We're into our second full week of summer around here and I am loving it! And to be quite honest, I'm actually surprised to hear myself saying that! Usually after a few days of the kids being home all day, I'm sick of listening to fighting and my house looking like a tornado. But, my kids are growing up (they're 8 and 10 now) and they're finally starting to pull their own weight around here :)
I think this Summer House hexagon quilt is fitting in perfectly with our summer so far - bright and happy!
I decided to make this quilt a few weeks ago so it could be a display in the quilt shop I work at. We have a Shop Hop going on this week and I thought it would be fun to showcase a project using the Hex N More ruler by Jaybird Quilts. I also thought it would be nice to make a quilt using a black background. I've done it before (HERE) and the quilt ended up being one of my favorites. Plus, a lot of the quilts we feature in our store use white and I always think it's nice to mix things up a bit.
So. Here are my two cents on the Hex N More ruler:
It's a little pricey but I think it is worth the $24 dollars. I plan on doing another project with it again soon and it made cutting out the hexagons and triangles - a breeze! And for a little cost comparison - the cute hexagon pre-cuts that Moda has put out recently are around $17 US dollars so I think the cost of the ruler is definitely worth it. You can cut several size hexagons, half hexagons, jewel shapes and triangles with it AND you can use your own fabric so the possibilities are endless! (These are just my own thoughts - not getting paid for this little promo :)
Anyways, it was a fun, easy to use ruler and the project went together really quickly!
I chose for my quilter to do my favorite little swirl all over it (in a happy yellow thread). My backing is black minky - so soft and cuddly.
So, it's confession time.
I tried to do a machine binding on this. It was my first time ever. Seriously - I've never even attempted a machine binding before! So I Googled, "Machine Binding Tutorial" and Cluck, Cluck, Sew's tutorial was the first one to come up. Since I love Allison's blog, I read through her tutorial a couple of times. It seemed easy enough so I decided to give it a go. Yeah. I suck at machine bindings. It's definitely something that takes time to perfect. I ended up ripping it all out and sewing the whole thing on by hand.
Yuck. Props to you people that can do it. I need your tips.
Fabrics used: Summer House collection by Henry Glass, Lime Bunting from Happy Go Lucky by Bonnie and Camille for Moda, Ta Dot (color: Lips) from Michael Miller, plus a few other ones thrown in just for fun. The black dot background is an Essential Dot from Moda.
Kits are available. Just call 801-492-7929.
Happy quilting!
~ Amber
Love your quilt. I can't decide which I like better white backgrounds or black. I like them both so much. Great review of the Hexagon cutter!
ReplyDeleteDo you normally sew on the front and hand stitch the back or do you hand stitch the whole thing?
ReplyDeleteI just love this quilt and I love the black polka dot back. I love black. I prefer to use it more so than white! Maybe because nothing in my house stays clean and black seems to look better longer:)
ReplyDeleteSo...8 and 10 are the magic numbers for some relief in the parenting department...? Mine are 5 and 3, so I have some more time left in the tornado. Love the hex quilt and the black background. Great work!
ReplyDeleteI like this design with the larger hexies and the colors really pop off the black background. Great job!
ReplyDeleteIt's fantastic! I love it! I tried the binding thing too - ultimate fail... I enjoy hand sewing it on anyway, so l'll just stick to that. :-)
ReplyDeleteI love the black background! I've never tried machine binding - maybe because I really enjoy doing it by hand and I never sew on any kind of a deadline.
ReplyDeleteSuper cute quilt Amber! It's nice to see a dark background for a change too!
ReplyDeleteI have been quilting just a year and made myself do machine binding from day 1. I've got it down pretty well now. I've never done binding by hand lol. Love the color in a background as well!
ReplyDeleteI love your bright and cheery hexagon quilt. Don't feel bad, I cannot machine sew a binding, like you I have watched the videos and tried but no luck, out comes the ripper and so I always machine sew the binding on the front and hand stitch the back. Enjoy your summer
ReplyDeletei love white backgrounds in theory, but black is sure good for masking picnic grass stains, spills, etc.! your black background is so pretty, and the polka dots make it pop. how did you decide to sew the hexagons? did you use y-seams? i note that yours don't appear to be rows of half-hexagons, so i'm just curious.
ReplyDeleteRemember when you sew on machine binding to sew it on the back with a smaller seam than you would if you are going to finish it by hand stitching. That gives you a little bit of room to overlap the binding on the front. Use a walking foot (that goes without saying) and go slow! Miter the corners as usual(I use lots of pins here and sew carefully). I still like the look of a hand sewn (on the back) binding best. But I do machine sew them on occasion - especially for baby quilts or charity quilts. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE hexagons! Thank you for the review of the hex and more ruler. Now I know it will be worth the money.(Was hesitant to spend the $$). Your quilt is so pretty.
ReplyDeleteHere's a quick little video I just watched about doing binding by a chine. I'm eager to try it out. http://www.patchworktimes.com/2013/06/11/binding-finishing-by-machine/
ReplyDeleteLisa, I normally machine stitch my binding onto the front of my quilt and hand stitch it down on the back. However, when I work with Minky I usually machine stitch my binding onto that side first and then hand stitch it down on the other side (which is usually the front in that case).
ReplyDeleteJodi and Jackie,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy sewing my bindings on by hand too (that's why I haven't tried machine binding until now). I was in a time crunch and thought that would be a nice alternative. Unfortunately I couldn't make it happen :)
Your quilt is darling!
ReplyDeleteCraftprowler,
ReplyDeleteYou're right, I didn't sew half hexagons. The ruler has you cut out whole hexagons and then sew on a triangle onto two opposite sides of each hexie. Then you sew that unit into rows and sew the rows together. Clever eh? I never would have figured that out but it really is quite easy. And no Y-seams!
Thanks for the tips Audrey and thanks to everyone else for your sweet comments!
ReplyDeleteHappy quilting!
~ Amber
Love your quilt! and was glad to hear comments on the ruler. Was trying to decide if I needed to invest or not!! invest I will!! lol
ReplyDeleteI love your quilt! I had seen the ruler and wasn't sure if I needed to invest in another, thanks for helping me decide!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun quilt! Love the black background. I am always such a chicken with the color black. :0)
ReplyDeleteWe saw your cute quilt at the Shop Hop and decided to use the pattern to make my new grandson's quilt. His Mom wanted a pirate theme, so I am fussy cutting pirate fabric for the hexies'(royal blue background) and using a bright green for the background. So far- so cute. Now I need to sew the blocks and rows together.
ReplyDeleteI machine bound my first quilt. The seams ended up all wonky... but I think it was because I was afraid of going over on the front. All in all, I don't think it was that bad for a first attempt. I'm going to try it again, in fact.
ReplyDeleteI definitely did notice that by the end of the quilt (and it was a baby quilt) I did improve on spacing, which was really the only problem.
Good luck in the future!