Tutorial: Sewing a Hexagon Quilt by Machine

As promised what follows is a step by step tutorial to show you the process of how I went about sewing my Pink Flamingo Hexagon Quilt by machine. This tutorial represents just one way of how to machine piece hexagons; a process that worked best for me, however I encourage you to make changes to suit your own needs and for your own sewing enjoyment.

I used a plastic hexagon template with 2 inch (finished) sides, a 1/4" seam allowance, and with small holes for marking the points/dots where the seams intersect. You can substitute by making your own template from sturdy paper, however the plastic template does make cutting fabric and marking the seam allowance much easier and very accurate.

STEP 1
Using a rotary cutter and an accurate hexagon template cut all fabrics. Use a pencil to mark the points directly on the wrong side of the fabric for all of the hexagons. Marking a sewing line with a pencil - from dot to dot - is optional. I did not mark sewing lines, instead I used a 1/4" presser foot on my sewing machine to sew my hexagons together. When cutting your hexagons be mindful of the grain of the fabric. Cut all hexagons on grain (or parallel with the selvage edge). 

STEP 2 
The quilt design/layout is simple with the following two horizontal rows repeating in color sequence as pictured from the top of the quilt to the bottom of the quilt.

Click on any image for a larger view.

Using a 1/4" seam allowance sew together each horizontal row by joining together the hexagons side by side as pictured below:

Place two hexagons right sides together as pictured above - be mindful of matching the grain line of the fabric as indicated. With a short stitch length sew from dot to dot. Back-stitch at the start and end of the stitching line to lock the stitches in place. Stop stitching right at or just before the marked dot. If you have accidentally stitched too far use a seam ripper to undo those stitches.

Pinning is optional! I did not use any pins to piece this quilt top, however should you wish to use pins to match seams and secure the placement of the fabrics (especially when piecing the bias edges that are yet to come) go ahead and pop one or two pins in!

STEP 3
Once you have sewn together all of the horizontal rows of hexagons, join rows into pairs.

Click on any image for a larger view.

Start at one end and work your way towards the other end. One seam at a time. Here's an example:

To sew the seam as indicated with the arrow (the bias edge of the white hexagon and the bias edge of the brown hexagon) align the two sides together (where marked with stitching line - see below). You will note that the hexagon directly above the white hexagon (the pink hexagon) will neatly fold over, as indicated by the arrow.

At this point the seams have not been pressed. Ensure that the seam allowances are folded away from where you will be stitching. Sew from the marked dot to the marked dot. Back stitch at the start and end of the stitching line to secure stitches.

And you are ready for the next seam.

Repeat the process. Align seams, fold seam allowances away from the stitching line and sew from dot to dot.

The aligning of seams and the folding of the hexagons look awfully complicated however once you get the hang of the process it is simple and quite quick. You can sew two rows of hexagons together in less than 10 minutes.

Once you have sewn the rows together in pairs, sew pairs of rows together etc, until your quilt top is complete. To complete the quilt top I have added an additional horizontal row of white hexagons to the top and the bottom of the quilt.

STEP 4 -Pressing Seams

[Pictured are my trial hexagons only. 
On close inspection you may notice that some of the
 hexagons are hand pieced (my initial plan was to hand piece this quilt),
 some of the fabrics have marked sewing lines,
 and some of the hexagons have been machine pieced].

Press all seams for all horizontal rows in the same direction (as indicated by the arrows). Then press the remaining seams as pictured, The points where the fabrics come together simply twist open. Press gently. Pressing the seams in this manner - rather than pressing seams open - meant that I could quilt the quilt top by stitching in the ditch without fear of weakening the piecing stitches.

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

• Be mindful of the grain of the fabric when cutting hexagons as well as when sewing the hexagons together in horizontal rows. This will make sewing your quilt top together easier, will help to ensure the whole quilt top is on grain and therefore less "shifty", which in turn makes the quilt top easier to baste, and less likely to result in the layers of your quilt shifting when quilting.
• Reducing your stitch length will give you more control when stitching up to the marked dot and not beyond. It is better to stitch to just before the marked dot than onto and beyond the dot.
• If you have a pucker in a hexagon it is usually because your have stitched too far and into the seam allowance. It is not too late to fix this by simply unpicking those extra stitches.
• It's a good idea to practise with larger size hexagons (2" sides and bigger) rather than smaller hexagons until you get the hang of the inset seams.
• For the top, bottom, and side edges of the quilt I used have whole hexagons and trimmed off the excess fabric once the quilt top was complete.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask by leaving a comment, and I will explain/clarify as required.

Happy Stitching!

Rita

RELEVANT LINKS:
The Finished Pink Flamingo Hexagon Quilt
More Red Pepper Quilts Tutorials

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