Hexagon Tutorial ~ Part Four

Finishing Tips

Now that you've been busy making hexagons, no doubt you have a wonderful assortment and want to begin sewing them together.  This was a delightful task for me as it was so very satisfying to play with them.  I loved choosing the fabrics I wanted to sew together as I began to see how the quilt would look.  Because hexagons are so perfect and precise, they go together like a dream!

Do as I say, not as I do!!

Because I was designing the quilt as I was sewing, the photos will show my progress as I worked on the quilt from the center out....not fun.  I knew I wanted to have the five light print blooms in the center but wasn't sure how big I wanted the quilt to be.  I had the design in EQ, however, it really didn't help me with a feel for the size.  Remember, this is my first hexagon quilt ever!  Please, don't start in the middle if you don't have to!!  Follow the pattern just as you would read a cross stitch pattern, meaning that you would count how many darks make up a row, sew a row together,  then add them to the quilt one row at a time.

As soon as a hexagon has been sewn on all sides, remove the paper.  It will make handling the quilt so much easier, especially on your hands!  I waited to remove hexagons, and in so doing, made it a lot harder on myself.  It was way easier to continue sewing once all of those papers were gone!  Just remember...do not remove the papers from the hexagons on the outside edges until you're finished piecing them all together.

Notice how the hexagons on the outside edge are wavy and popping up.  This is very normal!  This happens because you folded and bent the papers to get them out of your way while sewing. 

The center hexagons lay perfectly flat once the papers are removed.

Once the papers have been removed from the outer hexagons, they lay nice and flat as well.

Because of the way I basted all of the seam allowances, they lay perfectly flat.  I can tell you that my quilter was very happy about this!!  Had we basted thru the papers (ouch) we would have had to remove all of the basting stiches (ugh) to release the papers and.....our seams would have been popping up going in every which direction creating lumps, bumps, and bulk (yuck).

As for finishing the quilt, I added my borders by aligning the border fabric with

the top of the inside row of hexagons.  The borders were sewn to the quilt top

and then I removed the top half of the remaining hexagons. 

There are many other ways to finish a hexagon quilt.  Perhaps we'll get around to trying them all!

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Elizabeth's Prairie Garden is the name of my Journey Three hexagon quilt. 
It's quilted and I'm now adding the finishing touches.  Once it's bound, I
promise to show you how it all turned out!

I sincerely hope you have found this tutorial helpful.  Hexagons were intimidating
to me for a very long time.  Once I took the plunge, I soon found there was
never any reason to be fearful. 
I hope that with these photos, instructions, and hints that you will give English Paper Piecing a try, bringing hexagons into your quilting arsenal!

As promised, I 've added a Hexagon Starter Kit to my website and
assembled the basic tools I recommended in my tutorial.

You can find it on under the Notions tab or
Click here to check it out!

Until next time.....have a great time sewing hexagons and let me know how you're doing!

Pam