Hexagon Diamonds

Just thought that I would share my progress on my hexagon diamond quilt. I haven't had much luck lately due to some minor surgery and I've been limited to what I'm allowed to do. I found that I sought out my hexagon diamonds as a form of comfort.

Here are some of the completed ones. I've finished 27 out of 99 diamonds for my queen size quilt and 3 out of 6 half diamonds for the sides.

We are having a late Christmas family get away in January and I plan to take this project away with me. I'm rediscovering my love of this quilt with each diamond finished.

New Blogger Templates available

I played around with the new blogger templates - I particularly like Flipcard. The pro is that a person can choose which view they want when looking at the blog. The con is that, at least from my exploration so far, some features go away, such as the slide show. If you have an opinion about whether or not I should change the look of the blog, please leave a comment and let me know. If you don't have an opinion, I guess you get stuck with whatever the rest of us decide. =)

Introductions and Progress sharing

Hi. My name is Kylie and I live in a rural country town in Australia. I love english paper piecing and of course those dreaded hexagons. They are so addictive. I'm currently a stay at home Mum with a 4 year old daughter and 2 year old son and a wonderful husband who also happens to be my best friend.

This is my first post and I wanted to share with you some of my current hexagons UFOs or WIPs depending on your tastes.

The first one I want to show off is my hexagon diamond quilt. I started this in 2009 when my son was born as it was the only sewing, machine or hand that I could do between feeds and sleeps. It helped keep me sane during an insane time. This quilt is based on an antique quilt from the 1800's that was never finished. I'm making mine using 1" hexagons. The original uses 3/4" hexagons.

I have completed 23 out of 99 diamonds for this quilt and 1 side diamond. I still have a long way to go. The fabric I'm using is At Water's Edge from Blackbird Designs. I just fell in love with the muted color scheme.

I also caught the solid fabric bug recently and decided to make a color quilt using 2" hexagons. It has been really fun to make because it has come together so quickly. I didn't know how I would like it, but I can't wait to finish it off. I've got 2 more colour rows to add and backgrounds to complete the quilt. I plan to hand quilt this one using Finca Perle cotton in variegated grey.

And lastly, because I couldn't help myself I joined Tonya at Hillbilly Handiworks for her Ahhh Hexies Stitch/Quilt Along. I have completed the first 2 hexagons and have nearly finished the 3rd one. I've also started to baste number 4. I'm using my 1930's stash with a plain white background. My hexagons are 1.5" finished. I haven't measured the larger hexagon for a finished size.

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Hexagon 1 - The Pointing Star

Hexagon 2 - The Hexagon Star

Hexagon 2 - The Hexagon Star

Hexagon 3 - The Columbia

It has been fun to share. I hope to catch up with everyone soon.

Quick Question - polling ideas

I'm simply curious. 

1.  Is there anyone sewing hexagons but NOT paper piecing?

2.  If you paper piece, do you a) roughly trim fabric in a hexagon shape 1/4" bigger than papers, or b) use cut squares and don't trim?

3.  Does anyone use Inklingo to print on fabric and then join shapes with running stitches?

I have always paper pieced, and I trim by eye to the shape of a hexagon, but I see there are other ways to do it.

the "Jo" quilt

my super-secret-project revealed....






Insanity III (yep, the THIRD)

half inch hexagons

generic homespun background

Centennial Turkey Red by Judie Rothermel

and ALL the other hexagons are Jo Morton fabrics

am working on this project for 8 hours a week, but a lot of the time it's just boring prep....tacking the hexagons to the paper

will post another picture when there is some noticeable growth

Hexagon Time

If you are at all like me, and you must be somewhat, because 13 of us are authors on this blog, and making hexagon projects, then you've gotten distracted recently in the pursuit of hexagon finishes.  I know Marcia finished a project (yay, Marcia!), and that's encouraging.

So here's a challenge, first of all for me, and then to the rest of you.  Let's get back on it!

Angel, I also thought you might make an outside row or two of hexagons with a darker green path, or even a gray or rust, like paving stones around the garden, if you need it bigger.  I loved your picture.

Christine, have we seen a picture of your project yet?

Actually, maybe we should all write a post about where we are - sort of an update over the last few months!

