Wednesday 10 April 2013

Discovering the Delights of Paper Piecing and Hexagons

Happy Wednesday dear Bloggers, hope you've got better weather than I have here in Cornwall, it's dark and very wet here today - a perfect day to stay indoors and craft I think !

As it's WOYWDW on the Craft Mad and Loving It group on Craftbubble today, here's the pic of what's on my workdesk which I'll be sharing on the Forum.

 

When I went to the South West Quilt Festival at Westpoint last friday, I picked up a couple of sizes of hexagon dies by Sizzix (the large and medium) from The Cotton Patch stand to use with my Big Shot.  I haven't done a great deal of the traditional paper piecing method of patchwork and wanted a hand stitching project that I could take with me on my travels.  Hexagons seemed to be the perfect solution as I can stitch away and make dozens of them whilst travelling, with the plan of stitching them together to form a quilt or some other patchwork project at a later date.

I couldn't believe how speedy it was to cut out the paper templates using the medium sized die, I folded a pile of A4 copy paper in half (long ways) and cut one set with the die.  As each cut produces 4 hexes it gave me a huge pile of templates. 

Using the larger die I was able to cut hexes from fabric which are slightly larger than the paper template.  I used 8 layers of fabric at a time - not sure what the maximum number of layers is, might have to experiment at a later date.  These dies certainly make short work of cutting out the hexes, I just cut my fabric in 6 inch wide strips and layered them concertina-style on the die. 

Now I have a box full of fabric hexes and paper templates to work on, it may take me many months to stitch a sufficient number to make a finished project, but it will keep my hands busy when I am away from my sewing machine, fabrics and papercrafting stash.

Tomorrow I'll have a card to share with you as there'll be a new challenge starting over on Cute Card Thursday.

Thanks for visiting today, I really appreciate you giving up your precious time to stop by and check my latest project.

4 comments:

Annie said...

looking forward to seeing your latest projects when I visit - hopefully soon! weather's not too bad here on the north coast but it is getting a tad windy. Will try and remember to phone you one evening .. .. I get stuck in front of the tv and the next thing you know it's bed time!
hugs, annie x

Karen K said...

Hi Wynneth

Two of our blocks last year used hexagons - I quite enjoyed doing them as you can do them sitting in front of the fire or the TV.

Nice job.

k x

Lauren Hatwell said...

They're lovely Wynneth. I love the fabric you've used too. Can't wait to see the finished project. Lx

Jayne Hayward said...

What a brilliant idea with the Sizzix templates. The material you are using are gorgeous. You will certainly be kept busy for hours. Looking forward to seeing you next quilting projects.

Jayne x