I have had "in Progress" a variation of a Hexagon with triangles and stars for going on 7 years! And I am still just piecing the blocks together... It has been such a long time since I first saw this pattern and cutout the pattern pieces that I have lost the original measurements of it and I have forgotten the name of this block, too!
The Hexagons are not too small, each side measures at 1 3/8 inch, but then you come to the diamond shapes and the other long pieces (they are called a parallelogram, I think) that form the outside edge and they do get a bit tiny.
I made myself alot of the little shapes so that whenever the spirit moves me, I can cover the shapes with the fabric in order to sew the pieces together accurately...
Sewing Hexagons together was pretty much my first exposure to sewing and quiltmaking -- I think, roundabout the time I started into grade school.
My grandmother first showed me how to sew fabric scraps to the cutout pieces of newspaper or magazine pages. She would take the scrap of fabric and fold one side over the paper and hand sew a few stitches through both the paper and the fabric, and she would do that for each side of the hexagon...
Some time ago, I learned a slightly faster but still as accurate way of making those little fabric hexagons. Now I use cardstock -- which I got from my son who works in a Printing Shop. I just tack the corner of the fabric and don't even sew through the cardstock, just a little double stitch at each corner of the pattern piece...
PS, do you notice those lines or "x's" on the cardboard pieces? Those are to mark the backside of the shape, especially for the parallelogram pieces, because if you sew the piece the wrong way, it will not fit in the block... So make sure you mark them so they all go in the same direction!
Now when the pieces are done in this manner, after they are sewn together you remove the cardstock just by slipping it out and the pattern piece is ready to use on your next block or two...
Those cardstock pieces help to hold the shape of the block and make it so you sew accurately along the edge. As I progress I take out the center pieces, but until I sew the blocks together I will leave the parallelograms in place.
When I don't feel like doing the whipstitch to join all those bits together, I paw through my scraps trying to figure out what fabric goes with what other fabric...
It is kind of like digging through a box of buttons trying to find the ones that match!
For each block it needs 6 diamonds of a dark or bright and 6 of a light, it needs one hexagon for the center which I try to do as a fussy cut, and six of the white parallelograms.
I put the matched up pieces together in a little 'snack' size ziplock bag so the pieces are ready for me to sew together when ever I am sitting on my covered bench swing in the backyard on a warm summer afternoon...
Every Summer I manage to make a few more blocks for this eventual Heirloom Quilt....
It will be nice to someday see a finished quilt from this project but I am enjoying the process of hand sewing these blocks and choosing the fabrics. If it never actually gets finished -- I think I may be just as happy that I kept my hands busy on the hot summer days that you just don't want to do too much active 'work'...
Do you have something that can fill those summer days that gives you satisfaction?
Now, I do know that some quilters want the quick satisfaction of seeing a completed project, so I am, as usual for me, going against the trend.
If you are interested in learning more about hand piecing hexagons or other shapes. Here is a You Tube video that explains how to sew the hexagons together, the WAY MY GRAMMA DID IT...
and another way to put the hexies together...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRY3IRB_ELY which is really the most difficult and convoluted way to do it....
And this last video is the way that I do it. This really explains the process VERY well!
There are also a multitude of videos that explain how to machine piece hexagons. There is even a Hexagon pattern that is sewn as half hexagon shapes and it makes it so that there is no inset seams, every bit of it is straight lines -- quite ingenious actually!
Hexagons were 'trending' a few years ago, so maybe if they didn't grab your interest then, now might be the time for you to make a few blocks... Or even just one block that you can sew on a cushion to show off your Hand sewing expertise!
Enjoy!
