It’s All About Values – A Hexagon Low Volume Quilt

First, a huge thank you to everyone who commented, ordered, and supported The Socorro Foundation featured on my previous post. By my estimates you’ve sent somewhere around $5000 worth of necessities to the border. The compassion shown has touched my heart. I can’t even wait until your boxes start showing up on the Foundations’ doorstep. My overall impression based on the emails & comments I’ve received from a rainbow of political viewpoints is that we all want to be good humans & agree that no child should go hungry (and clean underwear is almost priceless!). I will also say I received not one negative comment – only support and care for those who need help. Thank you for being so amazing! 

For the last several years, I’ve run a fun little fabric-collecting club through my shop called ‘Inside Voices’. It’s been almost FIVE YEARS since the first curated low volume bundle shipped out and it’s still one of my favorite (and our shop’s most popular!) clubs. With my kids being a little older, sewing time is becoming more and more precious. So when I do get that time, I sew with my favorites & low volume and Liberty prints are where I really love to spend my time. I put together this little hexagon quilt while we spent time with my parents in Florida. I thought it might be fun to share a bit of my process in case someone else wants to make one.

First, I use a design board to lay out my hexagons. Even just using heavily curated low volume bundles, there are still a range of values and you want a good mix. Design boards help so much in getting it right!

There are A LOT of youtube videos on sewing hexagons together by machine, but not a lot on actually making something with those hexagons. Hexagons aren’t magic, but there are a few tips that will make them come together easily. The first is to think of them as rows. Hexagons have one row that forms a zig zag & one that forms a half hexagon. You’ll ALWAYS want to sew your rows together along the zig zag. Above you can see my hexagons stitched into their individual rows. Just like when I stitch my patchwork together into rows, then pairs of rows, then sets of 4 and so forth until I stitch my two halves together, my hexagons get the same treatment. Above your can see what it looks like when I have two halves ready to be sewn together. 

Once your quilt top is all sewn together, it will look like this. This is the first time an iron will touch my quilt! There’s no point pressing until it’s all together because of all the twisting to get the seams together. Now it’s time to trim.

I just use a rotary cutter. For the half-hexagon edge, I line my ruler up with the flat side of the lower hexagons – hopefully this picture is clearer than my description. I’ve been promised it’s worth a thousand words. Also, I just have to say that even after fiddling with tiny seams for hours, I still absolutely LOVE these prints & this quilt. It included about 26 prints (most of the last three months of inside voices).

Then line the ruler up with the flat side & trim your zig zag edge. You may need to cut into the hexagon just a *teeny* bit – but don’t get crazy. 

Ta da! You have a hexagon quilt sewn entirely by machine! Go you!!!! I got this one together in what would have been a day if not for trying to keep my kids entertained for summer break. It’d be a fantastic retreat project! Thank you for reading, supporting & contributing!