Next in the Craftsy Block of the Month series are these English Paper Piecing hexagons. This is such a traditional-looking technique that always looked so tricky, but the use of paper templates made it much more straightforward. And it was a project that could be done while travelling. I made the hexagons on a couple of relaxing train journeys, and only sat at my machine to join the finished shapes to the background fabric.
For those who haven’t tried this technique before, it involves basting fabric to paper hexagons, folding the seam-allowance over the crisp edges of the paper. These are then pressed and slip-stitched together with the paper still attached, to keep the corners crisp. Only once all the pieces are joined securely is it time to remove the paper. Pretty straightforward.
Hexi Stripe Block
Hexi Hex Block
For the second block I didn’t follow Amy’s design (multi-sized hexagons making a sunshine and grass scene) as I didn’t like the directionality of the block. Being a totally random quilt I wanted something I could be more flexible with when arranging the final quilt. Instead I made lots of hexagons and combined them to make a big hexagon/flower. I like it but not as much as the first stripe design.
I enjoyed the calm of creating the hexagons, but the hand-sewing took a while so I probably wouldn’t choose to do a whole quilt in this design.
Over half-way in the blogging, but in real life I have 20 blocks ready to trim, sash and then quilt!
Other posts in the series:
Part 1 – Slashed Blocks
Part 2 – Half-Square Triangles
Part 3 – Nine-Patch Blocks
Part 4 – Star Blocks
Part 5 – Dresden Blocks
Another Little Crafty Creation 