Monday 2 November 2015

Making Progress - Hexagons

So I made 78 Hexies!  I think I have become a convert to glue basting.  When I was drafting some Snowflake designs using Hexagon pieces and the quantity required to make some of them was 60, 78 and 90 pieces I knew I was going to have to find a faster way of making these than regular thread basting.  During our Thursday night sewing session we all agreed glue might be the way to go so I googled "glue baste hexagon quilt" and found lots of stuff.   The tutorial I ended up using is by Piece O'Cake and involves glue basting with the Sewline glue pen.

I bought a Sewline pen last October at the Knitting & Stitching show in Dublin.  I tried to use it to hold an applique piece in place and it was rubbish for that so it stayed in my notions bag in the original box for a whole year.  I have since found that it is perfect for glue basting hexies and will be buying refills at this years show which is being held in a few weeks time. 
My plan was to bring these with me to the West Coast of Ireland during the bank holiday last Monday week and hand sew them into snowflakes!  I'm hoping to do some straight line quilting and applique the pieced shapes in place on Christmas coloured fabric to make some placemats for the centre of the dining table.
I got distracted by making the most of the shorter days, now the clock has gone back, and spent as much time on the beach and coastal walks with the dogs. 
Wilbur loved it though I don't think picking his way through the rocks at high tide was his favourite part!  Not a hint of any epilepsy though we had the valium the vet prescribed with us just in case. 

This weekend though I decided I'd better crack on with this project as the demo for our guild is 2 weeks away!  I  decided on the layouts above to motivate me to get on with the hand sewing and after messing about with tiny Hexagons for a bit, procrastination got the better of me and I decided to take a break and made up a few larger ones for Christmas trees.  
For the hand sewing night at our guild on the 13th, I'm going to show the option of one pieced tree and a more modern version with the hexies spaced out a bit, inspired by this tutorial I have loved and wanted to have a go at Modern Handcraft.
It always amazes me how flexible a hexagon shape can be!  Forgive the non-ironed background fabric, I've been going through my stash looking for a nice frosty blue and I think this works! 
So a bit of work to go yet but despite dragging my heels a bit, its going pretty quickly and I hope I'll get these done this week as I have to finish writing up instruction sheets for them (will share them here soon) and bee blocks to get to too!

14 comments:

  1. How awesome that you were able to find a method to help you make the hexies much quicker. I love the snowflake layouts, and I hope you have fun finishing these and demoing them to the guild.

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  2. I love hexies. I'm old fashioned and like sewing mine rather than glueing. I do like the look of he spaced shapes they make. I might have a play to see what I can come up with

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  3. I'm still amazed that you are making that many hexies. Can't wait to see the snowflake.

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  4. That's a lot of hexies! :) They look kinda small, too. Pretty snowflakes.

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  5. I so admire those hexies and the quilters who make them. Your snowflakes are perfection! And I agree about the blue background. It looks frosty to me.

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  6. Thanks for sharing all your lovely hexie patterns with Oh Scrap! I haven't tried gluing yet - I like the basting process.

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  7. Tiny hexies! I have basted my hexies, need to try gluing them. Beautiful pictures on the beach.

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  8. I did the glue basting for my hexies and liked doing it that way. I wasn't sure I wanted to do any more of them, but your Christmas tree idea is so adorable. I may have to try that myself!

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  9. I love your ideas here. I've always thought hexies were too much like hard work, but the snowflakes are almost enough to change my mind!

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  10. That blue is great, Ruth. Oh, I love your snowflakes idea! Forgive me, as I tend to live under a rock, make that a quilt, but I have never seen this done with hexies, so hooray for you for creating this (if you did)! Love the pics along the sea with your fur kids. :-) Such a beautiful place. Such a beautiful planet, no?

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  11. Love those itty bitty hexies! I've been making 1" hexies, but the little ones are so cute it's hard to resist making some.

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  12. oh wow, you are insane! but I love your ideas :)) as your projects looks great!

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  13. I second Vera's comment -- this is crazy and brilliant all wrapped up in one! Best wishes on putting these together.

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  14. I have been using Sewline too in my first forays into glue basting. It is working a treat.

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