Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Hexagonia

It's a disease.  Where you just want to sew hexagons.  I think a lot of people have it.  I don't.

At least I didn't until I figured out a way to piece hexagons with my machine as opposed to fiddly little English paper piecing.  Hand piecing is just not for me.  I've tried it, it's ok, I just can't keep it up for the long haul.
And so:
Machine Pieced Hexagons
This is a Bee block for the queen of solids, Latifah, of LAMQG fame.

Would you like to try?  If so, I've got some treats for you!

Number 1, presenting the first ever Lady Harvatine instructional video:




I'm sorry that things aren't totally in focus the entire time.  I'll do better next time.

Treat number two is a pdf file of hexagon templates.  You can print and cut out 4", 3" and 2" hexagons, all with a 1/4" seam allowance included.

Download the pdf file here.

I hope the video is clear enough.  Please ignore my horribly ragged finger nails.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Posted by at 12:24 PM
Labels: , , , ,

33 comments:

  1. Awesome, I was just commenting to a friend that I don't have the patience to hand sew hexagons.
    ReplyDelete
  2. It is PERFECTLY clear. After watching how my friends stiched these by hand I swore I'd never do hexagons in my life...... but after your tutorial.... well "never say never" :)

    Thanks
    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Liz - it's perfect! I realized when I left the Weekend Sew that you likely didn't get pictures of the awesome diamond block that you also created for me so I'll take pics soon. Thank you so very much! Oh, and you'll have to tell me what colors you want me to use for the border.
    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, I might even try hexes then.
    ReplyDelete
  5. You are fabulous! I'm going to have to try this out. Your instructions are awesome.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi! Thanks for the great video tutorial!!
    I see your rows were 6, then 5. Do you just sew one hex shorter every other row like that? I'm wondering about machine piecing a quilt sized bunch of these?? What do you think?
    ReplyDelete
  7. This is one of the best instructionals ever! Thank you! :)
    ReplyDelete
  8. That's a really good video, thank you! I don't like paperpiecing so I thought hexagons were out of the question for me, but now....woohoo! I must try it soon!
    ReplyDelete
  9. That is really useful. We were just discussing this at the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild. I'll be sure to share your video.
    ReplyDelete
  10. thanks!! i have done the hand piecing one and it was fun. (i told my self before i did this that i would never make a grandmothers flower garden) I was in a guild and the challenge for one of the years was something to do with a garden. Well as you can guess all I could think of was a grandmothers flower garden. so I bit the bullet and made one,by hand and quilted by hand. It was sorta fun. I don't like the set-in corners but your video makes it look so easy that I think I'll have to try it on the machine now. Thanks for the inspiration. and the OK to stop and start and not try and do it in one motion.
    thanks
    ReplyDelete
  11. In 1994 I made hand stitched hexagons for a bee baby quilt, and my friend redid them before submitting the quilt to the fair where it won a fine prize. I would only do them your way, and only if water torture was involved, at that. Your video is so good, you must be in the business. -- Sam of Inland Valley MQG
    ReplyDelete
  12. Enjoyed your video and technique yesterday...and stumbled across this Free Spirit pattern today: http://freespiritfabric.com/graphic-elements/gallerys/t197_1.pdf Instead of going end-to-end in a row, this pattern suggests off-setting the hexagons....then you can do a continuous line stitch when you join the rows. What do you think? Did you try it this way before settling on your method? They, too, leave the quarter-inch seam allowance at both ends of each hexagon. I have a long (13 hour) flight coming up in a week and am going to paper-piece my hexagons. But I'm not against trying a machine method as the paper-pieced are going into a very small project. *grin* Thanks for taking the time to put together the video and tutorial!
    ReplyDelete
  13. Great tutorial! Especially for big hexes! And I love the blog redesign.
    ReplyDelete
  14. thanks so much for the great tutorial!! i want to make a hexagon quilt this year thought i would work around the "real" stuff by using half-hexagons (which you can machine-sew, too).
    however, seems like i found a better way, thanks to you - yay!!
    claudia
    ReplyDelete
  15. This is an awesome tutorial. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Never in a million years would I have attempted hexs because of the handsewing involved. You just opened up a whole world of new possibilities.

    Thanks!
    Katie from the Phoenix MQG
    ReplyDelete
  16. Great tutorial! Thank you for sharing!
    ReplyDelete
  17. Wonderful tutorial! I was hoping someone out there would figure out how to sew them with the machine. I attempted the paper piecing and managed to make one "flower" and that was all I could take!

    I'll definitely be trying this out!
    ReplyDelete
  19. wow, what a video, and is it really that easy? Am returning to sewing after learning as a young adault and am now stiching through my pile of work so I can have a go at a project. One of your comments left this address and so using this and your amazing video I am going to get busy. Thank you so much. http://freespiritfabric.com/graphic-elements/gallerys/t197_1.pdf
    ReplyDelete
  20. Thank you for this great tut!! I linked to your tutorial on my blog.
    Eleonora, an Italian girl in Sweden
    ReplyDelete
  21. thanks for sharing. Will try to do it to create a fabric bag...take care and hope to see more great stuff from you.
    ReplyDelete
  22. Wow, thank you! I'm so excited to give this a whirl!
    ReplyDelete
  23. Thank you so much for your tutorial. I did the traditional way and was discouraged by the time consuming. You are the answer to my prayers!!
    ReplyDelete
  24. Thank you for the tutorial, template and the inspiration. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1399336&l=12eea3cc9c&id=1275173020
    ReplyDelete
  25. I can't do more than a few hexagons at a time either! I am now thinking this is completely doable! Thanks for putting together a fabulous tutorial!
    ReplyDelete
  26. Excellent tutorial. The explanation was very clear.Many thanks!!! Now, let's go to make a lots of hexagons.
    Kisses from Venezuela
    ReplyDelete
  27. No conocía esta técnica. Muchas gracias. Lo aplicaré cuando haga mis hexágonos.
    Yasmin
    ReplyDelete
  28. just starting to machine sew at 62...this is awesome...no more cramped fingers from english piecing thanks marilyn
    ReplyDelete
  29. Thank you so much. I wish I had found you earlier to rescue me from hand piecing! Ugh! I shall finish that commitment and try your method too!
    ReplyDelete
  30. I just absolutely love your tutorial on machine piecing hexagons. I was going to try and make it work, because I was not going to do it by hand, but I have been too busy to try it and figure it all out. so now when I do get time, I can just go to it, because you gave me all the tips I should need. Thanks!!!
    ReplyDelete
  31. I've always LOVED hexagons but was too lazt to handsew them. THANKYOU for this tute!
    ReplyDelete
  32. Thank you for a perfect eksplanation.
    ReplyDelete
  33. Dear Lady Harvatine,
    Wonderful tutorial.

    Many of my friends are into making Grandmother's Flower Garden which is ALL hexagons. I can cut out the hexagons for them using my cutting machine and now we have a way to sew the little critters together. Thank you for your help.

    Susan
    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)