Buying a house put me behind, but I'm beginning to catch up.  What put you behind this summer?

My Hexagon Quilt

It's only taken a month, but here is a photo of the hexagon quilt I am working on.  It was started by a friend's mother, who died.  She gave it to me to finish because she doesn't do things by hand.    The mint green (path) fabric is limited, so right now I am stitching them and adding blocks as I can.  There are more hexagons for more blocks, but I am afraid that the mint green won't go far enough.  we shall see!

Angel

new in the Alley

Hi all

my name is Christine, and I'm a hexagon-ist

as soon as I take a picture, I'll post (a teeny peek) at my newest project

...the third in an ever growing list

if I don't keep at it, it will be in serious danger of becoming a UHO (unidentified hexagonal project)

Thanks go to Susan for getting us all motivated and together

newbie

Thanks, Susan!  I'm here!  I will take some photos of my hex project SOON to post!

Mea culpa

After starting this blog community to encourage myself to work on my own hexagon quilt, I have fallen sadly behind this summer.  There's a good reason - I'm buying a house!  I should close on Monday, fingers and toes crossed.  It's been a long frustrating process, but mostly that was my own short-faithedness (is there such a word?)  Everything has worked out exactly as it should, right down to getting wonderful appliances when I just *knew* they'd not get in again the kind I wanted. 

I'm buying used, and this morning she called me and told me they had everything, so I went over, and sure enough, they did!  Black side by side with water/ice in the door, black and white stove, white matching washer dryer.  The kitchen is all white, including the dishwasher, and I'm moderating that with black and will put in a black stone counter-top, because there is a problem with the current one anyway.  Accent with red and stainless appliances.  Can you believe this from the woman who was happy to have her husband cook for almost all their married life?  <smile>  He'd be either shocked or proud, not sure which.

Anyway, all my stitching projects have taken a back seat, and I'm two months behind on every single thing.  My goal is to get into the house and catch up by the end of October.  I think I will, since there will be a dedicated sewing room right next to my master bedroom.  My hexagons will be one of the first things I do, too.

At the same time, I'm changing ISP, so the pictures I had up will have to be put up again with the new numbers for the ISP.  Leave it to me to change everything at once!

My Hexagon Progress.. Top Complete!!

I stitched my last hexagon.. well, on this quilt top anyhow. I have loved doing the hand work! It is so nice to sit in the evening and have some handwork to keep my hands occupied. Today I added a light brown border to the left and right hand sides with a blanket stitch (and my sewing machine), It is supposed to look like a flower garden box. I will use the same material to bind the quilt. Next I will be making the back of the quilt. I am using white fabric for the very bottom. Above that I will be using 4"x12" blocks of red, green and an occasional yellow. Then the rest of the quilt back will be white. I have saved a few left over pieces of red and green that were so kindly shared with me and I don't want them to go to waste. I cut them into squares thinking I would need them as hexagons. I am going to make them into appliques of flower petals and leaves that match the quilting that I am doing on the quilt. I am going to applique these onto the quilt on the turn down area of the quilt on the white of the back. I still have quite a long way to go, but it sure feels great to have this much finished. It feels like a great accomplishment!

progress

Yesterday the weather was nice so that I could sit outside and add some flowers to my Grandmothers flower garden tablecloth. One light colored flower to make :)
My hexagons are 3/4".
I will sew on the next nice day when I can sit outdoors.
 ( not today, it's raining :(

Secret Project

It isn't that I'm not doing this month's hours. It is a present, though, so I cannot post the picture just yet. Working out well, but I am reminded that while I do patchwork just fine, I am a rotten quilter. I'm going to have to take some lessons from Momma instead of always relying on her doing the quilting for me.

I have decided that 3/4 hexes are as small as I'm going to go on any project larger than a pin-cushion. 1/2 hexes are just too much work.

Did finish a non-hex project that has been hanging over my head, and my gardening, too. This gives me the freedom to work on my hexes without the accompanying guilt. This should increase my speed greatly.

