What's in a Quilt - The Green Man - Part 5: Hexagon

The fifth quilt style included in the Green Man Sampler quilt is the hexagon.

The beautiful hexagon shape has been used to make many traditional-style quilts like Grandmother's Garden, which you can read about at Textile Research Centre.

Over the years at Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival I have seen some good examples of hexagons in quilts:

This Grandmother's Garden quilt was made by Chieko Yamaguchi＊山口智恵子

Partnership Quilt Project 'Tree of Life', by Pamela Allen

Actually, my friend Pamela has made great use of the hexagon shape: Why not have a look at her temperature quilts and other creations. Click here.

Although it is possible to make a hexagon quilt by machine, stitching it by hand is one of the most rewarding, relaxing and pleasant ways to make a quilt.  Working in this old-fashioned way with English Paper Piecing makes me feel that I am going back in time and being part of history.

Basically, you stretch a square of fabric over a hexagon-shaped cardboard template and baste it in place. After you have a number you can start joining the hexagons together.  There are many tutorials for English Paper Piecing, here is my favourite by Mary Corbet.

Recently I made a birthday card with a Grandmother's Flower Garden flower. These hexagons are very small so I used another technique.

I blogged about the process here.

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I made my Green Man quilt block with various green prints. The eyes and mouth were fuzzy cut from Japanese tenugi fabric. (tenugi is a Japanese rectangular kitchen towel that can also be used in many other ways).

The background is also made up of small hexagons, and I mean small, each of the six sides of the hexagon is 12mm. Making this block took a lot of time and patience, but gave me a lot of joy!