I started a few hexagons last night using the thread basting method and just doing a couple whip stitches at each corner. First few took me a bit but I got the hang of it quickly and started moving along. I think I'll continue with the thread basting and that way I can reuse my paper templates and they'll be easy to remove. Thanks everyone for your help! Hopefully I'll have a pretty GFG to show in a few years! :)