Twiggy and Opal: kona

Monday, February 23, 2015

Another Pre-Cut Solution

I cannot say exactly how long I have had this Moda Honeycomb stack. They quietly take up a tiny little piece of space in the closet. Not really in the way and certainly not hurting a thing. I would pull it out and look at it, admire the colors and wonder what it will one day become.

While I'm working my way through a creative block, I thought I just need to do...sew, make something! I'm running around like a crazy lady! My daughter keeps saying "Mom, you need to make something"...

I didn't want to put too much thought into whatever it is I was going to make. Mostly it was a way to stay productive. Stay out of trouble! Even to stay warm!

These are what I had to work with. Looking for an easy fix (and I do mean easy) I began the search. From this stack of hexies...

28" x 33"

...to this little quilt! I used a variety of low volume, neutral solids between the rows (my new friends). From white to putty! Does it look difficult? It was a breeze! When I see hexies I imagine they must be hard to work with.

I found this great idea and tutorial by Amanda on her blog A Crafty Fox. Most of you know her as the owner of Westwood Acres, the fabulous and wonderful fabric shop! A fun fact about that little honeycomb stack: I won them in a giveaway that Amanda was running...crazy!

For this size quilt, I had to cut 4 of the 40 hexies in half because the rows are staggered and you need them on the top and bottom. That left me with 36 left and I only needed 33 for this quilt. I was also able to use up some neutral scraps too!

The tutorial requires four - 4 1/2" x 2 1/4" strips for each block.

After sewing each strip and pressing the seams, you trim each side.

And the top and bottom. Make sure to allow for 1/4" seam from the points!

They end up looking just like this. Making the hexagon's into squares is so much easier for me!

Sew your rows together alternating each row with a half hexie row. I tried to be careful to match the seams in the rows. I didn't want the zig-zags to get funky!

Since this is a pretty small quilt, I added a Kona Cayenne Red border. It turned out to be a perfect match with the Moda orange/red.

I got it pinned and started quilting. Simple 1/4" zig-zag lines between the rows and 1/4" on either side of the hexie rows. To finish it off, I used my Hera Marker and created a diamond vertically through each from of color.

I really like the subtle changes of the neutrals in the zig-zag!

I decided to name this quilting my 'HexArgyle' design! The back is the same as the border from the front. Cayenne. I went with Kona Yarrow (which is also a great match to the Moda) for the binding.