12 X 12 Scrappy Hexagon Quilt

This is another scrap busting quilt in our 12 scrappy projects in 12 months (12 X 12) series. For a little more information, click here.

There are so many options when it comes to English Paper Piecing - hexagons, diamonds, blocks, tumblers and more. Several websites have free downloads for paper piecing templates and there are online stores that sell precut shapes. A quick search on google will help you find both.

I think this is a great hand sewing project if you're not in a big hurry to finish it. I'll be working on mine over the course of months (maybe longer!!). I've chosen 7/8" hexies that I'll put together in a diamond shape, like this:

Reading through other blogs about paper piecing, I see that I make my hexies a little different than most people. The most common way to hold the shape is to poke through the fabric and paper template with a stitch at each corner, as you fold the fabric around the hexagon template. I run my holding stitches through the back side only.Then I don't have any threads to remove when I'm done! Here's how I do it:

Step 1 - Pin the paper to the wrong side of the fabric square:

Step 2 - Fold one edge of the fabric over one side of the template:

Step 3 - Working to the left, fold the next edge of fabric along the template and take a stitch starting in the first fold and coming up in the second:

Step 4 - Fold the next fabric edge and take another stitch:

Step 5 - Continue around the entire template, taking a stitch at every turn (no stitches are going through the paper) and then tie a quickie knot at the end:

Step 6 - I like to to press it now. Clip the thread about 1/8" from the knot and this one's done! (oops forgot to clip the thread before I snapped the photo):

Each diamond block is composed of one center hexie, 8 hexies for the inner diamond and 16 for the outer. The completed diamond blocks will be joined with a row of white hexagons in between each block:

Layout the hexies in the design pattern you chose and then stitch them together. Place two hexies right sides together and whipstitch together along one side. Keep adding hexies one side at at time. It's best to leave the paper template inside until that hexie has been stitched to others on all 6 sides. Then just use a pin or stiletto to get inside from the back and pop the template out.