One of our fantastic team members here at Man Sewing created this cool quilt. We’re
calling it Heidi’s Hexis. And it’s hexagons in a row with a little stripe for sashing
to make it all that more cool. Let’s get started.
The Moda Grunge Dot is the perfect complement to this hexagon quilt I think. I absolutely
love the grunge as a fabric and when they added the dot texture on I thought perfect
for these fun hard line quilts, right? So you’ll have to forgive me. I got so excited
about getting ready for today’s tutorial I actually cut through all of my extra supplies.
So I do have four colors of fabric that I’m going to walk you through. And I’m going
to show you the base construction. But let’s focus right now on just how we’re going
to work with our hexagons, right? So down here you’ll see that I’ve got the hexagon
and it’s been perimetered by a 2 ½ inch strip. So the hexagons themselves are cut
from the blue and the green fabric. And at one point that was a ten inch square. Then
I used the awesome half-hexi template from Missouri Star and I cut it into two of the
half-hexis to work with, ok? So we’re going to need that. And I’m going to do the same
amounts of blue. And the greens we’re going to use as well for the hexagons. And then
my orange stripes at 2 ½ inches are going to go around the blue hexagons. And then my
white stripes here at 2 ½ inches are going to go around the green hexagons. Let me show
you how that’s going to work.
And there’s several ways to perimeter this; however, the way I want to teach you should
give you the most efficient use of your fabric. So it might seem a little odd at first but
follow along. What we’re going to do is we’re going to start on this short edge.
And I’m going to use a complete with the fabric so 44 inches by 2 ½ and I’m going
to start up here at this small edge. And that I’m starting up there because when I open
up my seam allowance I’m going to have the least amount of scrap. See my selvedge right
here. I’m going to lay that selvedge just past the tip as I get ready to sew. And I’m
going over to my machine. And I have a quarter inch seam allowance set and I’ve got my
edge guide on. Today you’ll be sewing on the bias a little bit so go nice and slow.
Try not to push or pull. Let the machine do the work for you. And then just stitch that
2 ½ inch strip to one of the shorter sides on the hexagon. You can backstitch at the
end if you’d like. And then first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to come
over here like this and we’re going to press this over this way. And the reason we did
that is so that I have just this little bit here that I’m going to shave off by squaring
it up. I’m going to square it up by using this line along the ruler and my fabric. Cut
this off here. That goes in the scrap pile. And then down here I’m going to do the same.
Watching that line. A nice easy cut. And then I’ll take a second to come over here and
press that corner back out because I’m going to just keep using that strip over and over
again as I go. But I’m going to go around the perimeter now. So now when I look over
here I’ve got that kind of a manipulation or I could think about this. But that can
get a little bit dicey so we’re just going to go ahead and start with this corner here.
Make sure I’ve gone just a little bit past when I open it up. I’m going to stitch it
down like this. Back to the machine we go. And I’m starting, I don’t know if you
can see that, but I’m just a little bit past where my blue hexagon is so I can get
a little stitching in there to hold it all secure. Again we’re going to press it open.
I really enjoy working on quilts like this where there’s a lot of steps actually. I
do like doing them all the same step at the same time. But I find that it kind of helps
me zen into design mode while I’m kind of in this mass construction. Ok now here I’m
going to not only use the edge out here to cut, let me make sure you can see that a little
bit better. So I”m not only using this edge I’m looking along this line right here.
Because if these lines were looking askew then I would know I hadn’t put that seam
in real crisp. And I want to make sure I could use that as I trim off that side. Ok I’ll
do the same over here and I’m not very left handed when it comes to cutting. So just take
the time to make sure that you’re manipulating at all, making it fit just nice. There’s
that. Just because. Ok and then the last piece here we’re going to set in again. So I’m
just going to go right sides together and over to the machine. So build all your hexis
with a 2 ½ inch strips to perimeter. And then we’re going to just actually assemble
all of this in rows. Ok we just have to press this last one out real quick here. And then
what we do is we bring in our opposite color family for the hexis.
So this is the blue orange, we’ll bring in the white and green and sew it into place.
So I’ve trimmed that off. And if you go fairly accurately with this you should be
able to get two hexis perimetered or I should say two half hexis perimetered with one 2
½ inch strip. That way. Ok. So we’ll set that aside. And what I was saying is we have
construction now set up like this where we’re going to go ahead and do a green white, an
orange blue, a green white, an orange blue. And notice that those half hexis are heading
in opposite directions. So this one here we also have a finishing one. Half of a half
hexi so a quarter hexi. So we’re going to do that next but first we have to install
this one into this row over here to finish it out. So that I can show you how to put
the two rows together here in a second. So this is going to need to fit in like this?
I don’t think so. Better go like this so that everything is nice and straight here
ok. Lining those up. So what happens now is as I flop these over I want to line up those
seam allowances so that they match up. And now we’re going to go nicely over to the
sewing machine. Some folks will like to use a leader strip or a bunny tail for this to
get a little head start. I’m going to backstitch. Ok. And then now what happens is you can see
those line up beautifully like this.
And what we then need to do, we need to take one of these, sorry I want to show you how
to get those rows together. We need to take one of our original green and white hexis.
