Liberty Stars Quilt-along | Hexagon Layout | Making Up Your Quilt Top | My Blocks | Liberty Stars Quilt-along Flickr Group
Here are the instructions for making your full hexagon blocks. You’ll need to make 56 of these. Further down, I give instructions for making the 8 half blocks you’ll need.
TEMPLATES
For Each Pair of Full Hexagons:
Cut the following from each of your two coordinating fabrics:
1 x centre hexagon
6 x hexagon “arms”
6 x diamonds
Click to download the pattern templates:
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SEWING INSTRUCTIONS
[Here is a link to an easy-to-follow tutorial on hand-piecing: How To Hand Piece (Tutorial on Hand Piecing), by Rose Rushbrooke]
HEXAGON BLOCKS
Important:
1. Please read instructions all the way through before beginning.
2. DO NOT IRON ANY SEAMS UNTIL THE INSTRUCTIONS SAY TO DO IT
Sewing your blocks
Lay out your hexagon pieces, and make sure you’re happy with the positioning of all pieces.
To begin, take your centre hexagon and one hexagon “arm” piece, pin the “bottom” of the arm to one side of the hexagon, and sew them together.
with right sides together, pin "bottom" of hexagon arm to one side of your centre hexagon
right side shows how arm is attached to centre hexagon
Next, add a second hexagon arm, beginning with the right sides, and then swinging the second hexagon arm piece around to sew its bottom to the next side of the centre hexagon.
begin by sewing the two sides of the arms together...
then swivel the arm around so you can attach its bottom to the next side of the centre hexagon
Keep adding arms, till you get to the last arm.
3 down, 3 to go
5 done, up to the last one now
Sew the last one on exactly the same as you’ve been doing, and then sew the last sides together to join the circle….
right arm sides first...
then sew the bottom to the last free centre hexagon side, and finally sew the left arm side to the right arm side of the first hexagon arm to complete the circle
your first lovely star is complete
Next, place your diamonds around your star, and make any changes to arrangement so you’re happy with the placement of each diamond.
rearrange the diamonds if you like
Then, take one of the diamonds and sew into place, first one side, then the second.
start with one edge of the diamond, pin and sew into place along one side of a hexagon arm, then swivel the diamond around to attach and sew the second side onto the next hexagon arm
here's how the attached diamond looks on the right side
BEFORE FINISHING OFF AND CUTTING YOUR THREAD, read on…
In my endeavour to preserve thread, I don’t knot and cut my thread at this point. Do a couple of back stitches, and leave your needle and thread attached. Then, take the next diamond, and pin one side.
pin the next diamond to the star and sew in place
Now, before sewing, you need to handle where your threaded needle is. Simple. Just push your needle from where the thread is, through to the new diamond, going from the point where you finished sewing, to the point of the new diamond, like this…
once your needle's through, do a couple of securing stitches, then continue on 
Complete sewing all diamonds into place. Your hexagon block is done, and should look like this:
wrong side
right side
Ironing your blocks
Do not press your seams until your block is complete. With wrong side facing up on your ironing board, begin with the outer seams, pressing down all seams in the same direction, ie. clockwise or anti-clockwise.
iron diamond/star seams first
Next, press the middle seams down, in the same direction.
as you go round, tuck seam "bits" in where needed
Finally, press the inner seams into the middle.
So now, all seams have been pressed down, and the wrong side of your block should look like this:
Now turn your lovely hexagon block over, and give the right side a good press.
are you smiling? isn't your block pretty?
Ta-dah! You now have one complete hexagon block. Repeat this process until all 56 hexagon blocks are made up.
HALF HEXAGON BLOCKS
For Each Pair of Half Hexagons:
Cut the following:
FOR RIGHT SIDE OF QUILT:
1 x Half Centre Hexagon with side A on the right
2 x Hexagon “arms”
1 x Half Hexagon “arm”with side A on the right
1 x Half Hexagon “arm” with side A on the left
3 x Diamonds
FOR LEFT SIDE OF QUILT:
1 x Half Centre Hexagon with side A on the left
2 x Hexagon “arms”
1 x Half Hexagon “arm” with side A on the right
1 x Half Hexagon “arm” with side A on the left
3 x Diamonds
Create your half-hexagon blocks using the same process as for the full hexagon blocks. Repeat the process until you have 4 half-hexagon blocks for the left side of your quilt, and another 4 half-hexagons for the right side of your quilt. Your finished half hexagon blocks will look like this:
half hexagon block for right side of quilt | half-hexagon block for left side of quilt
Once all your blocks are completed, you can move onto the next step: Making Up Your Quilt Top.
QUESTIONS
If you have any questions or comments about any of the steps above, or anything related to this part of the process, please write a comment.
Enjoy! Remember to upload images to our Flickr Group!
