Friday 28 September 2012

English Piecing

Some time back I blogged about this quilt that my daughter and I made. I had inherited the hexies years ago and my daughter pieced them together, I then made them into a quilt for her. I have been sending her lots more of the hexies to South Africa where she lives and she is making a pile of them. But she doesnt know how to make them into a quilt. So I have put together a little tutorial below for her. I have used some vintage triangles that I was also given. This method is called English piecing. 


This is her pile

Cut the correct size of backing fabric and wadding. You will only need the extra layer of backing if you are stitching hexies onto that before the wadding. If you are joining all the hexies together to make the quilt top you wont need that layer of fabric

 Stitch together hexies



 pin the joined hexies to backing using slip stitch around edge, leaving card templates in place

 When this is complete, pull backing fabric away from hexies and cut fabric away to reveal the card templates



 Cut away the tacking from the card, careful to avoid snipping your slip stitching



 Sandwich together the layers of fabric, wadding, fabric and pin through layers

 hand quilt through layers, along all edges of shapes and then around the outside of the total shape


Underneath view of quilting

If you are making the whole of the quilt top from hexies or other shapes there is no need to back that with fabric and cut the back away. You will just take the card templates out before sandwiching the layers.

3 comments:

Mrs Flying Blind... said...

I love seeing different ways of doing things thank you xxx

Annabelle said...

Never seen this method - so thanks for the tip.

Just a little something from Judy said...

I learn so much about sewing from you. This method is so interesting and so pretty.