Mary M. Hogan - Fast-fold hexie quilting : a quick & easy technique for hexagon quilting

Fast-Fold Hexie Quilting

Landauer Publishing (www.landauerpub.com) is an imprint of Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc.

Copyright 2021 by Mary M. Hogan and Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc. 903 Square Street, Mount Joy, PA 17552.

Project Team

Editor: Stephanie White

Copy Editor: Amy Deputato

Designer: Wendy Reynolds

Photographers: Mary M. Hogan (step-by-step photography and ); Mike Milhalo Photography (jacket and all other photography)

Print ISBN: 978-1-947163-40-9
eISBN: 978-1-607658-26-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Fox Chapel Publishing, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in an acknowledged review and the enlargement of the template patterns in this book for personal use only. The patterns themselves, however, are not to be duplicated for resale or distribution under any circumstances. Any such copying is a violation of copyright law.

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For Rita, Christine, Judy, Carol, Kathy, and Maureen, and the many other women who have helped or inspired me, I dedicate this book to you. Having you in my life has meant so much.

Thanks to Landauer Publishing; they took a chance on me and accepted my first proposal. Special thanks to Jeri Simon, Sue Voegtlin, and Catherine Dreiss at Landauer, from whom I learned a great deal about putting together a book. Thanks also to the staff and customers at The Quilting Season in Saline, Michigan, who have created a continually evolving quilting community that I am privileged to be part of.

The hexagon shape has long been used in quilting, and many intricate quilts have been designed and made with hexagons. Most hexagon quilts rely on English paper-piecing (EPP), a technique in which fabric is basted to paper hexagon shapes, and the fabric hexagons are then whipstitched together from the wrong side. I love the handwork involved in this technique: cutting out the paper pieces, cutting small pieces of fabric, basting, and sewing hexagons together. With EPP, after sewing the quilt top together, there are still time-consuming steps to complete before you have a finished quilt: remove the paper, make a quilt sandwich with backing and batting, do the actual quilting, and finally add the binding.

The Fast-Fold Hexie (abbreviated throughout the book as FFH) method allows you to make hexagon quilts by hand or machine using a quilt-as-you go technique: start with a circle of fabric, fold it to a hexagon shape, insert batting, add a small folded hexagon topper, and sew. You now have an enclosed quilted hexagon unit with a finished edge, which can be easily sewn to other units. Once the hexie units are sewn together, the project is complete. There is no need to prepare a backing, baste, quilt, or add binding.

Front side and back side of traditional EPP.

A FFH is made of a base (left) and topper (middle).

Bachelor-button flowers were the original inspiration for FFHs.

I developed the techniques in this book after purchasing The Art of Elegant Hand Embroidery, Embellishment, and Appliqu by Janice Vaine. As I made some of the bachelor-button flowers featured in the book, it dawned on me that I was essentially making little hexagons. Over the next few months, and with much trial and error, I worked out how to adapt the folding technique from the bachelor buttons to make hexagon units for quilts. In this book, youll learn the technique plus get instructions for projects that use fast-fold hexies.

One of the things I love about the FFH technique is that its portable: you dont have to spend all your time at the cutting table and sewing machine. For example, you can use scissors to cut the circles and batting, then fold and pin the hexies in your lap (I like to place my cardboard work surface on a cookie sheet when folding). You can do all the sewing by hand, or with a sewing machine, or a combination of both. This technique is versatile, and I hope youll love it as much as I do.

You dont need any special quilting supplies to make these projects, but I do have some recommendations to make the process easier.

Fabric: In general, I recommend using high-quality quilting cotton for these projects. This fabric is easier to work with and ensures good results. You can also experiment with flannel fabrics: the texture is fun to work with, but is not recommended for small FFHs (5" [12.7cm] circle hexie bases or smaller), because it is too bulky. Avoid batik fabrics at first: the tight weave is harder to pin and especially difficult to sew by hand. Busy prints may not show up well. Instead try using small prints, solids, and fabrics that read as solids.

Batting: I recommend Warm & White or Warm & Natural from The Warm Company for FFHs. This batting is not stretchy and holds its shape better than other batting. In general, I prefer cotton batting, but if you prefer polyester, I recommend Soft & Bright, also from the Warm Company. This polyester batting holds its shape well and is lighter weight than cotton, which may be an advantage in these quilts. If using other batting, test to make sure you are satisfied with it before cutting hundreds of hexagon batting pieces.

Thread: For the most part, Im not particular about thread and use what I have, which is typically 100 percent cotton, poly/cotton, and polyester. I do enjoy working with 80wt Wonderfil polyester thread, especially for hand sewing. If you use a neutral shade, the stitches nearly disappear, and the thread holds well.

Needles: For hand sewing, I dont have specific needle recommendations; I find a needle that works easily with the fabric and thread I am using. When machine sewing, look for a larger needle than what you would use for regular piecing, such as a universal size 90 /14 or 100 /16. For sewing stacked FFHs (e.g., Homage to the Hexagon, ), or if the universal needle does not work, try a jeans/denim needle, in size 90 /14 or 100 /16. This technique requires you to sew through multiple layers, so a larger needle may be needed.

Template Material: You need paper or plastic to make the templates for cutting fabric and batting. For circles that are 10" (25.4cm) or less, I prefer to use full-circle templates and template plastic. For larger circles, I use paper quarter-circle templates. Batting templates require something sturdy, such as plastic or cardstock.