Making Diamonds from Hexagons

As I'm making tiny triangles I am sewing 2 to each hexagon on opposite ends. This should hopefully speed up the joining process as I should be able to start joining them in rows.

My plan at the moment is to make 3x3 diamonds and then join those together and fill in the edges. The pattern will be selectively random, but as you can hopefully see, the black is setting off the colour so each hexagon will stand on its own merit and not fade into the other fabrics.

Those triangles are so tiny! Only just bigger than my thumb nail. I've found that I have to be more accurate on the triangles, but sewing them together does leave a little wiggle room and pulls it all back together again if I'm a tiny amount off. Hopefully I can maintain a good level of accuracy.

A big bowl of colourful hexagons! I've made 150 of these at last count. There are a couple of very light tan hexagons that I might not use now that I'm starting to sew them together though.

Hexagons... Meet Triangles

I've basted 150 hexagons now and as I've been sewing I've been putting a lot of thought into what I'm going to do with them. One thing I've been disappointed in is that I don't like how they look when they're laid out next to each other. The colours start to run into each other and it becomes harder to pick out the individual fabrics.

I may have found a pleasing solution which is even more insane than creating 1 inch hexagons.... and that is creating 1 inch triangles.

Those tiny things are 1 inch tirangles. They are created in the same method as the hexagons - by basting around a paper base. I can't fold the corners in as I have seen instructions show as the pieces become too bulky to achieve sharp corners. However folding in each side and basting seems to be working well and I am achieving the result I am after, even though they are a lot harder to make as they are so small.

I'll take a photo of a few pieces sewn together soon so you can see how my idea is panning out.

More Hexagons

This is what hexagon madness looks like. I've cut the paper templates myself from normal printer paper using a fantastic template sheet which makes this step so easy and kind of relaxing. It was a perfect thing to occupy my hands on a day when all I wanted to do was sit and soak up the first bit of sun this spring.

The easiest way to baste 1 inch hexagons is to start with a 2.5" square of fabric and then fold and finger press the fabric along the paper, taking a stitch at each corner to hold the fabric in place. Once you do the first couple you can easily get into a rhythm and I have been finding this quite relaxing. If you need some help with basting basics here is a fantastic video tutorial on how to baste a hexagon using this method.

Now I admit that when I was more of a novice to quilting it was hard for me to fathom why anyone would want to hand sew these little babies when it is easy enough to cut a hexagon and sew it on a machine. I have sewn larger hexagons together with a machine with quite good accuracy which you can see below, but I can not imagine achieving this accuracy with these tiny pieces.

Back to my tiny inchies... Next is deciding what to do with them. The plan is to make a charm quilt - which means only one piece of each fabric with no duplicates - but I am not sure whether to do a random pattern or organise it into a colour spectrum. I'll deliberate while I make more hexagons.

If you'd like to jump in and make some hexagons of your own please explore the links above. Remember you don't have to do things exactly the same as I am, or the same as Texas Freckles whose pages I have been referencing because I'm sure there are many ways to achieve the same results.