Hexagon Piecing

Is it Winter where you are?  Are you spending most of your days, nights, or weekends in front of your sewing machine?  Let’s get you back in the family room with easy hexagon English paper piecing.  You can cozy up in front of the TV and still stitch. Each little hexi takes about 2 minutes.

Let’s get started! You’ll need some hexagon shapes to wrap your fabric around. Cardstock is nice and sturdy, but old greeting cards can be repurposed, too.  Fiskars paper punch comes in a few sizes and is sold almost everywhere – I’m using the ‘Large’ today.  It measures  1 ½” in diameter. Punch out a few to get started.

Fabric scraps should be about ¼” larger than your papers.  2” squares are a good start with the 1 ½” hexi papers.  Cut larger if you have difficulty centering the hexi. Today’s scraps are from some of our new fat quarters.

Needle choice is yours – a 9 or 10 quilting or between, or what you usually hand stitch with. Pick a thread color that you can see, something contrasting.

Center the paper on the wrong side of the fabric, fold over one side, then the next and hold with a pinch. We’re not going to stab through the paper, just baste on the fabric. Your first stitch goes into the corner, the second stitch secures the corner.  Move to the next corner, fold over the side, take a small stitch, then the second stitch to secure, then move to the next.

Try to keep the fabric sewn on snug to the paper. When you get all the way around, stitch and tie a knot. Clip the thread.  Ready to try another? And another?