Hexagons Machine Sewed
 

Hexes have always intrigued me. I don't mind setting in but when wants to make a charm quilt with tiny hexes, one doesn't want to do that lol. I did some research and found that some techniques, cut the hex in half. This forms a little boat like patch. The patches are then machine sewed in rows and then the rows are joined and it goes very fast. I don't want to do that either.

Then there is the English paper piecing by hand and that's not going to happen. And so I did this. I did two things. The first one was to cut some 1.5 strips from my decorator line of fabrics to test the pattern. I made a strata and cut an equilateral triangle angle. Just put the ruler on your 60 d mark, cut, turn. Line the ruler up with the point of the tri and the 60 d at the bottom and cut your first tri, then alternate and keep cutting tri's. Sew 3 tri's together and that is half of the Hex.

Now you sew these together in a row and then join the rows and you have a nice hex scrappy and I don't mind this type of hex cut in half. The next post will show the other way.

Little Hex Scrap or Charm
 

When I first started to quilt, I took some classes from Sharon Hultgren. She was an excellent teacher. I bought all her books at the time, as they were learning books and all her rulers, as I was very impressed at what they could do. Instead of templates, you could cut diamonds, Hexes and all sorts of shapes with her rulers and her books all had tutorials on how to use them.

So out came the book and the ruler to cut hexes. I had decided to do 1.5 hexes. You use the ruler to cut the strips for that size. (You can't use a regular ruler for this.) I had some strips left over from my last three quilts so to practice, I pulled these out.

first you place the ruler on the 1.5 mark and cut that angle and then turn and cut the size listed and then turn twice and cut the points off and there you have perfect hexes.

I started to sew the hexes together in a row (no set in) edge to edge and back tack. Then I lined up two rows to make sure the placement is right. Now the sewing is very important at this stage. Sew from the beginning of the first side and just before you get to the seam line, back stitch. In other words, do not sew over the seam. Now, line the other side of the hex up and sew from the seam line to the end and so on.

Now finger press all the seam in direction they want to go and the press the back and the front.

This works so well and doesn't take any time at all, well with lots of little hexes lol. I will do these here and there as I gather up more scraps to cut from. This was just a quickie.

I have seen them sewn like that. If you can't use a regular ruler to cut these I guess they would have to be cut by templates? Doubt I will ever get around to trying this. Too many quilts I want to make. Doubt I would have enough patience for this.
Someone would love to try this. Thanks for posting. It will be a beautiful quilt.

Wow what fun. I spent the day off and on looking at peoples hexies on the web. Yours are great. thanks for the small tutorial using the machine to sew them together.

You're very good at teaching. Still not sure I want to try this one, but you've gotten my attention. Like what you're doing with that first one a lot.

Rosy, love your tutes, keep up the good work!!!

thanks for the great tutorial... hexes are on my bucket list

Thanks ladies, last year, hexes were all the rage on the web and I didn't have time to think about them. Usually I fall back on my sewing/seamstress experience. I figured, it's just like a pivot point, or skipping the seams, in this case, just sew up to the seam and leave the seam free. I have done this with lot of things, especially when designing a doll or animal pattern.

With a doll face, where the seam is down the middle of the face, if you sew across the seam, you will have pocket on the front. So either you sew up to the seam or cut the seam way down at an angle. It helps to remember these little shortcuts.