hexies

[dragonlady7]

So 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.

Comments

[dragonlady7]

Oh, I thought that's what you meant by a honeycomb pattern. Well, the templates could still be useful if you were going to just embroider the shape of a honeycomb pattern on whole cloth, so that's still a valid link, lol.

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.

[toujours_nigel]

No no, absolutely it's a valid pattern, and now I really *want* to do something more substantial than my usual stuff, especially since doing a stack of hexagons would feel less intimidating than just going into it planning to make a quilt or something. I'm still at the stage where I can only take up something I'll finish in a week of vague-stitching while watching a show. *g*

[dragonlady7]

Ha, doing something you can actually finish is a good approach, though. I always start ambitious projects and then don't finish them. So I have a hundred thousand UnFinished Objects all over my house and half the time I don't even remember what I intended them to be. Bonus, each of them is in a big Ziplock bag with all the supplies and tools needed to make them, which means I had to go buy needles the other day because I could not find any in my house because all of them have wound up stuck into projects that will be thrown away unfinished when I eventually die.

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.