Hand Piecing Tutorial

I have had lots of kind comments on my Downton Garden quilt, thank you! I have also had several questions on how I am stitching the hexagons, so I thought it would be helpful to show my method here.

I know it is traditional to sew hexagons in the English Paper Piecing way, that is basted over papers, but I am not a fan of this method, I find it too time consuming and cannot see any real benefit when working with large shapes (The hexagons I am sewing are 1") I am using regular hand piecing, it is fast and accurate!

The first important thing to mention, is that you must cut your pieces accurately. You can't get away with rough cutting as you can with EPP!

I love the acrylic template sets by Marti Michell I am using the 1" 60 degree shapes from set G for this quilt. I can rotary cut several layers quickly and easily with the templates and my rotating cutting mat. You can of course make your own template from template plastic, you then need to draw one hexagon shape on the back of your fabric and then stack several fabrics and cut them in one go, using either your ruler and rotary cutter, or you can pin several layers together and cut with scissors.

Once the pieces are cut, you need to mark where the seams allowances cross with a small dot, Marti's templates have a hole on the template in the right place, it is easy to mark the seam allowances quickly. If you are a beginner you might find it helpful to draw the whole seam line in, until you get used to eye balling the 1/4". 

Place the first two pieces right sides together, line up your cut edges, and place a pin through the dot on both pieces where the seam ends.

You then stitch between the dots; I start with a back stitch and load my needle with several stitches before pulling through. I have about 8 or 9 stitches per inch. Take a backstitch at the end of the seam just as you come to the dot. You don't stitch through the seam allowance.

Before you break your thread, check if the next piece can be added. Again you are only sewing "dot to dot" I like to use a size 10 between needle and aurifil cotton thread for hand piecing.

You might find it helpful to lay out all your pieces face down on a flannel board, you can then easily see which is the next piece to be stitched.

I like to start in the centre and add the first round of hexagons

Then I add the next round

I wait until I have completed the whole piece before I press the seams from the back. I showed how to press in THIS tutorial.

I hope you have found this helpful, any questions please ask!

Downton Garden

Do you remember the Jelly Roll of Downton Abbey fabrics that I bought a couple of months ago...

To make this quilt from Di Ford?...

Well I have finally started to sew it together :) I have been happily piecing hexagons in front of the TV for the last couple of evenings, and have 3 flowers sewn.

I still have a long way to go, but it is an easy project to pick up over the Christmas holidays. I think I have also decided on the setting and border fabrics. I won't cut them just yet, I have been known to change my mind several times mid-quilt!

Downton Garden

I have lots of quilt projects that I could be working on :) but as soon as I saw the new line of 'Downton Abbey' fabrics by Makower I knew I wanted to start a new quilt with them. I am not normally a fan of the 2 1/12" strip rolls you can buy, largely because I don't normally like the quick quilt patterns that are designed for them. However they are a nice way of having a small piece of each fabric in a line, so I bought one from The fat Quarters shop here in the UK, it arrived in record time (love fast customer service!)

They call it a "Roll up" - 40 x 2 1/2" strips I have removed the dark tone on tone black, navy & burgundy strips as they didn't give the soft look I want for his quilt. The fabric line is "Downton Abbey: Women's Collection" The fabrics on the right are from my stash. Want to see what I am making?

This lap size Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt called 'Route 66' by Di Ford from this fabulous book...

I love hexagon quilts and have made several over the years, but never one with the diamonds/triangles between the hexagon flowers. The Downton fabrics will be enough for the hexagon rosettes, my quilt will be slightly smaller than Di's as I want to use these Marti Michell acrylic templates that I have rather than the templates from the pattern. These sets from Marti are brilliant, you can rotary cut several layers at once very accurately.

These stash fabrics are for the small diamonds and the surrounding cream hexagons: The solid duck egg is from 'Rural Jardin' by French General and the cream/blue fabric is 'Quilter's palette flowers' from Makower.

These two will form the inner/outer border. The mauve is from 'Vanity Fair c.1892' by Nancy Gere and the floral is 'Samantha c.1900' by Sara Morgan for Blue Hill fabrics.

I have had all of these fabrics for a long time, no idea if they are still available so I hope I have enough! I plan to hand piece this one, I love having hand projects ready to work on when I am out of the house or while 'watching' TV with the family. I get most of my sewing done this way, I love my sewing machine but using it always seems like work.