Stupid Hexi question
 

No...the hexi's aren't stupid. I think I am!

I have never done paper piecing. But I want to do a flower garden. Once you have the fabric folded around the smaller paper and then sewn in the corners, do you take the paper out? You don't leave that in there do you? Just wondering if you take them out, can they be reused? I'm lost.

See? Stupid! Yikes!
LOL

My friend made one using plastic templates. She used a hole punch to put a hole in the center. After she got the edges pressed down around the templates (and maybe seams stitched-that part I don't remember), she just popped them out with her needle. They slipped out really easy. And she reused them over and over.

You leave the papers in while you sew them together, the papers add the stability. Once a piece is completely surrounded you can remove that paper. And yes you reuse them over & over. I have paper pieces I've been using for 20 years.
Play out your flower; stitch the six pieces around the center, pop out the center piece, keeping the outside papers in place. If you are adding a ( path) around the flower add those pieces then you can remove the flower papers. Keep going, as you put your ( flower garden) together you just remove papers as they are surrounded. So when the top is done you only have pieces around the outside. Then you can remove those when no more pieces are added.

So I am assuming you don't put the needle through the paper then, either, correct?

Not through the paper. It'd be too hard to sew. You may want a consistent color for the center. Some do and some don't. I'm working on cutting some pieces for white/off white centers. Whatever you want to use. Some choose yellow, some blue or green. some dark. All about the look you want. Have fun. I bought some extra hexies (100 pack) at Jo Ann's for $5. I like the 1 1/2" myself. You can also check out Bonnie Hunter's website for tute.

I seldom reuse the papers. My grand loved to punch them out with a punch or cut them with my Go die so I have shoeboxes full of cut hexie papers. I like the lightweight card stock to use for the papers.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]559087[/ATTACH]This is the back of one of my flower units. 1" hexies, 2 1/2" squares of fabric. Not stitched through papers just caught on each corner!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]559088[/ATTACH]This is my quilt in progress!! A long term project!

When you whip stitch them together try not to pierce the paper. I take the papers out and reuse them all the time. Sometimes I have sewn through, a gentle tug gets them out. I still reuse them.

Thanks for the information regarding the hexagons. I have all my flowers made; now I am challenged with how to put them together as shown in #8 posting. Looks like I will have to make white hexagons and sew them to my scrappy flowers and then start connecting them.

I use one inch hexies. (Print them and cut them myself.) I use 2 1/2 inch squares of fabric. Pin the paper to the square, and lop off the corners. Don't like extra bulk. I do stitch the corners, but run one large stitch thru the paper on each side. It seems to stabilize it a bit more for me. After the hexie is surrounded, I just clip the large stitch from the front, and slip the paper out. I do reuse them. I do not remove the basting threads. Hexies are very addicting. Have fun! CoventryUK, your top is lovely.

Some folks put them together with diamonds. Traditionally green for a pathway.

Sue Daley had a great YouTube on hexies......and there are many more....I use the glue rather than baste...and rather than whip stitch I sew them together side by side on the back side...don't see that connecting thread that way. Many like to join with a ladder stitch.....do some research before trying something new......helps to get info first...

That's how I do mine, I also trim to 1/4 inch as I go, sew one flower together, then start over. I also decided to make all the centers yellow. I'm my in-between fo to,when I'm between quilts and very portable. I just need to get back to it BEFORE it becomes a UFO.

Before you start putting it together, Google GFG for pictures of various layouts.

..paperpieces.com is a good source for papers and I like their acrylic templates best as they have a 3/8" seam allowance rather than 1/4"---sounds like nothing, but works better for me......

I don't understand reusing the papers unless there was a problem with getting more paper or had to use scissors to cut each one. :eek:

Hello CoventryUK....your hexi quilt is going to be spectacular and wishing I had the patience to do something like that.
I'm so jealous!!

I don't save my papers...if I've made my own with a punch or GO, I just make more...or I order what I want from paperpieces......

CoventryUK: That is EXACTLY what I want to do! Wow that is So pretty!


I went out and purchased some Dritz 1.5" papers last night. I am working at a quilt show in Suring, WI all day Saturday, so I am hoping I can work on this in my "down time" :)

Oh....another question: once stiched, do you iron them before putting them together? I would think it would help lay them flat and keep the stitches smaller then, maybe? Or am I over thinking it?

Hilary, sweet!!!

