Hexie Love Blog Hop

I am interrupting our regularly scheduled program (Modern Baby Quilt) again with TWO pieces of news for Julia Wood’s Hexie Blog Hop!

ONE!  Julia Wood is self-publishing a new online magazine called Hexie Love, and you could win one free issue. ($5.99 value)

Julia has assured me that Hexie Love is not just about English Paper Piecing and I have agreed to write an article about Inklingo for an issue later this year.

Hexagons are not just for quilters who use EPP!

 

TWO!  I am offering the Inklingo Hexagon Quilt Design Book ($20 value, PDF download) FREE until midnight on Tuesday, April 14, so read on!

 

Printing shapes on fabric with an ordinary Inkjet printer and Inklingo is a hexie lover’s dream come true!

There is fabulous hexagon inspiration everywhere these days.

However, if English Paper Piecing was the only way to quilt, I would probably not be a quilter at all—let alone gluing and basting and picking paper out of hexagons! I would have found another hobby.

I hear the same thing from Inklingo quilters almost every day. Gluing, pinching and whip-stitching is not fun for everyone and can be very hard on hands and wrists.

ENGLISH PAPER PIECING RESCUE

I often hear from quilters who are stalled on a project they started with EPP, discouraged by how long it takes. You can finish with a running stitch!

English Paper Piecing Rescue is one of the most popular pages on my website.

 

Lucy Boston has inspired quilters all over the world with Patchwork of the Crosses and other hexagon quilts. She taught herself to sew by mending clothes and old quilts. English Paper Piecing was the only method she knew.

The brilliance of Lucy Boston was the artistic way she used designs in the fabric–fussy cutting—not her sewing method.

The Patchworks of Lucy Boston by her daughter-in-law, Diana, illustrates and describes all 20 of her amazing quilts. It makes me sad to think how many more masterpieces would be part of Lucy Boston’s legacy if she had the advantages we have today.

 

In Millefiori Quilts and Millefiori Quilts 2, the Dutch artist Willyne Hammerstein uses English Paper Piecing but says it is the least favorite part of the process for her too.

“Choosing a pattern, selecting the fabrics that go with it and piecing together a small part to see the result, gives me the most pleasure. Thereafter, my perseverance is tested. Quilting is not my favorite occupation.”

Do you admire all the hexagons you see in books and magazines and on Pinterest and other websites, but can’t imagine basting and whip-stitching your way to a finished quilt?

Hexagons are not just for quilters who use EPP!

I quilt for relaxation and to express my creativity. Life can be hard. I don’t need my hobby to test my patience!

There is an easier way to sew Willyne’s exquisitely complex quilts with hexagons, diamonds, pentagons and other shapes. Quiltmania understood that making the shapes in Willyne’s quilts Inklingo-able would make these stunning designs accessible to more quilters, not just quilters who EPP.

Last month we introduced two shape collections for Passacaglia, the quilt on the cover of Millefiori Quilts.

 

EPP FORESAKEN!

When a project takes so long that I lose interest and abandon hope of finishing, it creates feelings of guilt.

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville is part of Julia’s Blog Hop too.  Bonnie stuck with her vision for her hexie quilt for FOURTEEN years, not including time to quilt it. Bonnie is an inspiration for all of us, but oh, my!

HEXIE LOVE!

• I love hexagons, especially the 90° hexagons in Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses.
• I love a portable project.
• I love precision.
• I love relaxing with a needle and thread for some slow stitching—a running stitch.
• I love fussy cutting.
• I love finishing what I start.

Hexagons are not just for quilters who use EPP!

I can sew with a running stitch instead!

There are at least two good ways of preparing hexagons for hand piecing which are faster and more accurate than EPP, so you can make wonderful hexagon designs in a fraction of the time.

 

1. Prepare the shapes with freezer paper templates and sew with a running stitch. This is the method I teach in my Quilted Diamonds books.

 

This method of hand piecing gives you complete design freedom!

If you can print or draw the shapes on freezer paper, you can cut them apart, draw sewing lines on the fabric with a pencil and sew fabric pieces together with a running stitch. It is the same for hexagons AND any other shape.

I decided to reprint Quilted Diamonds 2 this winter—while hexagons are hot—because it can help quilters who are looking for an easier, more portable way to sew hexagons or any other shape, not just the diamond designs in the books.

