BluegrassGurl

I'm using this method for my 1" hexies.... and love the result.

mom-6

I have not yet hand pieced hexes, but for the other hand piecing I've done I've just used a running stitch with a back stitch every inch or so and at each joining.

If one or both edges are folded (like on binding) then I will do the ladder stitch with back stitch at intervals.

toolazy

I'm doing my first English paper piecing project. Not hexies, but lots of triangle points and (coming up soon, eek!) some curves. I tried ladder stitch and running stitch and didn't like the results for either -- seams not quite flat, stitches showing .... Some of that could be my technique although I'm pretty proficient at ladder stitching.

What works best for me is right sides together and a small, tight whipstitch catching just a few threads from each piece. I'm not sure which matters more, small or snug. I started making small stitches and my hand/eyes got calibrated to that and now I can't stop LOL . I make 3-4 stitches and then give the thread an extra tug to make sure they're tight. Extra stitch or two at each corner to hold.

Where I can't fit the pieces right sides together, I lay them flat and sew from the back. I try to always catch 2-3 threads, not just one, on each piece so the results will be durable.

toolazy

Forgot to mention, one of my threads is a size 40 because that's all I had in the right color. Those stitches don't show any more than the size 50 do, and the seam still lays nice and flat.

Jackie Spencer

LOl I love it!!!!

lakekids

You might look at Bonnie Hunter's tutorial for hexagons.
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2010/...-tutorial.html

Geri B

a few yrs ago I did a GFG, my personal challenge of that year....actually took two years to finish and it is still in bin waiting to be quilted....beside the point!!!!!!! I made my own system, I think......cut strips of freezer paper about 1/2 inch larger than width of the hex I decided upon (don't remember now). Fan-folded the strips into a square that this hex would fit onto. Drew that hex onto this stacked strip after I stapled that strip. Then cut the drawn hex, , pulled staple and had that amount of hexes.....had cut strips of fabric about 1" wider, placed these cut hexes onto fab, giving myself the 1/4" around each hex I placed, ironed then cut with rotary and small ruler, at that point giving myself that 1/4" "extra" fabric around those hexes..........then I took these to sewing machine, put the machine on basting stitch and actually machine basted these hexes, finger pressing as I went around each one, did not cut each one, just pulled a length of threads, and put the next one under...........made little bunches of these.....like each flower/center together, leaves, path together, etc., then all I had to do is cut apart each batch as I needed and whipstitched that motif together or wherever I was on the whole thing at that point...... The machine basting part was so much faster for me that the hand basting of each hex was (way I started).....after all done, it was easy to pop out those freezer paper templates......and freezer paper is very inexpensive. I think the original pattern came from a Fons and Porter mag a "few years ago".......and I think the freezer paper idea came from there too....

I liked doing it and may one day do another GFG with this freezer paper process....

mike'sgirl

Amen, sister. I have one in progress as well and love to take with to the wherever I will be sitting for awhile.

grandjan

This was the first quilt I ever made and I carried those pieces with me everywhere for months. I still can't look at that quilt without thinking of hospital waiting rooms because both my sister and my dad experienced life-threatening hospitalizations while I was working on it. I put the right sides together and whip stitched them. It's absolutely invisible and, because you match the entire hexagon up, you can be quite sure you're seam is dead straight. It's a lovely quilt to make. Good luck with it. I look forward to seeing the pictures.

Mo_Chride

Well, my EPP GFG is finally at the LA.

I printed a hexie template off the internet onto cardstock and cut out the hexies. I then cut 2.5" squares of fabric and basted those squares "as is" onto the cardstock hexies, right through the cardstock. I did reuse the hexies after I pulled out the basting. I then put right sides together and whip stitched the hexies together. Mine is called "Not Your Grandmother's Flower Garden" because I used black centres and pathway, pastel first row around the centre and then bright in the same colour as the first row for the second row and then the pathway.

That sucker went everywhere for two years. I even took prebasted hexies to Jamaica and whip stitched pool side. It finally finished at 126" x 102". My LA gave me her biggest quilt yet award. I am so proud to have finished it and am kind of missing having hand sewing to do in front of the TV in the evening but I will get it back in the middle of May and will have the binding to hand stitch on as well as the binding for a king sized bento that I made for my cousin's wedding that I will get back from the LA two weeks later so will have lots of hand sewing again then.

But, I will be doing another EPP project again soon. I miss having that easy portability of a project. The hour and a half of TaeKwonDo is long right now! LOL