Beautiful quilt! I too, don't understand reusing the papers.

There is no such thing as a stupid question. It shows that you want to learn. Sounds like you've gotten all the advice you need so go for it!

Stitch along the edge of the fold and don't pierce the paper. Then, gently remove the paper when through with the flower.

I purchased the Dritz 1.5" papers also. The pack has a 100 so it's a good start. I made some of my own but that was taking a while. Since there a 7 hexies to a "flower", I separate into groups of 7 and laying them out would be easy way for me to measure size quilt I can make.

Anyone wanting to try hexies....paperpieces.com has a 30% off sale until Sept. 30. They also sell polar notions......fabric boards...so a good time to try something new!

I too punch them out - use junk mail so don't even have to buy card stock.

You can buy bags of the plastic hexes in many sizes. They all have holes in the middle for easy removal. You can also go to Inlingo.com to purchase a program which will print on the back of your fabric: there will be lines for the outer cut edge, along with dash lines inside the larger hexie. You can cut on the outer lines either with scissors or with rotary cutters. You can either hand or machine sew on the dashed lines and get perfect results. The nice part about hand sewing is that you use a running stitch, which won't show as much as the system with paper piecing.To prepare the fabric, you iron freezer paper to the front of the fabric and place the fabric in your paper tray in the printer, being sure to have the back of the fabric placed correctly so that the printing goes on the fabric rather than on the back of the freezer paper.

Coventry UK, your hexi quilt is very pretty. I would like to do a small project so I have a to-go project. Thanks for showing.

I use a rotary cutter and cut hexies from freezer paper and iron to back of fabric, rather than pinning.

I have a question as well re hexies. Started piecing them together quite a while back. Yes, it was fun but after I had a large amount of flowers completed I heard I was supposed to use the same color for all the centers and I hadn't done that so I just put them aside. Is there any point in completing it.

CoventryUK, that's beautiful. Very time consuming. Maybe a great winter evening TV project?

As most are scrappy, it really does not matter, just design choice.

There is no rule that says your centers have to be the same color! There are lots of ( scrappy) flower gardens. By all means finish it. It's yours to do as you like. I've made lots of Hexie projects that were very scrappy. I don't think I've ever done one with all the same centers. Been making them since ( before it was cool) the 70's.

I like to use tiny hexagons which I do not reuse. Instead of tacking corners, I baste the edges I fold over going through the paper. I make a big knot at the end high contrasting color quilting thread or double strand regular thread and baste around the edges leaving a tail hanging. I leave the papers in as long as possible to add some stability while I work. After they are sewn together in my pattern, the big knot helps with gripping the thread for pulling.
i also cut hexes with a die machine but I have not found a die for the smallest shapes.
I use recycled paper from junk mail, thick non-glossy pages in magazines and card stock scraps and I use a hole punch to punch a hole in the hexes. This makes removal of the hexes easy by using a chopstick (or any blunt object that fits in the hole) to lever it out.

Hello redstilettos, No question is a stupid question only if you don't ask is it stupid. May I suggest using the plastic templates? I use quiltpatis and got them from Pati Shambaugh who patented them. They are wonderful! Pati's phone number is 614-443-9988 and her website is www.quiltpati.tripod.com. I have bought quite a few packets of hexagon plastic templates and been hand piecing Grandmother's Flower Garden with 1930's reproduction fabrics for over 7 1/2 years - find it very therapeutic and relaxing. To order the quiltpatis, you need to call Pati, her website doesn't allow you to do it online. She is very helpful too. I don't get any perks for telling you all this, just trying to be helpful. Personally, I've never tried the paper piecing but I would think you would get better results with the quiltpatis which are plastic templates. Wishing you the best.

It is whatever you like, no quilt police as they say. I need to remind myself that in all quilt projects.

I'm reenergized!!! Already had 84 of the 1" hexies done (by choice, centers and then just one surrounding row) and had started adding white hexies around each when I had read the article saying centers had to be same color). I pulled them out again last night and I'm on my way again! Thank you!

Aside from quilts, what else have you all made with the hexies?

I made a potholder with one-inch hexogons for one side of it. That was about the extent of my hexing at that time!

By all means complete it!! There is no rule saying the centers all have to be the same color. It's your choice. I tend to use the same color, but then see photo's of others using "all" colors, and think, "why didn't I do that?" They are all lovely. Yours will be also.