Slowly, Slowly, Slowly

Slowly, slowly, slowly I am getting there, one stitch at a time.
Now Easter is over, the children are back at school, and visitors have gone home I can get back to my hexagons.
I have been sitting in my lounge room, that room faces the direct west, great in the winter no so good in the summer, anyway I have taken up my winter seat. Sitting in the lounge room in the sun doing my hexagons from 3pm when the sun comes through the window until approx 5pm when the sun disappears behind the trees. Now those trees use to be shorter but over time, they have grown and grown so instead of getting the sun later in the day I have to settle for 2 hours sun per day. I would sit outside but it is too windy.

I have been attaching my templates to the fabric, some green and some white. I also have to cut some more fabric for the flowers and all that takes time. I really would like to have all the flowers finished and sewn into the baskets. Adding the white background and the green surrounds would be great for show and tell next week.

Hexagon Scrappy Flowers

My next seven flowers to add to my Scrappy Flowers hexagon quilt.

I may not get as many hexagons made in April because most of my time will now be spent hand quilting (Big Stitch) a quilt I made approximately 15 years ago. But I will still be working on my hexagon projects (note the plural) in the evenings.

Next Project: Hexagon Scrappy Flowers

This quilt was started some time back, no clue when but within the last 5 years.

Now it is time to get back to it.

 As the close up shows, each flower is made out of 7 different prints but color coordinated.

I started in the center and keep adding one ring at a time.

I love the scrappy look of the quilt. It makes you smile whether you want to or not.

Hexagon Doll Quilt

It's finished and bound. 

I machine quilted it in black thread with a curvey stitch down the center of the dark hexagons.

The back is Fossil Fern flannel, no batting.

 I used the 1" hexagons.

Size: 24" x 29"

A closer look.

So Far - Hexagon Doll Quilt

It was a challenge. I was showing my scrappy queen size hexagon quilt with 4982 (3/4") hexagons ,when the doll quilt chair at the guild meeting made a side comment saying maybe "Jo" would make a hexagon doll quilt for them. Well, that was just too much of a challenge to pass up.

I decided it would be scrappy and made with the 1" hexagons. Then, when putting them together I forgot to count so it is going to be a rectangle instead of a square. Why does my brain keep taking vacations?

My Busy Week

Was in the mood, so I got quite a bit done. I got a box in the mail from a friend who said she had some scraps she could send me. Quite a big box, actually. I think maybe she should have used the word 'lots' instead of 'some,' because it came out to 249 hexagons. Then I attacked a bag of scraps I hadn't dealt with yet, and came up with 261 more hexagons. All cut and stacked and counted, now, ready for sorting and matching. I also basted up 22 more flowers worth of hexagons. Each stack you see in the picture is a single flower with its 5 path pieces. This isn't the glamorous part of a hexie quilt, is it?

First update

Thanks for inviting me to join you! I am currently working on a Granma's Flower Garden with 3/4" hexagons. No two pieces of the flowers are the same, while the dividing paths and borders will be the tan you see and a green that isn't cut yet. I have this, plus around 900 more unbasted hexagons, 32 more flowers, and around 300 more basted hexagons. It has turned into a collaboration, because my Mom just took the basted hexagons to assemble - she was out of handwork to do at her quilting guild and doesn't like to tote her sewing machine with her. That would be the 32 flowers not in the picture, and she wants more to do already! I promise not to count her hours towards my goal.

I get my pieces from Paper Pieces, and the fabric is from my stash and scraps, and two quilt guild's scraps and donations. For the half Hexagons I will need to straighten the borders, I am downloading the shapes to cut out from incompetech.com. I do not baste through the paper, I baste around the edge of the fabric and cinch it up on the paper. I work the paths onto the flowers as I go so I don't end up with a big boring bit at the assembly.

I have been working on this since late 2006, but I had to take a year off because of cataracts and the surgery to correct them.

The picture was taken with the pieces laid out on top of my last knitting project being blocked out. I figured with the space cleared and the cat locked out of the room, it was as good a time as any.

Momma's Truckin!

I'm so excited about my progress on my hexagon quilt! Check out my pile of blocks!!
I also have a few blocks that are already stitched together.. I had to see how things were going to work when I started to stitch the blocks together.. pretty cool! So I'm getting really close to making a quilt top now.. Yippee!! I have a few more blocks to make, and then I will lay it out, and make sure I don't have any flowers that are the same next to (or too close to) each other. Stitch it together. After that, I will have to make the partial blocks that will fill in the edges.. making it all square. SO very excited everyone.

