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dragonlady7So I finally downloaded a template so I would be able to remember how many sides are in a hexagon. (Hint: there are two parallel sides, but no more than that, in a hexagon.) (Also hint: if you arrange six hexagons around a seventh central hexagon, they'll each be able to butt up exactly against a side of the central one. Makes sense, doesn't it? Yes.)
I cut out the template, and then I went to work and fished a bunch of discarded photo prints out of the trash. (It's a print lab. It's not like I've got to rummage much.) I found a stack of 8x12 posters that had been discarded, and sliced them into strips. I now have approximately, like, a hundred little photo-paper hexagons. (I had discovered, in my experiments last night, that regular typing paper is a bit flimsy to work with, and it tends to be difficult to keep the fabric taut.)
I also had cut a bunch of little pieces of fabric in the morning before I went in, and so I was able to sit at work and stitch a generous handful of little fabric hexagons. I haven't yet assembled any larger configurations of them-- I figured I'd make a bunch and then see what looked like it would suit best, as an arrangement color-wise-- but I see how it's supposed to go, and I see some of the pitfalls of how to choose what kinds of fabrics to do this with.
(Unfortunately any kind of stretch or knit fabric is right out. I'm pondering using spray adhesive and a little interfacing, if I want to be able to use some knits, since i have so many hoarded, but. We'll see.)
The templates: cut from things fished out of the recycle bin, and also photo prints out of the lab garbage bin.
The first few completed hexies.
A stack of little snips from my hoard, to make hexies from. Trying different things to see how they work, but as expected, quilting cotton is by far the easiest thing to work with. Too bad that's mostly not what's in my stash....
I'm starting to imagine maybe making a quilt that involves elements of hexies, crumb quilting, crazy quilting, and applique. It's still just kind of a daydream, but it might be fun.
I cut out the template, and then I went to work and fished a bunch of discarded photo prints out of the trash. (It's a print lab. It's not like I've got to rummage much.) I found a stack of 8x12 posters that had been discarded, and sliced them into strips. I now have approximately, like, a hundred little photo-paper hexagons. (I had discovered, in my experiments last night, that regular typing paper is a bit flimsy to work with, and it tends to be difficult to keep the fabric taut.)
I also had cut a bunch of little pieces of fabric in the morning before I went in, and so I was able to sit at work and stitch a generous handful of little fabric hexagons. I haven't yet assembled any larger configurations of them-- I figured I'd make a bunch and then see what looked like it would suit best, as an arrangement color-wise-- but I see how it's supposed to go, and I see some of the pitfalls of how to choose what kinds of fabrics to do this with.
(Unfortunately any kind of stretch or knit fabric is right out. I'm pondering using spray adhesive and a little interfacing, if I want to be able to use some knits, since i have so many hoarded, but. We'll see.)
The templates: cut from things fished out of the recycle bin, and also photo prints out of the lab garbage bin.
The first few completed hexies.
A stack of little snips from my hoard, to make hexies from. Trying different things to see how they work, but as expected, quilting cotton is by far the easiest thing to work with. Too bad that's mostly not what's in my stash....
I'm starting to imagine maybe making a quilt that involves elements of hexies, crumb quilting, crazy quilting, and applique. It's still just kind of a daydream, but it might be fun.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-21 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-21 12:10 pm (UTC)The smallest ones she's got are I think one inch across, finished, and that's a decent small size, the size of the last joint of your thumb more or less, but I'm sure someone determined could make them even smaller. You start to not need the templates at that size, though, I think, and run into other potential issues.
You'd have to be careful going over the seams-- of course once you've attached them you can remove the paper as that won't be an issue if they're in a hoop-- but the edges are whipstitched together, and I imagine it'd be rather difficult to embroider over a whipstitched seam. But! I bet it would be easy enough to work around that. Especially if you were really conscientious about trimming your underside edges, which I am, uhhhh not, though in my defense I had forgotten to bring any scissors yesterday so it was a pocket-knife or my teeth or nothing. LOL.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-21 01:42 pm (UTC)But! Thank you for the demo and pdf, maybe I can try when I'm home next.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-22 02:11 am (UTC)People apparently just get in the habit of making little hexagons as their travel-idle-hands project, and then they have stacks of hexagons, and then they make them into literally anything they were going to use whole cloth for. Quilt tops are traditional but you can do whatever you want. I was thinking of making an embroidery project or an applique onto a different quilt with them.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-22 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-22 02:36 pm (UTC)And then I'll spend an entire idle day wishing I had something to work on but I can't remember what any of those projects were meant to be, and I can't find any needles or thread to work on a new one.
So I figure, well, if I have enough hexies going and work on them a lot, by the time I forgt what i was going to do in the first place, I'll have enough of them done to just go ahead and make something else.