25 July 2013

Scrappy Hexie Pillow

Hooray!  Another long-term WIP knocked out: some English paper-pieced hexagons.


Over two years ago, I (temporarily) caught the hexie bug-- it looked so simple, and people's inspirational results were so pretty.


I gathered together scraps, basted them to the paper templates during a massive tv binge session, and put them in a ziplock bag.  Whenever I needed some hand work, I could pull them out.




But hand-stitching together hexagons takes me forever, and at a certain point, I just wanted to be done with them.  You have to be committed!

So, mine stopped at an 18x18 inch pillow size.

The result: a bright, fun, scrappy pillow! The fabrics are an eclectic mix of old favorites and some very special scraps, almost like an I-Spy quilt.


Each hexagon is hand-pieced, and I added an off-white border and a layer of batting underneath them.  With my machine (thank goodness, at this point), I quilted the pillow top in zig zags along the seam lines - tons of stopping and pivoting!


I frequently like to construct pillows so that they have a little flappy edge (what else to call it?) beyond the pocket, and this one measures just about 3/4 inch.


It is bound like a quilt, too, with an older Kate Spain (Central Park?) vine stripe, which I think complements the cheerful brightness of the hexies.


The back envelope closure is made of softest off-white upholstery fabric, and I trimmed the pocket to match the binding.

Just adorable! If you're interested in tackling your own English Paper-Piecing project, there are tons of free tutorials and templates out there.  A great place to start is this post at The Sometimes Crafter, where there is not only a tutorial but also a list of additional resources from around the stitchy web.


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14 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness that is gorgeous..I love hexi's, Really like how you did the binding on it.

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  2. Love your pillow! I also tend to make small projects with my hexies as I'm too impatient to do anything too big with them!

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    1. yeah, it takes a while, right!? :) worth it

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  3. I think the little flappy thing is called a flange. I should google and find out for sure!

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  4. Gorgeous pillow - love the colourful hexies and your quilting!

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  5. so pretty. And I know what you mean about hexies taking forever to sew together :-)

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  6. Your hexie pillow is beautiful! I got the hex fever too and put together about 930 of the silly things. It's still waiting to be made into something ~ most likely a small quilt to drape over the couch. Just need some inspiration!

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    1. thanks! lol it is totally a "fever," you're right!

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  7. So pretty! I'm working on my own EPP pillow cover(s) right now, and this pillow makes me want to hurry up and finish them!

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  8. What a happy pillow! It does feel nice to finish things, and yours is lovely!

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