Every copy of Quilted Diamonds 2 includes the comprehensive two-hour hand piecing lesson on DVD. The lesson takes the mystery out of this simple, relaxing technique and includes all my best tips.

 

2. Print the shapes on fabric with Inklingo (VIDEO) and sew with a running stitch.

Of course, this is my favorite method. Precise, simple, fast, portable.

Print, rotary cut several layers at a time, and sew! The video shows every step.

Hexagons are not just for quilters who use EPP!

 

 

Everyone loves the portability of hand piecing, but it is also easy to machine piece hexagons when you have the lines printed on the fabric.

I hand piece hexagons that are smaller than 1 inch and machine piece the larger sizes. I also like to combine hand and machine piecing in the same quilt, a hybrid.

I hand piece when I need portability and machine piece for speed.

 

The same hand piecing and machine sewing techniques also work for 300 Pieced Hexagon designs (video above) and for fussy cutting.

 

8 GOOD WAYS

On the other hand, if you do enjoy English Paper Piecing, there are 8 Good Ways to Use Inklingo for EPP. 8 Good Ways on QuiltingHub.

In addition to the flexibility of printing your own templates and choosing your own perfect template material, Inklingo includes illustrated yardage requirements and TWO wonderful methods for fussy cutting!

 

FOLDED CIRCLES

If you use Julia Wood’s method of folding fabric circles into a hexagon shape, you can skip the tracing and print circles on fabric with Inklingo instead!

Hexagons made from folded circles are pretty thick, so you will want BIG circles. A three-inch fabric circle folds into a hexagon with sides less than 1 inch (comparison above), so instead of cutting 225-250 hexagons from a yard of fabric, you only get about 120.

 

1. Leave a comment to enter to win an issue of Hexie Love.

I will be posting more hexie photos on Pinterest and Facebook during Julia’s Blog Hop, but the winner of the copy of Hexie Love from Julia Wood will be chosen from comments left below—not anywhere else.

Comments on Blog Lovin or other blog readers or on Facebook or anywhere else will not be in the draw. Please comment on this page to be included.

 

2. Order the Hexagon Quilt Design Book—free. 
Order on the website.

Tell your friends!

Normally any Inklingo design book is only free when you buy the related Inklingo shapes.

If you already have the Hexagon Quilt Design Book, there is no need to order again.

After midnight on Tuesday, April 14, the Hexagon Quilt Design Book will go back to $10—or free when you buy a related shape collection. (Details – 60° hexagons, 90° hexagons for POTC, shapes for Willyne Hammerstein’s Passacaglia, Colonial Garden or Periwinkle Octagon).

 

THE BLOG HOP CONTINUES!

For more information on Hexie Love Magazine and Julia’s books about folding circles into hexagons, please visit Julia’s Blog.

Visit these links for more chances to win!

April 6  Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.ca/2015/04/hexie-love-e-magazine-give-away.html
April 7  Catherine Redford http://catherineredford.com/hexie-love-blog-hop/
April 8  Linda Franz http://www.inklingo.com/blog/hexie-love-blog-hop/  (me)
April 9  Cheryl Sleboda http://muppin.com/wordpress/index.php/blog/
April 10 Geta Grama  http://cadouri-din-inima.blogspot.com
April 11  Victoria Findlay Wolfe http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com
April 12 Becky Campbell  https://www.facebook.com/sewforeverquiltingbybeckycampbell
April 13 Joan Shay https://www.facebook.com/joan.mooreshay

 

ARE YOU SUBSCRIBED?

I will write more soon about the Modern Baby quilt design you can make with the new Inklingo for Quilted Diamonds shape collection.

I post one or two photos on Facebook every day, but Facebook only shows my photos to about 20% of the quilters who have “liked” the Inklingo Facebook Page, so the best way to stay up to date is to subscribe to the blog (top of right sidebar).

 

REMINDERS

I will keep the special sale price of $15 on the  new Inklingo for Quilted Diamonds shape collection for a few more days, okay? Main Quilted Diamonds Page

There are FAQ about Quilted Diamonds on the blog and you can see my first Modern Baby Quilt designs too.

I will be sharing more photos on the Inklingo Facebook page. If you are on Facebook, please “like” and “comment” and “share” my photos. It spreads a nice friendly feeling!

I’m looking forward to reading your comments about hexagons. Good luck in the draw!

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

$10 Coupon! 8 Year Anniversary Special on the handbook

Inklingo for Beginners

25 Signs YOU are an Inklingo Quilter