The tumbling block quilt I am making is all done by hand. I made the cubes (hexagons) sewed them together in a row by connecting the flat sides (looks like a zig zag - chevron, whatever you call it) then I put those rows together. The even rows had one more than the odd rows - or you can do it the other way around. It does go slowly but my quilt is an I Spy so easier to keep them in order that way. And doing it my hand, it is not awkward. There is someone on the internet that did it this way using a machine, but I just can't remember who it was.