Seems I couldn’t resist the new 2.25″ Inklingo hexagons either. Look at the difference in size between the 2.25″ and .375″ ones — talk about going from one extreme to the other. I’ve often thought I’d like to make a lap quilt with large hexagon flowers, but hand piecing those large hexagons just didn’t appeal to me.
Yesterday, I watched this video and decided that, given my success with the Japanese X/Spool small quilt, I’d give it a try — inset seams and all. I watched the video twice. Chose my fabrics. Printed on the fabrics, cut out the shapes and sat down at the sewing machine.
In less than 15 minutes I had the flower done. No seams had to be ripped out. Only two pins per seam – one at the beginning and one at the end. I set my stitch length to 2.0, started to stitch and couldn’t believe how easy it was. Having the crosshairs at the beginning and end of seams makes even inset seams simple as can be.
This is exciting for me as I’ve often thought I’d like to make certain blocks for a quilt, but have decided against it as they weren’t blocks that really appealed to me as ones to piece by hand. Now? Now I know that I’ll make the lap quilt of large hexagon flowers. It will take next to no time thanks to what I learned from the video. And I’ll tackle other quilt design ideas that appeal to me as designs but not as hand-piecing possibilities. This is definitely having the best of both worlds. There is no way I would have ever thought I’d actually say that I was looking forward to some machine piecing and it’s all thanks to Inklingo. Having the seam lines, matching points and crosshairs makes machine piecing, for me, much more attractive.
One tiny hexagon flower beside one that is, to me, huge!
As I didn’t stitch past any of the crosshairs, it was easy as can be to press the same way as the small flower. Seams were graded and it was done.
Some other fabrics will be picked out now for more enormous flowers and maybe I’ll have a hexagon flower lap quilt done around the same time as the Pickled Ladies, Tiffany NYB and batik sunflowers tops. I think I’ll use the Snack Quilt pattern as my starting point and we’ll have a very fun spring-like quilt for use in the winter.
The cat show at the CNE is this weekend. Seems someone is dreaming of a ribbon.
Baxter on his perch with one of his favourite kitty toys. Even though he was looking out the window, he had a paw keeping the mouse from falling off the perch.
Quilt Obsession 
Love the picture with the two hexagons. I am not sure if I can wait trying these cute, little hexagons…
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Don’t wait! The little hexies are amazing fun to stitch – and the collection is on sale for a limited time.
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Wonderful world of hexies! You’ll have that done in no time!
I think Baxter would defintiely win the purple, best in show, ribbon!
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Thanks! In no time? Well, maybe in a few months. I am determined to finish those others too. We think Baxter would win a ribbon too, but we’re somewhat prejudiced. 🙂
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Yikes!! That hexie is small! You must have good eyes! 🙂
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With the stitching lines printed on the little hexies, it’s quite simple to stitch them. A good lamp like an Ott light helps too.
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We were at the Grand Rapids show this past Saturday and I saw a quilt made with your tiny hexies. I thought of your project immediately. They are cute as heck!
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Thanks for the tutorial!! That is super!
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Credit for the video tutorial goes to Linda Franz and Monkey. It made a huge difference to me – so much so I actually wanted to machine piece!
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The photo showing the little and big made me laugh. What a difference! Thanks for sharing.
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I love that photo too — really does show the massive difference in size!
Cathi
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I love the ‘big hexy, little hexy’ photo and your hexy flower looks fabulous! Must watch Monkey’s video!
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The video is fabulous – after watching it twice I felt completely prepared to stitch that hexagon flower by machine. Great machine piecing lesson!
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Atta girl, Cathi. Congrats on conquering your machine. Inklingo makes it a snap, eh?!
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I can’t quite believe it! I’ve gone from avoiding my machine as though it had rabies or something to actually wanting to use it to sew a block with inset seams? Only way that happened was thanks to Inklingo and that fabulous video!
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Snack quilt will be a snack to put together! Baxter would certainly win first prize, that’s for sure.
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The snack quilt will be a lot of fun to make and so quick now that I’m no longer afraid of machine piecing. 🙂 We think Baxter would win first prize too, but we’re definitely prejudiced in his favour.
Cathi
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Yes, that is huge 🙂
I look forward to seeing your machine piecing choices and how they are different from the ones you hand piece. It’s always interesting to see other peoples thoughts and choices, it’s what I love most about reading blogs.
Baxter is single handedly busting the premise that males can’t multitask 🙂 Sure he’s not a she? Lol
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Baxter is definitely a he – he’s usually pretty determined about keeping his toys within paw’s reach, which would sort of explain the multi-tasking. 😉
I found myself looking for larger prints for the big hexagons, so I’m sure that quilt top is going to have quite a different look than the tops I usually make.
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