Monday, April 20, 2015

Enthusiasm for Hexagons

After a delightful visit to a not-too-far Quilt Show, I came home with enthusiasm for Hexies!  I have no idea how they will be used.  Right now, I'm enjoying looking at them!     
 
That punch is from Fiskars (under $10.00), an accurate paper punch that I found invaluable for making the papers.  I would NOT do this project without that tool! It doesn't work on plastic, or Mylar, or fabric, only heavy paper, aka as junk mail.  Use the dull paper card stock - shiny is slippery.  My method:  punch a bunch of papers, then with a regular office-type paper punch,  make a hole near the center of each paper (for removal later), take a square chunk of fabric (don't worry about accuracy here - just make it large enough), wrap it around one side at a time, and take 2 stitches from the back.  Then, without cutting your thread, go to the next corner, fold the fabric over the paper edge and take a stitch, folding neatly at each corner, etc.  After fabric is neatly affixed to the paper, trim the extra from the back with a sharp scissors.  MESSY bits everywhere, but you might want to hand quilt these little jewels.  Those stitches stay in -- they do not go thru the paper, only thru the folded fabric.  I used quilting thread.  The used papers are removed with tweezers, or pointed tool, when it was needed to sew on the next hexie and many of them can be used again. 
 
There are many methods, this was mine.  These hexies finish at 1 1/4 inch, even though the punch size is called LARGE.  Note - they are not as difficult as we have been led to believe.  I did 4 rosettes in 2 days of too-much-TV.  These hexies are a perfect take along project.  All the supplies fit in that little tin box to the left of the photo. 
 
My fumble fingers learned the technique quickly.
 
The plastic bag has hundreds of punched papers - I had fun with the punch!     
 


8 comments:

  1. Looking good. So far I am not tempted :)

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  2. It is a very portable project and use up a lot of little pieces of scrap, and I can see that you are hooked. Welcome to the club lol. Love your chose of fabric.

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  3. Its a mindless wonderful project! I used old x-rays for the papers but the punch seems to work well. What brand is it? Does it come in bigger sizes? I would really love to make another hexie quilt. My teacher called them "quilt patties" (similar to cow patties!) The pieces were cut in multiple layers with a rotary cutter from strips.

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  4. So far I've resisted the hexie craze...but I can feel myself falling into temptation. LOL

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  5. Your hexies are looking good! Getting a punch is a good idea. I always just ordered the papers. I have a hexie UFO that I started about 10 years ago. I wonder if I will ever finish it. I do love them, but my planning wasn't very good and somehow my hexie border isn't coming out right. I think I'll just have to get it finished some day as a lap quilt and if the border isn't perfect, so be it.

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  6. I've never seen that paper punch but it sure looks like that would be the way to go if one was making a lot of hexagons (and 'm sure you will be!) You hexagon flowers are lovely.

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  7. I've never seen that paper punch but it sure looks like that would be the way to go if one was making a lot of hexagons (and 'm sure you will be!) You hexagon flowers are lovely.

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