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.

....................

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!

 

Sunday Stitch School: Preparatory Lesson - Template Making

Hi, and welcome to Sunday Stitch School.  Today we won't be learning a new stitch! Instead, we will be preparing for next week's stitch, which is a six-pointed star. 

In the past, I have made a number of hexagon templates from scratch while carefully looking at the instructions, but after a few weeks, I always seem to forget the technique. 

Therefore I wanted to record the process, as this will help me make both hexagons and stars with six tips. Once this is published on the blog, I can always go back and find the instructions whenever I need to.

.................

Things needed: 

a sheet of paper, a pencil and a protractor. 

Later on, a ruler, an eraser, a circle template, a piece of template plastic, a stiletto/awl or other sharp instrument for piercing, a marker with permanent ink and a pair of scissors.

1. Draw a straight line.

2. Align the protractor at 90º and make a new line.

3. You now have a straight cross.

4. Place the protractor on the horizontal line.

5. Make pencil marks at 30º and 150º.

6. Align a ruler on the cross point and the 150º pencil mark and draw a line.

7. Do the same with the cross point and 30º mark.

8. Use an eraser to remove the horizontal line.

9. Place a circle template right over the middle of the cross point. Draw the circle.

10. Draw several more circles and mark the spots where the circle meets the straight lines.

11. For a permanent template, trace the dots onto a piece of template plastic.

12. Use a sharp pointed stiletto or awl and make holes in the plastic.

13. Use markers with permanent ink and fill in the triangles created between the dots.

14. Use a pencil with a fine enough tip to go through the holes in the template to mark the fabric.

15. For a hexagon, draw a continuous line from dot to dot. 

16. You need a pair of scissors to cut out the hexagon template. It is then easy to trace the shape onto scrap cards for hexagon quilt making.