When I work on my hexies and baste with thread, I have a few needle and thread ready to go and same with connecting them. I prep about 6 needles and thread is about length of my arm. That way I can pick up where I left off. When I sew the hexies together, I do a ladder stitch. I also mark the size of my hexies on the template. I like to use freezer paper for templates, about 3 layers. You can get a lot of templates cut on 3 sheets of 18x18" paper.