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.