Have you ever made a quilt that had hexagons in it? Or was made totally of hexagons? I bet it was a lot of work, especially if you hand sewed all of the hexies in place.
The English Paper Piecing technique
Usually, these shapes will be joined using the English Paper Piecing technique since it has no continuous lines but rather a zig-zag pattern where the seams are connected. And if you have larger hexagons, let’s say larger than 5 inches in diameter, hand sewing is quite time-consuming.
Using your sewing machine
Wouldn’t it be great if you could use your sewing machine to join hexagons rows? Learning how to do this properly would expand your skillset as well. But it can be daunting to figure out how to do that yourself.
It’s all about starting and stopping your joining seams at a certain mark or dot. If you do so, you can flip over seam allowances when you join the angled neighbor seam. Telling how to do it, isn’t that easy. That’s why All People Quilt has made a video about it. And if you look closely you can even see that my collection Day in Paris from 2019 is featured in their video. How fun is that?
Unfortunately, the Day in Paris collection is mostly sold out, but the Dance in Paris collection would make a great alternative. Using a Charm Pack or Layer Cake would give you lots of alternatives with fabrics that go together perfectly. When you add some low volume hexagons, I bet you could craft a beautiful quilt using this hexagons-by-sewing-machine technique.
Watching that video made it all that much clearer, right? I hope you give hexagons a try using your sewing machine. Let me know how it went.
Happy quilting!
Joining hexagons can be a daunting and time-consuming task. Knowing how to do this properly using your sewing machine is a great skill to have under your belt. Watch the video tutorial by All People Quilt featuring the Day in Paris fabric collection.