Now, I'm loving this so much, and seeing so many hexagons all over the internet, that I am ready to make ANOTHER hexagon quilt!! Nutz right? Well, I'm considering a very special kind of hexagon quilt. I want to make a fussy cut hexagon quilt. 1 1/2" sides.. the same as I'm using now, nice and big... But I want to have them be fussy cut so that cute pictures or nice designs turn out on each hexagon, and each hex in the quilt is different!! I think that it will be such a fun and exciting quilt for a grandchild (someday) to cuddle up under. Do you remember snuggling under a crazy quilt or scrappy quilt at grandma's house, and looking for that favorite piece of fabric? That is what I can envision them doing. Today I went to Walmart and hit the clearance fabric and found some cute character prints. I have them in the washing machine now. I hope to find some other people who are interested in doing the same thing.. so that I can exchange hexagons with them.. and we can all exchange some wonderful fussy cut hexagons, or fabulous fabric prints..to make that special quilt!

Update More Hexagons

Before we went away  I cut what I thought was enough fabric for the white background  and enough of the floral prints to make the flowers  to do me for a month. I also cut enough cardboard templates to last me the same amount of time. We had a couple of rainy days so I could just and stitch the fabric onto the cardboard and then sew them together.

I thought that I would try and get at least one finished basket with background done, but that wasn't to be. I did do enough Hexagons to make a basket but my concentration isn't the best as I just sat and joined and then when I though that I had done enough to fit into a space on the basket they just wouldn't fit. I had to fit them onto another basket so now I have a few baskets all up to the same stage and no baskets finsihed. Anyway I used all the fabric up that I had cut and now have to cut some more, a job I really do not like.

March update

Last night, while listening to Star Trek movies, which I pretty  much know by heart, but they are like comfort food, I made some progress on my hexies.  There are no holes around the edges any more!

Only a little progress...

I don't have a lot of time to contribute to this project monthly, but I did get a little bit accomplished.  I only finished 1/3 of my goal for the month, oh well.  Below is what it looked like the first of February.

Since then I've added another flower and filled in a little background.  The extra flower, however, was already done.

Update Rosettes

Slowly but every day a rosette makes a Quilt in one year???

Slowly, Slowly Hexagons

I am finding that there is a lot of ‘behind’ the scenes work that goes into making the Hexagons,  I seem to be advancing at a good pace but the worst thing is that I don't see much of a change since the last time I posted.

My hands are a bit sore this week so I think that I will do some tracing and cutting of the flowers this week and see how I go.
What I really would like to do is make a complete basket, just to show that that I can...

　
　

Small progress

Some small progress to report. I'm not putting a picture up yet, because I want to finish the part I'm working on - filling in the holes where the black 3-piece triangles go on the part that's already done, and straightening out the sides as much as possible. I have 5 triangles ready to go in, have sewn one in and attached the flower that needed to be on that corner with it. Hopefully, working at odd moments in the next week, I'll have all that done and be able to show another picture that looks a little different.

I also made some decisions about size and what goes where, decisions that are different from the ones I'd made before. Of course!

THANKS SUSAN for helping me to find this place!

This is my current project.there are 583 hexs at 2" per side. I have been at this since May of 2009, and I promised myself to have the top done by May of 2011! All that is left is to attach the border, all by hand...When border is done, it is my intention to hand quilt this...
any ideas would be greatly appreciated.....also--how or what would one do for binding? I am only accustomed to doing that by machine?!?!?

That said, I have begun making hexs a bit smaller at 3/4 " on one side...I think I will make a design of some sort...and I am in no hurry....and have not set a time frame...maybe later on! :)

Update Rosettes

This is the start of my hexagonquilt Rosettes.I will use for each rosette a different cotton.The cottonchintz borderstrips was a gift from the Quiltshop in Amsterdam.I use the cottonchintz strips between the Rosettes

Update on Hexagons on Rosie's Quilt

I layed all the baskets and handles out just to see what I had done,  in the scheme of things not much.
There is at least 2280 Hexagons in this Quilt no wonder it is taking so long.
I didn't realise that doing these Hexagons was going to be so slow.

