half hexagon quilt-a-long part 3 - placing

Now that you have hundreds of half hexagons all cut out and ready, you'll need to find them a home!!  And what better home can any piece of fabric hope to have than a quilt. 

 

First you'll need to lay out all your hexagons to work out your placement.  This will take a good few hours to do.  My quilt is going to be made up of 36 vertical rows of half hexagons, so that will make 18 full size hexagons across the quilt.  There will be 22 horizontal rows, the top and bottom of these rows are made up of quarter hexagons which are simply half hexagons chopped in half vertically.  See pic. below.

I sew in my living room, so once the girls are safely out of the way at school, I clear a large space of my lovely green living room carpet and start laying out my hexagon jigsaw and fiddle around until I think "THIS! is the half-haxagon quilt of my dreams!!!!!!!!". 

The next part is a bit geeky but worth it as it can save many a patchwork headache in the immediate future of your quilt!!  Get yourself some scrap paper, I like to use the back of the many letters my girls bring home from school.  Cut them into little squares and use to label each vertical row of shapes (see pic). 

Next pile up each vertical row one by one so that you have the top quarter hexagon at the top of the pile and your bottom quarter hexagon at the bottom of the pile.  Pin your row label on top of each row as you go. 

 

Now grab yourself a largish tupperware-type container and some more sheets of scrap paper.  Place each of your piles onto a sheet of paper and fold the paper around it carefully.  I normally start with my last row, in this case row 36. 

Place each row into your tupperware temporary accommodation, so that you end up with your first row at the top of the pile (note in the above pic row 1 is top of the pile on the left hand side).  Finally put your tupperware somewhere safe where it will not be moved or jiggled about, it is crucial that your shapes stay in order until you sew or things can get horribly, muddlesome-ly complicated.

To work out how many pieces you need if you wish to make a different sized quilt to mine -  I have edited part 2 of this quilt a long to include this, see here and scroll down a little!

A teeny word of warning - Do not attempt to lay out your pieces on a very hot day unless you have adequate air-conditioning!!  This is what I did and I ended up unable to open the patio door to let in any air as my pieces started learning how to fly!!!

Now, I need something from you!!!!  I am nowhere near the quilting stage but I have started to think about this already.  I am really very unsure of how I want to quilt this project.  Absolutely any suggestions will be very extremely welcome.........stitch in the ditch?????  vertical lines??? free motion stippling???????  What would work well on hexagons???????  Have a think and please let me know!!

If you wish to quilt-a-long it's not too late to join!  Just leave me a comment below even if you aren't ready to start yet.

If you're quilting along don't forget to join my new flickr group here

Back soon with more patchy procrastination.

Comments

[jaybird]

i found your flicker group and i'm thinking about joining... not that i need another project... but i love hexes!

[Kitschen Pink]

Oh I am so loving this and the flickr group is so exciting! Your colours are, as ever, delicious! t.xx (you can quilt any way you please - I'm going to love it any which way! t.xx)

[Nina - Tabiboo]

Hi Aneela, it's looking lovely, but ooohhh that is a quilting toughie!

Stitch in the ditch - blimey that could take forever and plain old verticals mmmm, it may over shadow it. I'm not too sure though I know you will come up with something utterly gorgeous.

Nina x

[Mary on Lake Pulaski]

I really want to start a hexy and have the fabric, but don't know when I can fit it in.

[merumo]

Ohhhhhhh, what a lovely fabrics appearing now!!! Can't imagine making a quilt with Liberty's fabrics!! I can't find any here in the US, but got FQ back home from Tokyo when I was visiting my parents' last year...

[Red Pepper Quilts]

Wow! I have been inspired to join! There are just so many lovely hexagon quilts being made that I too would like to join in the fun. Please sign me up! I have already decided I that I want to quilt mine with vertical lines! But first things first, please could you add me to your list!
Rita

[willy-nilly]

Wow, it's beautiful! Next time maybe. I think it would make my head spin right now.

[Debbie]

What fun! I think I'll join up. Where do I start? It'll be awhile until I can get going on this though.

[Melanie]

Hi Aneela,

I would like to join your hexagon-along but I have a couple of other projects going at the moment, so it might take me a little while to catch up!

[Rita]

What a great quilt-along!
I really want to join, I am already making plans to star mine in the next days :)

[trashalou]

i would love to do this. May I join in at this late stage?

[Michelle]

Hi Aneela,

I'm Michelle @ www.mikknits.blogspot.com and email. mrhodes702@gmail.com and I have yet to pick my fabrics for the quilt along. I'm still trying to get the hang of piecing the half hexies by machine since I've only done hand piecing of whole hexies. Thanks for showing all of your steps!

[Rachel]

I had never even thought of organising my pieces the way that you have done... thank you SO much for posting about it as i can now go do it with my own and not have to worry about knocking over the tray (well lid) i have all my pieces placed on at the moment!!!

[Katherine]

I am new to quilting but I love how this is constructed with half hexes so I'm going to give it a shot, probably with some straight lines for the actual quilting part ... freeform is too scary! Thank you for all the info you've provided, it will be a great help :)

[ell]

I love it

[ashley]

I'm in! I've already started cutting into a Gypsy Rose jelly roll for it.

[amandajean]

oh, i think i want to join...but i might have to try it out on a mini quilt first. (before i commit.) your quilt is looking oh-so-lovely!!!

[Susan in AR]

I love this idea, I've requested the template and will add it to my stack of things to make when the spirit moves me. Thanks so much for making this tutorial. I appreciate it a lot.

Susan

[Heather]

I'm late. . . just found this and wish I wasn't behind. . . hmmm. . . do you think I can catch up? I know your posts will be here to guide me no matter what, but it is fun to play along. Beautiful!