It is stunningly easy to design with hexagons in Electric Quilt software.
You could do it yourself in a couple of minutes, but I am sharing one of my files with you anyway.
This is the quilt in the free project file (download below).
It is the design on the cover of the Hexagon Quilt Design Book, which is free when you buy Inklingo hexagons to print on fabric.
THE QUILT LAYOUT AND SIZE
Worktable > Work on Quilt > Quilt > New Quilt > One Patch Layout
Easy peasy.
Then you can set the number of units, the patch style, and the edge length using the Layout tab.
If I use hexagons with 1.5-inch sides, EQ tells me that the quilt will be 53 x 70.65 inches. (That is not shown in this image, but it is visible in the lower info bar in EQ.)
If I use the slider to change it to 2.25-inch hexagons, EQ automatically updates the size to show that the quilt would be 79.25 x 105.72 inches.
With 0.75-inch hexagons, EQ tells me the quilt will be 26.75 x 35.57 inches.
Is that cool, or what?
COLOR THE HEXAGONS
Next, I can switch to Layer 1 and paint the colors with fabric swatches. There are so many to choose from!
I used the Paint Brush tool and the Swap tool to create the blue version.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
For the coloring step, I found the Ctrl-Z keyboard shortcut very useful. It lets me undo the last step if I don’t like it for any reason. I can go back many steps. It is worth learning this useful shortcut because it works in all software, not just EQ.
(Monkey thinks I spend my whole day Ctrl-z-ing. It’s not true. Sometimes I use Ctrl-C (copy) and Ctrl-V (paste). My day would be very different without keyboard shortcuts!)
COUNT THE HEXAGONS
Electric Quilt counts all of those hexagons for me, by color. Hooray!
File > Print > Fabric Yardage
525 + 62 + 90 + 15
The hexagons have been counted for me!
FABRIC REQUIREMENTS
For fabric requirements, I prefer to use the diagrams provided by Inklingo, but EQ gives an estimate. Inklingo diagrams make it easy to see if the odd scraps in your stash are big enough too.
EQ is too smart to let me design with hexagons with sides less than 0.5 inches (LOL), so for hexagons with 0.25-inch sides and hexagons with 0.375-inch sides, I design with 0.5-inch sides and rely on the info in the Inklingo Catalogue of Shapes to get the quilt size and fabric requirements.
I love it that I can design with any size and EQ counts the hexagons for me. Then I only have to count the ones on the edges if I want to finish with half hexagons for a straight edge.
DOWNLOAD THE PROJECT FILE
If you have Electric Quilt, I hope you are just itching to start playing with this one-patch layout.
Hexagon Quilt EQ5 Project File
Hexagon Quilt EQ6 Project File
Hexagon Quilt EQ7 Project File
By the way, in this example, my hexagons are set on the flat side. The difference between setting hexagons flat and on-point is explained in the Hexagon Quilt Design Book.
If you don’t have Electric Quilt, there are worksheets to print in the Hexagon Quilt Design Book, but doesn’t EQ make it easy?
Northcott Vintage Rosie with rotary cutting layout
(Fabric not necessarily to scale)
When you have settled on your design, you can print the hexagons on fabric with Inklingo and start sewing. No templates! No basting! No stitches showing on the front.
We have made little movies so you can see how we sew hexagons by hand and how we sew hexagons by machine.
This design looks completely different in different colors, doesn’t it?
That’s part of the beauty of Electric Quilt. I can preview several different fabrics and colors before I make a final decision.
When you download the free EQ project file, you can use the Swap tool to get results in a flash.
Until next time, these links should keep you busy.
Top 10 Tutes (tutorials about Inklingo)
Are you subscribed?
If you don’t want to miss anything, you can enter your email address so you will always be the first to know. You can also subscribe to YouTube, of course.
We love it when you tell your friends in person and online (IO and other groups) about the movies on YouTube. Thank you!
Linda & Monkey
I have been hand piecing 1″ hexagons using Inklingo for several months. I have freestyled the piece as a panel on my brother’s 50th birthday quilt. He will be 60 in a few weeks, so time is of the essence. Can you point me to the best tutorial about printing the results of an EQ design onto each fabric using Inklingo? Thanks, as always!
Hi there! Thanks for the info on EQ. I am designing a hexagon quilt!
I iove the Hexagon designed quilts. Thank you for the wonderful tutotial.
Thank you so much for the EQ7 file Linda and Monkey 🙂 Hexagons have a special place in my heart since this is how I was first introduced to patchwork and quilting (though the quilting part didn’t come until a few years later). I started with metal templates and with a hot iron press the fabric over the templates frequently burning my fingers, LOL… How things have changed!! Especially with Inklingo now available. Thank you Linda and Monkey!!
Hugs
Ellyx
Great! Thank you for the EQ7 file, Linda. Hexies are so much fun. I am still piecing the hexies we traded in 2006 – at least I think it was 2006 – does anyone else remember? lol. I need to make this little project a priority!
Thanks for all you do. We love ya! Monkey, too. 😉
You do such lovely miniature work, Melinda. Enjoy!
I love hexagons thanks for this.