More how tos for Stars in the Loft and Turtle Girl makes a quilt!

Today Quilting Gallery's Show and Tell voting opens up and I've entered Stars in the Loft. I hope you'll find time to visit and take a look at the quilts and read the stories. You will find all of the quilts and be able to vote for your favourite here.

 

I really emjoy making hexagon quilts. I have master templates for a wide variety of sizes of hexagons and I make copies from the masters and I cut up those copies to make my quilts. The master templates are kept in a binder. On the master I write the size of the template on each hexagon (the example below is 1") and I place a coloured dot at the top in the centre. This lets me know that this is the original template from which copies should be made. In this way the master never gets cut up! You can see that this master has been well used!

 

Yesterday I showed you how I make my "firecracker" hexagons. I thought I would show you a few more of the motifs in Stars in the Loft and how I made them. They really are very easy to make once you know the secrets! EvenTurtle Girl has started her own little quilt. I snapped this picture of her out in the garden enjoying the flowers and sunshine!

 



She's doing a pretty good job of it considering she doesn't have opposable thumbs!

So let's get started by expanding on the firecracker motif. If I add one more piece to this hexagon I can make a T hexagon. I construct the T hexagon in the same manner as the firecracker. I shorten the length of the stitches on my sewing machine and I foundation piece the block. Shortening the stitch length will make it easier to remove the papers when the time comes. The drawn lines are my sewing lines. The last piece I sew is the cross bar at the top of the hexagon.

Firecracker hexagon

 

T hexagon

The finished T hexagon

The star motif is another simple but effective design. I draw my sewing lines on the hexagon as follows:

I shorten the length of the stitches on my sewing machine and I foundation piece the hexagon. The drawn lines are my sewing lines and this is the hexagon that results:

Six of these hexagons and one for the centre will make this!

 

Or this!

Dividing the template in half from point to point like this,

results in a hexagon that looks like this!

Depending on your fabric selection you can come up with a variety of motifs! Here are some examples.

 

 

Or you can change the placement of the hexagons and make a whirligig (a pinwheel)!

 

Are the creative juices flowing? I sure hope so! I would love to hear from you. Tell me what you think of this method of constructing hexagon blocks. I'll share more in the days to come.

While I was outside with Turtle Girl I look a couple of pictures of blossoms in the garden.

Until I post again, happy sewing!