Notice in the quilt behind me they finish on the green and whites. So my green and white
hexi here. I’ve pressed it in half to create a straight line so that I can use my ruler
for the cut. But I’m looking at this line here for accuracy and this folded line, so
I know where the center is. So then that is sliced like yay. And then these will be assembled
into the section where they fit. And one half is going to fit on one side and the other
half is going to fit on the other side for us. So we’re going to stitch this in. Now
before we run over to the sewing machine let’s point out that there is that little bit of
that quarter of an inch or a split the difference is what I’m trying to say hanging over on
those points when we’re doing this end construction here. Ok. So there’s that side and then
we just need to put in this side over here. And just like you can see it fits there. And
I’m going to line these up. What I was trying to point out is we have just a little bit
of that tip overhanging. It should be about a quarter of an inch, split the difference
if you need. Those little there. I’m going to sew these in so that we have at least two
complete rows to show you. I’m just going to take a second and press all of this to
make sure that it’s really nice.
And then we’ll also start talking about the fact that we’re going to need to have
some skinnier strips made. So of the blue and of the green, the parts that we made from
the half hexis, we also made a skinny strip that’s 1 ½ inches wide. And that’s what
gets that really cool color band running through the center of these vertical rows that we’re
doing here. So what we’re going to do in just a second once I get this last seam pressed
out is we’re going to simply install the 1 ½ inch wide strips. Now the quilt is longer
than 45 inches so you will need to straight seam a couple of strips together. Some folks
like to go ahead and match it all up so they’ll measure the whole length of the quilt, however
long you’re making it and then treat it like a sashing so it’s cut to length. What
I’ve often done is just use two full strips and cut off the end. There’s no real mathematical
equation I can offer for this one today. But what will happen is as this row comes together
like this then this row should come together like this so that you see the big hexagon
of the orange and the blue. Because we’re installing the blue strip right now. So the
same color skinny strip is going to divide that color hexagon. So this same color skinny
strip divides this color hexagon. And on the next rows we would then use the green skinny
strips because it would be dividing the green hexagons on that other side there. Ok. So
you’ll have equal numbers of blue skinny strips and green skinny strips, well that’s
a real tongue tier, right? The 1 ½ inches cut. So the easiest way to assemble is I’m
going to take one vertical row first and I’m going to sew on my strip. But one of the things
I’ve learned over my years of sewing is I like the bulk of my project on the feed
dogs themselves. So even though I grabbed the other side of that quilt in the air I
rotated it so that I can put all of this bulk if possible down on the feed dogs. I’m going
to go just past the selvedge because I haven’t even trimmed it off yet on that little skinny
strip. And now I’m going to go ahead and lock it in. And I’m just going to nicely
sew it on the skinny strip but I’m going to do it in caffeinated mode, I’ll be right
back.
So after I stitched on that blue skinny 1 ½ inch strip I also started pressing it so
it would be nice. So then what we’re going to do is we’re going to join two of our
long vertical rows and just a reminder I’m looking for the blue hexis here to come together
because I have that blue sashing strip that I’m working with right now. Now I’m going
to be straight with you. We’ve got a lot of angles going in a lot of different directions
here so this can be a bit of a challenge so we’re going to use some extra pins today
to try to help ourselves out. And we’re just going to kind of start by eyeballing
the top here. And what I’m really looking at is these big orange sections coming together
because they’re going to be the most obvious. So then what I’m going to do right now is
I’m going to pin this top corner. And I won’t be stitching over the pins. But I’m
just going to put them in to help. And then I’m going to look back here and I’m going
to see where that’s lining up like that. I’m going to fold it over. And at this point
right now things aren’t moving. Things are laying nice and flat. And so I can stick a
pin here. And the sashing was trimmed to fit so we should be able to put a couple of pins
as we float down the field here. I can see this needs to come down just a little bit,
oop, there. And I’m looking at the strips going the opposite directions underneath just
to kind of help get myself a little bit of perfection going. Ok. There’s that and that
like that and a little pin. Ok how about another one here just enough, oh ya that’s great.
See how the bottom end is coming together. So that’s going to help me keep all of this
because the rows really should be very similar in length. Of course we all know I’m not
a perfect quilter. Hopefully, well we just won’t even touch that will we. Ok let’s
get started again with our quarter inch seam allowance. And now I’m going to pull that
pin out because I don’t ever want to stitch over a pin. That’s not good for your sewing
needle. It’s not good for your feed dogs if you get it caught in there. And now I’m
going to also pick up the weight of the project and I’m going to put it in my lap a bit.
That will help things glide through nice and smoothly. And I’m just going to slowly stitch
this on. And then we are all but to the end and thanks to the use of those little straight
pins or wonder clips or whatever you like, it looks like everything has finished up really
nice on this end as well. I did have a few strips that didn’t go together perfectly.
And you know what I did take the time to remove them, put them back together to make sure
it looks as accurate as possible when I was done with my project. Of course we would need
to go ahead and press this all out. But you can see how nicely that’s all coming together.
And it’s a really fun and I think a dynamic looking quilt. So Heidi, again thank you so
much for being part of the Man Sewing team. Thank you so much for sharing your design
with us. I think it’s awesome. And I am so happy to get to share this with everybody
else at home. If anybody needs a pattern we have one for sale in the description below
today for you. Thanks for being a part of this awesome Heidi’s Hexi quilt here at
Man Sewing.
Thanks for being a Man Sewing fan. It’s great to have you out there encouraging me
to create fantastic new content. If you’ve missed any of the videos we’ve got links
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