Tutorials

Modern Hexie Stars Mini Quilt

This tutorial is for a 26 inch x 26 inch mini quilt using my variation on Nicole Daksiewicz's clever Modern Hexagons, and is published with her permission. 

For more details of Nicole's method, please see her Hexie Pillow pattern, available to purchase as a PDF download here.

You will need:

* A 28 inch x 28 inch piece of background fabric.

* A 28 inch x 28 inch piece of backing fabric

* A 28 inch x 28 inch piece of lightweight batting. I used Warm and White.

* 32 x 5 inch squares of assorted fabrics for the hexagon stars. I didn't entirely cover the background with my hexies, so if you prefer a more overall pattern you will obviously need to make more.

* A water-based fabric glue that will wash out, such as Aleene's Fabric Fusion (recommended by Nicole) or Roxanne's Glue Baste-it.

* 32 (or more) 2 inch hexagon papers. The 2 inch is measured from point to point along a straight side. These are larger than those in Nicole's cushion pattern. You can buy these online from shops like Paper Pieces (USA) or Patchwork with Busy Fingers (Sue Daley, Australia).

Thrifty tip: Print your papers from websites offering free printable hexagons. I used Incompetech  graph paper PDF generator to print mine out the size I wanted. Be sure to set your printer to print at 100%, NOT Scale to Fit or Shrink to Fit.
They are best printed on lightweight card, but if you don't want to put this through your printed you can print your hexagons onto ordinary paper, then stack this on top of a couple of layers of card and staple through your hexagon shapes to hold all the layers firmly together.

Simply cut apart the shapes and remove the staples. You'll have plenty of accurate hexagon shapes ready to cover with your 5 inch squares of fabric.

Method:

* Cover the hexagons with your 5 inch squares, being careful not to tack through the papers. Nicole has an excellent video on the tacking process here.

*Use spray starch and steam to press nice sharp edges on your finished hexagons. Press your background fabric, then fold in half horizontally and vertically and press these two fold lines.

* Spread your background fabric, with its crosshair creases easily seen, right side up, onto a piece of baking paper or a washable kitchen bench.

* You will now use these co-ordinates to guide you as you start by placing your first hexagon at the crossing made by the crease in the centre and lay your hexagons out with a consistent gap between them. Refer to Nicole's pattern for details on how to do this.

* Once you're happy with the distribution of colours or shades you might consider taking a black and white photo, just to check that the tonal values are all you intended.

* Then, starting at the centre, remove each hexagon one at a time, and carefully take out the paper and the tacking thread.

* Normally it's easier to just lever the papers out gently from behind, leaving the tacking in place, but in this case I didn't want the thread left in as it might have been in the way when I gave the hexies my "star treatment".

* Put a small dot of water-soluble fabric glue about 1/4 inch in from each of the six corners. The fine applicator tip that comes with Roxanne's Glue Baste-it makes it so easy to do this without getting your fingers covered in glue.

 * Place the hexagon back into position on the quilt top and give those points a little press with your fingers. Repeat with each hexagon. By the time you've finished, most of the glues points will be dry. Gently lift your quilt top, take it to your ironing board, and give it a final press.

* Sandwich your quilt top, batting and backing using your preferred method. I used plenty of safety pins, though I think I was being over-cautious.

* This is the point when you click on your sewing machine's walking foot and quilt those long, straight lines across the quilt, attaching the hexagons in the process. Nicole's Hexie Pillow pattern has diagrams and instructions for marking your quilt (I found a Hera marker handy for this), as well as a video tutorial.

If you were making a Modern Hexagon/Hexie Quilt this is where you would stop, trim and add your binding. However a Modern Hexagon/Hexie Star Quilt involves a little extra hand sewing to tweak these hexies into star shapes and create a secondary pattern of circles.

You'll note I've made my hexagons twice as big as those in customarily used by Nicole. This is because you'll need to turn back the folded edges one at a time and pin at the midpoint, and this is best achieved with longer sides.

* Take a needle and thread in a co-ordinating colour and, burying the knotted end of the thread in the batting, slip stitch the inner curved edge from point to point.

* Continue on around the hexagon, turning and slip stitching one edge at a time while it's held in place by that pin through the centre. You'll be surprised how little time this takes (around 10 to 15 minutes per hexagon, in my experience).

I hope you'll agree the effect is worth it. What a star!

* Trim your quilt back to measure 26 inches x 26 inches. Bind your quilt using your preferred method. To further emphasise the graduated tones I made my binding from strips of some of the fabrics I had used in the quilt, grouping the darker colours in one corner, near the darkest hexagons, and the lightest ones in the top right hand corner where there's even a creamy white hexagon star.

If you make a Modern Hexie Star Quilt using this tutorial I'd really love to see it. You can tag me on Instagram @darlingdi, or use the hashtags #modernhexiestars or #modernhexiestweaked. 

This tutorial is ©Di Jobbins and may not be used commercially or for teaching purposes without permission. 

Please credit Nicole Daksiewicz for the Modern Hexagon/Hexie concept and Di Jobbins for the Modern Hexagon/Hexie Stars modification. 

Di Jobbins can be contacted at dianne.jobbins@gmail.com

Nicole Daksiewicz (@modernhandcraft) can be contacted at nicoledaksiewicz@gmail.com