Hexagon Block Instructions

Liberty Stars Quilt-along | Hexagon Layout | Making Up Your Quilt Top | My Blocks | Liberty Stars Quilt-along Flickr Group

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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:

 

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.

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.

Keep adding arms, till you get to the last arm.

Sew the last one on exactly the same as you’ve been doing, and then sew the last sides together to join the circle….

Next, place your diamonds around your star, and make any changes to arrangement so you’re happy with the placement of each diamond.

Then, take one of the diamonds and sew into place, first one side, then the second.

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.

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…

Complete sewing all diamonds into place. Your hexagon block is done, and should look like this:

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.

Next, press the middle seams down, in the same direction.

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.

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:

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!