Friday, September 5, 2014

Hexagon Flower Quilt Tutorial


Anyone remember this quilt I made last year? I used about 18 Moda Mini Charm Packs and about 4 yards of background fabric.  I had a great time making it and it was, actually, pretty easy. It just takes lots of time.
I think of this as a modern Grandmother's Garden. I didn't want to sew together the hundreds of plain spacers that go between each flower. I was sure I would lose interest. Buuuut...if I didn't have to make the spacers? Perfect

Here is how you can make a Hexie Flower Quilt. A baby quilt would be cute too, and wouldn't be as time consuming..


Start by making a hexie flower. You can see my previous post on how I stitch my hexies here

You will need:
6 petals (the pink hexies in my photo) =2.5" fabric squares and one hexie paper per petal
one center piece=2.5" fabric square and one 1" paper hexie
1- 7" background square


Arrange your pieces in a layout you like this


Start by sewing the center piece to one of the petals (the hexie tutorial shows how I do this step too).



Add the second petal by placing it right sides together on the center hexie.
Whip stitch from the right towards the center
I like to do a couple of extra stitches in place in the center before I start to sew down the side


Flip this unit and sew from the middle down to the top.
Knot the thread and snip


Sew the next 3 petals the same way
The last petal you will sew just as you did before but you will go back to the last side of the hexie and sew the one remaining side


Here is the back. You can see that I do not trim my hexie fabric prior to sewing. I use 2.5" squares for the 1" hexie paper
Pull out your papers (pull back one corner of a petal on the back and gently pull the paper out)
Iron flat after all papers are out


Fold your square in half, finger press, fold in half again, finger press.
This creates a cross hair for you to center your flower.
You can see I lined up the notch on each side of the flower to the horizontal line.
 I lined up the center of each top petal the the vertical line
Pin in place


Sew around the flower close to the edge.
For the finished quilt in the first photo I used an off white thread for every flower. I decided I didn't want to change thread color.
With my example block I used an off white thread again. A light grey probably would have worked too.

Fabric requirements ( for finished twin quilt)

108  blocks in a 9X12 layout
3.5 yards of background
756-2.5" squares (or 18 mini charm packs, which I used. All different but I duplicated 2)
3 packages of 100/pack 1 inch hexies

I have used those 300 hexies for about 5 projects and they have held up well.
Sometimes I like to make each flower from beginning to end, sometimes I will sew up a bunch of hexies until I have a huge stack and then sew them up in to a flower

Where to Find: Etsy
Hexies
Mini Charm packs
Low Volume fabrics for background

Website
Mini Charm packs
Low Volume


10 comments:

  1. wow!!! I love this idea! And your finished quilt looks lovely too :D Thanks for sharing the evolution of this project with us.

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  2. Thanks so much. I really appreciate the lovely feedback

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  3. I love the finished flower block of Hexies.
    Stephanie

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  4. Lovely!!! I'm putting this on my to do list!!!

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    1. I am so glad you like it. Be sure to share anything to make using it with us!

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  5. Beautiful. I must make this. Thank you for the tutorial.

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    1. You are so welcome. I would love to see anything you make with the tutorial!

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  6. My idea exactly -- I think I can make it through hexie flowers, but I am not so sure I can make it through a whole quilt. I am cutting it down even more by alternating flowers with nine patches and making a toddler blanket size. I was so glad to find your tutorial.

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  7. Thank you for validating my choice to attach these adorable flowers to a background square in stead of sewing these together ! I have over 50 made and although I love making the flowers, I don’t want to make the boring background flowers and then sew them all together. I love the idea of sewing them to background squares. Your quilt is beautiful!

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