Hexagons

I made those hexagons in 2000/2001 while I was traveling.I used all kinds of paper for making the hexagons. By circumstances travel was no longer possible for a number of years,the hexagons disappeared in the closet.
The hexagons that I made I will use them in the backside and leave the piece of paper in the hexagons( privete memories)So I start a new hexagon project.

Mommarocks progress

I laid out all of my blocks today on the floor to see my progress so far. I still have a long way to go, but it was nice to see that I have more done than I thought I did. It looks all just red in the picture, but if you zoom in you can see so much more. There are so many different patterns of reds and maroons, and brights etc. I'm really excited about it. I have lots of blocks to do still, and then of course I have to quilt it.
For the quilting, I have a plan as well. The yellow circle will be the center of a big ol flower. The red will all be a nice big flower leaf. The greens will all be a leaf that I designed. I will turn the leaf up, down, left, up, down, left as it goes across the quilt. Not so sure about the white block. Still stuck on deciding what to quilt there.. maybe just outline the block.. I'm up for suggestions though...anyone??

Portable Hexagons

This is how I pre-stage my hexagons before basting them. I put them in order for the blocks. I pin them and line them all up. There are twelve hexies to my pattern blocks, so when I start basing, I pick up the next twelve blocks and start to stitch them. I have this paper plate sitting next to me on the side table. If company comes over, I can just grab up the plate quick and hide it in the other room. It is quick and easy. (One less mess among many).

Progress Update

It isn't much, but it was squeezed in extra minutes, not the scheduled time for the Hexagon quilt. =) So here's the little bit I got done. I need dozens and dozens in these colors.

By the way, if you'd like to sign up as a follower, it's in the footer, instead of the sidebar.

Deana's flower garden

Back in the day when I was involved in many (too many) round robins, I had my friends make blocks for a bright grandmother's flower garden.  Obviously I need to complete it. It is all hand pieced and will be a table topper in a hexagon shape.

I plan to put in just a few hours each month. It will not take as much work as some of your hexagon quilts, but I hope that your encouragement will keep me going.

Thank you Susan!

P.S. I have blue fabric laying behind the flowers just to see the effect. It really isn't as put together as it looks.

Grandmother's Overgrown Flower Garden

This hexagon quilt is #5 on my list for  Judy's UFO challenge for 2011,.  so it should get done some time this year. She has you list 12 projects that need completion (by your own definition of complete) and number them 1-12.   Each month she will tell us which project to complete by #.  It is not the one I plan to work on here, but I thought it would be fun to show it anyway. I will post the progress and hopefully a finish, though.

I designed and taught this quilt at Annual Meeting for the Utah State Quilt Guild sometime around 2003.  If you zoom in you'll see pins in all the places that I need to fix.  I really love the design, but I did the border poorly.  I attached the black pieces by machine, and hand applique would have really been better. A mess is what happens when I try to hurry something.

Half Hexagon Patterns

Someone, maybe Marcia, was looking for something to even out the edges of the quilt. Here's a free half-hexagon pattern and layout from Connecting Threads

Rosie's Flower Basket Quilt

Left over block

          Rosie's Quilt                             

 

The above block is a ‘left over’ block that came from a quilt that I slept under when visiting a friend of mine in Indianapolis a couple of years ago. I loved this quilt as it gave me a great feeling of homeliness. The quilt was made by a friend of her aunts in the 1950’s and Rosie Treasurers it very much. I decided that I would make one the same, same colours or as close as I could get to the same. That was harder then it we thought, but I did get the green which is the exactly the same shade of green which is in the quilt. The plain homespun for the basket is as close as I could get, which in my view works very well.
I have been working on this quilt since 2006. I have made 10 baskets and handle to match. All of the centres of the flowers I have finished and started on the flowers. I don’t mind doing the flowers as it is interesting choosing the fabrics and colours to go together.

I am hoping to work on these blocks for at least 2 hours per day. Hopefully I can.

So far this month I have done this basket to the left. I still have a way to go with it. The block will look great when the white background is done and the green surrounds.