Hexalong with Lynne

It was love at first sight …

When Liz, from the lovely, eye-candy filled blog, Broderie, posted photos of her version of Kerry Dear’s “Candied Hexagons” quilt to Flickr … I was completely, totally and utterly smitten.   It hits all the right notes … giant flowers, a mash-up of gorgeous fabrics and colors, and the complicated good looks I love in a quilt.

Lynne, from Lily’s Quilts and I will be teaming up on this sew along.  She and I saw Lizzie’s Candied Hexagons quilt a few weeks back on Flickr and we both became obsessed with making it.   You know how that goes, right?   Oh, silly me, of course you do ….

Grab the button:

<div align="center"><a href="http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/2011/07/hexalong-starts-here.html" title="Hexalong"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6004/5944878285_e934952775_o.jpg" alt="Hexalong" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 

Lynne’s original “Hexalong” post is here.  She will be showing you how to English Paper piece the blocks in the quilt and I will be showing you a point-to-point hand-piecing method using freezer paper templates.

So now, for a little eye-candy of my own.

How about those blossoms?   These flowers are really big, so I will be super sizing my blocks to give them room to shine.

They are all Lakehouse fabrics from Holly Holderman.  I think they are probably OOP, but here are photos of the selvages in case you want to go on a hunt.

My pattern templates will be made using freezer paper.

Look!  Reynolds even includes the usefulness of their product to quilters on its packaging – how long have they been doing that, I wonder?  Probably forever and I’ve just been oblivious until now!

Anyway, here is my arsenal of tools for creating freezer paper templates:

One roll of freezer paper, a mechanical pencil, a fine line permanent marker and a “Magic Wand” for marking 1/4″ seam allowances.

And here is my hand sewing kit.

I like long, thin needles and use a #12 size.  I also like to use silk thread for hand piecing.  This is Gutterman, from Joann’s.  It is strong and smooth and feels wonderful.  Also in my kit are

scissors,

a seam ripper,

a couple different needle threaders,

bees wax,

a pin cushion

and a sweet little glass puppy from my son – you don’t need one of those, of course, but mine always makes me smile!

(The EPP papers are for another project.)

So there you have it, an introduction and list of basic supplies to get you started with hand piecing.

I’ll leave you with a few more photos of those magnificent flowers and then go rummage through my stash to find the rest of the fabrics for this yummy quilt.

Happy Sewing, everyone, and welcome to our Sew Along!

Gayle

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