New Year's Stitching - My Fussy Cutting Sew Along Quilt Top!!

This summer, I showed you my design for this hexagonal center medallion quilt that would absorb the 52 hexie flowers I have been making as part of the #fussycuttingsewalong on Instagram.

That pair of pheasants in the center is one my favorite blocks from the weekly sewalong.

I have been admiring and collecting photos of hexagonal medallion quilts for several years. The growing stack of blocks inspired me to design my own medallion layout as their final resting place.

 I also realized that the stack of  twenty-some Morris Hexathon blocks from 2016 were the same size and could be blended in with the current blocks.

Yea!!!  Bigger quilt faster and one less UFO!!

I used the Set-In Piecing Simplified technique (downloadable PDF teaching guide available HERE in my Etsy Shop) to piece all the blocks and during the fall, this medallion center was my "sew-off" while I chain-pieced through the weekly blocks.

I broke it down into several units that could be "mass produced" and then added each to the central motif.

The setting fabric I selected builds a soft frame around the entire piece. 

I made it a bit larger than needed so I could trim to make it fit -- none of my "math" ideas were going to work so took the easy way!!

In the end, I trimmed 1/2" off each side for a perfect fit.  

Because I made sure that the outside edges of the medallion were straight of grain on all sides, there wasn't any stretching!!

Last week, I pieced the final hexie flower and finished piecing some "half flowers" for the ends of some of the rows.

For the past two days, I have been shut up in my studio setting everything together and it looks terrific!!  Since I've been adding white background diamonds to each hexie flower as I made them, it was easy to prepare them for setting with the simple addition of an equilateral (60 degree) triangle!

I used Marti Michell's Set G*** to cut all my hexagons for a finished 3" block.

That meant, cutting with the equilateral triangle ruler would yield the correct size setting triangles

I needed a few half-triangles (easy to cut with Marti's tool) and with two layers of fabric, wrong sides together, cutting "rights" and "lefts" was effortless.  Marti's tool features point trimming as you can see below and taking the time to make those trims set me up for easy and perfect matching! 

Most of the blocks have been on the design wall for weeks -- there has been lots of moving around and shifting to achieve a "spontaneous" balance.  The Morris Hexathon blocks didn't work (to my eye) just mixed in randomly so they are divided into diagonal rows in each corner.  There were also a few six-pointed stars from teaching demos that are positioned evenly around the central medallion.  All the hexie flower blocks were allowed to stay where I first plopped them unless there two very similar ones together - such as same color, same fussy cutting style, etc. 

 

All the hexagon blocks, except for those at the ends of the rows, were prepared by adding triangles. 

Each triangle has one straight of grain edge and I always keep that edge horizontal across a quilt.

If my block piecing is accurate, the triangle will match the corners of the hexagon block perfectly!!

Ready to piece a row!!

It goes fast as there are only straight seams from this point forward!!

Here's a trick I discovered a couple years ago to match angled seams when working with diamonds.

If you have consistent seam depth, when you layer the two units right sides together, match the end of the previous seam to the corner of the diamond.  

Here, I'm sliding the corner of the diamond (top layer) over to match the end of the seam on the lower layer.

 It's faster and much less frustrating than searching for the perfect spot with "pin poking". The intersection of the diagonal seams will be accurate 95% of the time -- no matter the actual depth of your seam allowance and I don't pin!!

Try it next time you do this!

To maintain straight seams only construction throughout the quilt top, I pieced the center of the quilt in sections rather than long rows.  Two of these large triangle units set on opposite sides of the center medallion were the key!

Once those were added to the center medallion, I made the left and right units by working in short rows.  

This is the result of two pleasant afternoons in the studio!!

I have left it in 3 sections at this point while I think about my quilting approach.

Do I machine quilt or hand quilt or some of both?

If I machine quilt, will I work in sections which is easier for me to manage and I'll do a better job. 

So for a few days, I'll enjoy this view from my machine while I fiddle with some neglected UFO.

The questions will answer themselves and I'd like to make this piece one of my 2019 finishes!!

If you have a question about my approach to setting this quilt together, please leave a comment below and I'll answer it in the comments so everyone learns from it, too!

So here's to a productive start to 2019!!

Another year, more fun!!

Mary

***EDIT April 2025

Marti Michel closed her business in late in 2024 and while some shops may still have a stock of her templates, you can also find them on Ebay and Etsy.  

Fussy Cutting Challenge

Most of you have done some fussy cutting at least once I imagine.

Early in December, I shared a group of hexie flowers here that I pieced along with Naomi's #fussycuttingsewalong for the Christmas season.

She started a year long group in January with changing monthly themes and each week, we have the opportunity to stash dive and create another hexie flower.

I really wondered about the "why" of  the "pattern matching" exercises but I'm to the point now where it's pretty easy.  I think it's easier for me since I'm machine piecing (another opportunity to show off the Set-In Piecing Simplified technique) than it would be to do traditional English paper piecing -- if one doesn't get it basted just right, matching the hexies back together with the pattern of the print aligning perfectly would be a real challenge.

I've made myself an auditioning window the finished size of a hexie flower.  I move it around until I find a motif I like then I check to see how many complete motifs I have on the fabric.

One needs three complete motifs to cut up to make one hexie flower.

I liked this one, but only had one repeat of it.

Happily I did have three of this simpler motif -- and there is a bird in it!! 

Step one is to cut out the center hexagon (thereby rendering that complete motif useless) -- I'm using the 1" template from Marti Michell's Set G. 

Then I center that cut out hexagon onto the wrong side of the fabric aligning it as perfectly as possible with the second complete motif.

Once I'm satisfied with the alignment, I put the template on top of it and trace around the outside with a pencil.

I lift away the template and the first hexagon, then recenter the template and mark all six of the dots (pencil through the holes at each corner) onto the fabric.

You can see the dot in the upper right corner the easiest in the picture below. 

The purpose of the dots is so I can line up the template as I cut three hexagons from that motif.

One has been cut and I've moved the template to the top of the hexagon outline and lined up the dots.

This guarantees that I will have the correct amount of seam allowance and simplifies the matching.

Two cut out and the third lined up. 

Nothing here except holes!! 

The center hexagon and the first three hexagons. 

I repeat the process and cut the remaining three hexagons needed from a third motif of the fabric.

Then it's off to the sewing machine!

I do all the cutting on the wrong side and keep the hexagons laid out that way to avoid putting them in the wrong place. 

Naomi has given us a "pattern matching" assignment every month -- so here are my four so far!

If you are curious about the group, it's all on Instagram.

Naomi's name is @naomialicec or search for the #fussycuttingsewalong hashtag.

It's only one hexie flower a week, you can choose your own size and fabric style and most of the gals are doing it English paper piecing style.

Back to the sewing machine!!

Mary