew the half hexagons together by aligning the seams at a slight angle….as in the photos above. When finished with each strip, after pressing with a hot iron of course, add it back to your design wall. A very satisfying experience as the hexagon blocks start to align…. as you can see in the graphic which was put together by Ruth of Ruth Designs. Some of the people who put their pieces away in bags put their completed strips, in order after pressing, over the top of their washing airers which is a great idea which came out of our previous quiltalong! Some other people laid out their strips on their work tables ready for sewing together.

Next simply sew the strips together, allowing your usual seam allowance of quarter of an inch and gently encouraging the seams to align, This should be easy actually, its almost foolproof…. yeah!

5

Once all your strips are sewn together and you have double or in my case treble checked that your seams match….press your quilt top

and congratulate yourself….the hardest part is over!

Here is a graphic showing how the edges will look once the quilt top is completed….the graphic allows for a larger area at top and bottom…you can measure and trim that down to a more exact measurement if you desire by trimming the top and bottom edges so that they are half the height  plus seam allowance, of the hexagons.

Hexagon Quilt trimmed

Adding a border is optional…some mosaic style quilts look better without them …its a personal thing.

Red Pepper Quilts did not add one and it looks fabulous

Neither did Cathy and hers is spectacular

Stephanie did not add a border to her quilt

Pokey is adding a hexagon style border to hers which looks fantastic

marilynk however  added a border to her mini quilt and it is stunning

Joan also added a border to her really unique quilt

half hexagon quiltalong part five

Above you can see my previous top trimmed and ready for sandwiching, sans border.

Here is a really original quilt  by ashley

and another here by alissa…well worth checking out.

 

I am also working on this random style quilt in sherbet colours…will add it when I have completed the top. I removed some of the blocks…if you click on the photo you can see it on flickr and you can see which ones I removed…there are notes on the photo which I can’t do here! 

Next time…. sandwiching and quilting.

 

Again many thanks to Ruth for her help with the original inspiration  and for the graphics and template.

Don’t forget to add photos to Tutorials @ magikquilter.com on flickr!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Half Hexagon Tutorial Part One

PART ONE: IngredientsChoosing fabric from your stash...you will need varied strips wide enough to fit the size template you are using. Buying fabric...for a quilt 180cm x 180cm you will need approximately 30 x 25cm strips or fat quarters.

A word about fabrics...smaller all over prints work best for this although fussy cutting larger prints can definitely work as long as you make sure the seam does not cut into the pattern too much….ie you do not want to join together the head of a monkey with the feet of a monkey…you need to really try to read the finished hexagon, when quilted, as if it were only one block.

*Border fabric…if you would like to use a border you will need extra fabric for that…I am using one of my feature fabrics.
*Half Hexagon template purchased from quilt shop or template made from plastic. When I was researching this tutorial I found a link to a free pattern on one of the quilting magazine sites…it is in PDF form and has a template…a large one …you might find it useful.
*Template plastic or paper for piecing templates….I use spare scrapbooking paper… anything that is spare really like good quality magazine brochures…it has to be able to take a few pins without a battle and without it being so flimsy that it disintegrates.
*Pins, design wall of some kind, thread, batting of choice, backing fabric, binding fabric, scissors and /or rotary cutters and mats, sewing machine, new sewing machine needle.

The variety of quilts to make this way is simply endless……recently I saw a  fabulous one made with alternate white hexagons.…. and another which would work with half hexagons is here. My friend Joan made one in an unusual layout …it is here.

My two finished ones so far are…..the mosaic top

half hexagon quiltalong part five

and the grandmother’s garden above…modern style…still not sure whether that should be  a cushion or a tote bag!

Part Two… cutting and auditioning hexies.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.