CRAZY FOR HEXIES

A few years ago I learned how to English paper piece and I started with simple hexagons.  I didn’t realize how much fun it was going to be to whip stitch all those little hexie shapes together.  I also didn’t realize how addictive it could be, too.  Before I knew it, I had made a couple dozen hexagon flowers in lovely colors.  

I made most of my hexagon flowers in the evening while I was watching TV.  I found they were also easy to take with me on a trip; something I could work on to pass the hours on an airplane.  

Tired of the colored flowers I had been making, I decided to make some hexagons out of my stash of black and white fabrics.  The 1” hexagon papers with my fabric glued around the edges went with me on my next trip.

On a really long bus ride one day, I was watching one of my friends, sitting across the aisle, hand sewing a large English paper pieced project.  The various shapes she was sewing together, as well as the beautiful fabric, really caught my eye.  I asked her what she was making and where she had gotten that interesting pattern.  She said she was making the largest rosette from Katja Marek’s quilt along project.  There are 12 rosettes in total and the finished quilt is really large.

After the trip, when I was back home, I looked at Katja Marek’s website and downloaded the largest rosette and a few smaller ones too.  I also ordered her book, “The New Hexagon” with 52 different blocks to EPP. 

Pretty soon I was on a roll making the largest rosette, choosing my own fabrics and colors.  I spent several hours almost every night working on the rosette, and soon my hands and fingers began to cramp up.  That was when I knew how addicting these little hexies could be and I had to spend less time hand sewing and make sure to stop and do hand stretches.  I certainly didn’t want to injure my hands!  

I like the finished rosette a lot, but I just haven’t figured out how I want to finish it.  So for the time being it keeps company with many other UFO’s in my closet.

Once I was done with that rosette I debated whether I wanted to download another rosette from the website.  Because I enjoy creating my own designs, I decided to try my hand at drawing my own hexagon pattern.  This time around I kept the design much smaller than the large rosette I had just made from Katja’s pattern.  

In no time at all I had created several different hexagon-based patterns; a few I hand-sewed together in the evenings.

I decided to take a break from my evening hand-sewing as summer approached and my interests and focus changed.  But come this Fall and Winter I have several larger EPP projects already lined up, along with the fabrics, to keep me quite busy!