Say Yes To The Hex

I have a new obsession. Hexagons. I'm sure I've mentioned before that my Mom's favorite quilt to make was anything with Hex's. I would guess she made at least 20 quilts (all hand quilted, mind you) out of Hex's. She did mostly Grandma's Flower Garden's but also made each of her grandchildren Hex quilts.
In fact, when she passed away, each of her five children brought their favorite quilt from Mom to the funeral home to display and I believe every one of them was a Hexagon quilt.
My all time favorite quilt was the one she made for my wedding - a Wedding Ring Quilt. (The quilt was definately made to last...the wedding, not so much!) But this quilt runs a close second:

I use to watch my Mom assemble these quilts in amazement. She didn't use a pattern, didn't preplan the layout, she just made them piece by piece.
Here is a close up of another quilt of Mom's using hex's - hand pieced and hand quilted.

I'm not sure what the pattern is called, but, as you can see, it is much-loved and used daily on my bed. This quilt was actually the quilt that my Dad used on his bed before he passed away and each night that I sleep under it, I feel close to both Mom and Dad.
I have seen a revival lately of the hex quilts using English Paper piecing and decided to try my hand. I spent most of last Sunday in my new King Size bed cutting and basting pieces.
That, I found, is the fun and easy part everyone speaks of. Assembling the hex's is another story altogether. My first attempt turned out okay, but puffy and not so great.

My second attempt came together a little easier since I had spent an hour or so scouring the internet for better instructions. Turns out, I was making extra work for myself when piecing the hex's together.

I was really insprired to make a keychain like Xperimentl made and posted on Flickr. Check out the scale on that...each hex is the size of a dime! My picture does not show scale, but each hex is also the size of dime. I used 1/2 inch hex's. I actually thought it would be a lot harder to work with the tiny hex's, but the paper foundation makes all the difference! Just like Xperimentl, I made my keychain double-sided:


I have dedicated today to hex's as well. I have come up with a great way to organize my hex's and to keep all of the foundation pieces from flying all over the place when I'm working in my bedroom with the ceiling fan on.
I will post again tomorrow with more on that.
But for now, if you have considered making the plunge into hex's, I say Go For It! I never thought I could do it, but this is definately addictive and so portable!
Always,
Kelly