Pages

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

A hexie experiment

 One project on Sunday afternoon (while watching the Iowa-LSU women's basketball game) was to go through the big stack of magazines that had piled up around here again.  Obviously we subscribe to way too many periodicals, including a couple of quilt magazines.  I had a stack set aside with projects marked that I thought I wanted to save.  Only 3 of those projects are now saved for future play.


I found this pattern in the October 2021 All People Quilt magazine, and tore it out as a possible "some day" project.  The pattern is for paper pieced hexie blocks done in sort of a pineapple block technique.  I didn't want to mess with the paper piecing, but after reading through this realized that I could just use 1" strips, and skip the paper foundation.  This would be a great project for all the Kim Diehl scraps I've collected over the years.  They repeated fabrics in each "round", but I went all random scrappy.  


I was nearly done with this block when I realized the colors didn't seem to be lining up quite right, especially around that center hexie.  What was I doing wrong?  Pulling out the instructions again I quickly figured out my mistake.  I was sewing in a "log cabin" process, going round and round.  Oops!  This one won't be thrown away however, because it could still make a cute mug rug for my desk. 


Needless to say, I started over again.  The correct process is to do the 3 neutrals on alternating sides of the hexie center, then trim those tails sticking out.  Next add the colors to the opposite alternating sides, and repeat the trimming.  This really would be easier if the same color strips were added to each round.  But I like the scrappy version too.


The end result (when following directions properly) is pretty cute.  This might become a mug rug by itself, or I might make a couple more for a bigger mug rug.  The magazine showed these blocks made into a good sized table runner.  

This was a just brief detour from that dreaded applique, but alas it's time to pull out that project I've been avoiding and make some progress.

5 comments:

  1. good look in the end. I might have to look for the pattern and print some papers out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Both blocks have their charm. What a great way to use up those narrow strips.

    ReplyDelete
  3. POT holders!! Snowing here, we had to go out for an appointment this morning so I went by the grocery store for bananas and a few things and to the gas station while husband was at his wellness check:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. So very cute! I think it was time well used to try something new before doing the applique;)

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from my readers! Your comment has been saved and will appear after being approved by the moderator.