Some Hexagon Progress

I think I may be a bit slow at paper piecing…   I started making my hexagons back in (quickly checks) April and although I have now turned most of the squares of fabric into hexagons, and have even started on some solid yellow centres* (to make proper pretty flowers), not many have been sewn together yet.  It’s supposed to be one of those takes-forever-labour-of-love things right?? 

That’s not all of them, but it is the majority.  I don’t know if I’ve made enough to make a full quilt.  In fact I’ve not counted them and have no idea how many I have actually made.  Maybe I should do that…

I have an hour train journey to work and back so have made some of them on the move, packing everything I need into a sandwich box for the trip.  The small square one I have fits a good number of hexagons (or paper and fabric squares), thread, a long pin cushion (which doubles up a scissor holder when I keep scissors in the box) and a thread cutter / threader.  It’s not so handy when sewing the hexies together as I can’t really squish them in when I’m done, but that didn’t stop me taking it on my 11 hour flight to South Korea in October where I managed to make three flowers while watching about five in-flight movies.  It was a great way to help the long flight pass I can tell you!

These are some of the flowers I have made so far.  As I said at the beginning I’m pretty slow at sewing them together but I love what I’ve done so far.  They’re so pretty when you see them together like that.  Maybe it will serve as inspiration to pick up my pace…  Can’t wait to have it all done now!

 

*the yellows I am using are Kona Cotton solids I bought from Mandy at Simply Solids at the Festival of Quilts this summer.

 

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Hexagon Progress

I’ve been doing it slowly, compared to other people on the web who seem to storm through them, but I am making the hexagons at last.  And I must say it is blooming enjoyable, it really is.  And pretty relaxing.  Taking a square of fabric, a paper hexie and turning it into one of the above.

I mostly make them in the evening when watching telly and manage to average about 16 a night.  Not very many, fairly slow going, but given that I’m usually blooming knackered in the evenings after work I’m happy to be doing any sewing at that time!  The fabrics all look brilliant made into hexagons and I can’t wait to have loads of them done so I can start working out how they should be put together into a quilt.

Not many so far, but not bad, eh?

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Hexagon (madness)

Despite still having not actually finished my Fat Quarterly Quilt Along Quilt from last year (project number one for my forthcoming Easter holidays), I have decided to start on another quilt top.  I think that I’m not alone in this sort of behaviour…  Too many things I want to make, too much lovely fabric waiting to be cut up etcetc.   I even have another, secret, project that I want to start in the Easter Hols too (at least do the cutting), but I can’t say too much about that.  Good job I’ve got about two weeks off though!

Although I have only made two actual quilts so far, one mini quilt (I’ll post pictures another time) and have made lots of other random things, I have decided that what I want to have a go at is English Paper piecing some hexagons into a quilt top.  Madness, probably.  I’ve read lots of other blogs on making hexagons, and most people seem to enjoy the process of the hand tacking and sewing.  But they all also seem to think they are mad for doing so.  Can so many people really be mad?  I think I will enjoy it, and if nothing else it will occupy my time to and from work on the 50 minute train journey I have to Sheffield and back every day in a more productive way.  Well, more so than playing games on my iPod…

Today I started by cutting my fabric.  I chose fabrics from my stash that I had been just waiting for a project to come to mind to use.  They are mostly Liberty prints, either from Liberty itself or from the V&A Quilt Exhibition last year (with two exceptions).  My favourites are the bicycles (centre) and the green faces (to the right of them), the latter of which are a Grayson Perry special edition for Liberty.  So cool!

I did a lot of reading on paper piecing hexagons and some of the most sensible advice (to stop you going too mad) was to cut squares of fabric to make your hexies, and that seemed like a good idea to me, seeing as cutting fabric is always the torturous thing in all this for me.  Also, to stop myself going too loopy, I did the (in my eyes) sensible thing of buying ready cut paper hexagons.  I can’t really cut along straight lines very well and was quite prepared to pay for someone else to do it for me.  £10.99 for 500 hexagons seemed like a good deal to me.  I know other people will find that expensive, but I’m lazy enough to pay someone else to do the hard work for me!

I’m using 8cm hexagons (and 4 inch squares, ever one to mix my measurements), so that I don’t have to make too many or make my eyes go funny with thousands and thousands of tiny hexies.  I’m sure I’ve not cut enough squares of fabric yet, and no doubt will need more than the 500 hexagons I have, but it’s a start and enough to keep me going for now.  I hope!  I’ve heard these things can be addictive though, so I may have to do more cutting soon…  In the meantime I have a nice stack of lovely fabrics just waiting to be tacked and turned into hexagons.  Better get on with it, eh?

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