Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I Spy Quilt - Cutting hexagon hints

Last week in one of my blogs I shared one hint about making cutting hexagons simpler. The idea was to use a very small cutting mat, and turn the entire mat with the fabric and template rather than just turning the fabric and template. If you can't find a small cutting mat at the Dollar Store, maybe somebody that you know has an old cutting mat that can be cut up into squares. The mat that I have is 8" x 10". It's perfect for cutting out these I spy blocks. My template/blocks have 2" finished sides.
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So today I made over a hundred decisions like this. Placing my hexagon template on my 5" patches to see what would be the best way to cut out the hex patch.


I've determined that my I Spy Quilt will need 99 hexagons. So I started cutting out from my kit that I got as a result of the swap last week.


As I was cutting, I ran into a number of my charms that really didn't suit cutting out into a hexagon, so I set them aside. I soon realized that I might be a little short of charms. So, as I was cutting and thinking of my dilemma, I came up with a way to save some charms.


On the side of a hexagon quilt, there will be hexagons that are cut off to square up two sides of the quilt. You can see what I mean here on this table runner I did recently. I've drawn yellow circles to show these side hexagons.



So for my I spy, here's what I did to save a few patches. I picked out charms that have a small print, or all over design.

I cut out patches that are more than 1/2 the hexagon size but less than 2/3 of the size. I can get two out of a 5" charm square.

There, after I decide the color of my background triangles, I'll be ready for my I Spy class/workday that is scheduled for Sept. 13th.

3 comments:

MissesStitches said...

What a great idea you had! This will make evening up your sides so easy!

Anonymous said...

Your blog is so informative Gail. Thanks so much for taking the time with the pics and instructions. Lucy

MmBex said...

This was super helpful! Thanks for sharing.