Stonefield's Hexagons and How I Sew Them

Here are the hexagons that I have finished for the outer border of my Stonefield's quilt.  These are made from fabrics that are brighter than I usually sew with, but I think they will look nice on the outside border of the quilt.  Stonefield's is a pattern by Susan Smith, and I think the blocks kind of lend themselves to brighter, fun fabrics. 

I've had people ask how I can sew hexagons together so quickly.  I've tried different methods of sewing my hexagon flowers together.  This one seems to work best for me, and I feel like it's the fastest method.  (I'm not an expert.  I'm just sharing how I sew mine together. ) 

 

First I glue baste my english paper piecing.  I'm not doing heirloom sewing.  I'm just making quilts for my own enjoyment.  I use the Sewline glue pen, and I buy my refills from Amazon here.  

These are glue basted.  I cut a 3/8" seam allowance on my hexagons so if I've fussy cut a fabric I've got some wiggle room to center it.  I sew my hexagons using the flat back/ladder method.  There are a lot of good videos out there showing this method.  You can see by the position of my needle how this works.  I can start my hexagons this way, but if you have trouble getting started you can put the right sides of the hexagons together and take the first couple of stitches that way.  Then you can hold them flat like you see in the photo below.  Most every quilt with hexagons has 2 hexagons sewn together like you see in the photo below.  So I start by sewing a lot of sets of 2 hexagons together.

 

A hexagon flower has 3 sets of 2 hexagons sewn together so I start by sewing them in pairs.  

Now sew them into a ring leaving an opening.  

Now you can choose a center hexagon and finish sewing the hexagon together with just one thread.  This avoids the starting and stopping, and I think it goes so much faster because after you make the ring, you only have to thread your needle once to add the center and finish closing the hexagon flower.  I start at the arrow, go around and out where I left the opening.  

I keep a container of odd hexagons made from scraps or something that I think would make a good fussy cut center.  

Here are a few centers that I've auditioned from my container above for the center of this hexagon.  

And, here's the finished hexagon flower ready for my Stonefield's quilt.  

Here are a few more that I've sewn.  I know there are a lot of ways to sew these little flowers together.  This is just the way that I do it.  

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

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Christmas Is Coming

 

The question of the day is:

Who doesn't need another Christmas quilt? 

That's what I thought when I saw these blocks on Joy's blog:   Days Filled With Joy

I've finished blocks 1 and 2.

Joy is generously offering these blocks as a free block of the month called Floral Baubles.  (Thank you Joy!)     Joy leaves them up on her blog free for a month. 

Joy is doing her star points scrappy, but I decided to alternate mine with red on the first month.

And, I did green for the second month.  

The blocks come out on the 2nd Wednesday of each month.  There will be 9 blocks in all, and they will finish at 12 inches.  They are quick, easy embroidery.  I don't usually do anything fancy when I embroider.  I usually just do chain stitch, stem stitch or outline stitch.   My backstitch never looks even so I avoid that one!

I've downloaded block number 3 and have started to chain stitch around the outside edge.  

These are the fabrics I've pulled so far to do my star points and background.  

This block of the month won't finish until February, but that leaves plenty of time to get the blocks sashed (or not), sewn together and quilted so it's ready to go for the next Christmas.  

Melisa of PinkerNPunkin blog shared her blocks on her post here. 

 These blocks are really a lot of fun to embroider, so I hope you check them out at Joy's blog.  Until next time.......

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.  

Update and more Stonefield's Blocks

 Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by today.  Sorry for the absence.  I don't usually do personal updates, so I'll put that at the end of the post so you can skip over it if you'd like. 

Here is a little progress on my Stonefield's quilt.  These are blocks 7 and 8 called Pomegranate.  Looking at the photos, those melons in the center look a little lopsided.  I'll just blame that on my photography.  That sounds good anyway.  

I've been working on a new project called Avignon.  It's a pattern in The Charm of Quilts, Feathering the Nest 4 book by Brigitte Giblin.  I bought the English Paper Piecing parts when I first bought the book sometime in 2025 and then put them away.  I bought the floral fabrics on a trip to Tennessee earlier this year so I decided to use some of them in this quilt.  I love that hexagons are so portable.  

Our weather here has been wet to say the least.  We've had some rain every day for the last 7 days.  Where I live there is no flooding, but there are a lot of people here in Indiana that are flooded out and have lost everything. Thanks to those that have written to check on me.  

One night we even had hail.  This was really loud and sounded like someone was throwing rocks at the windows.  Of course we went out on the front porch during this to take photos.  

This was 11 o'clock at night, and the temperature was in the low 70s so it didn't stay around long. 

I enjoy the hummingbirds coming to the feeder.  This little guy is kind of unusual because he doesn't constantly flap his wings.  

He even lands on the top of the pole.  Most of them that come to the feeder are constantly in motion.  We have a couple of finch feeders and another regular feeder but haven't filled them lately because there are ducks in the pond that come into the yard and eat what the the birds kick out on the ground.  I met one of our neighbors down the street recently, and she said "oh your the ones that feed the ducks."   (Okay, at one time I counted 30 ducks in our yard.)   So for awhile we aren't filling those feeders so hoping to discourage the ducks.

All of the rain and storms lately have made some beautiful sunsets.  Here's one from a couple of nights ago.  

Update:  Again sorry for the absence.   For the last month my son, daughter-in-law, 2 grandsons and my daughter all went to Europe for 3 weeks.  They went to Germany, Austria, France, Scotland and Ireland.  They ended the trip in Aberdeen, Scotland, at the International Handbell Festival and then flew home from Ireland.  So while they were gone, we have been cat and house sitting.  My son lives just over a mile from us, but our daughter lives a half hour one way.  So I've spent a lot of time driving back and forth.   And I enjoy all of their cats so when I go, besides feeding, etc., I spend time playing and sitting with them.   I tried taking some hexagons to stitch on while I was at my daughters, but her cats soon knocked them on the floor to play with.  I did do some embroidery though.  More on that later on.  

The day after they got back I went to Simple What Nots club at Back Door Quilts and Knotty Girls in the afternoon with lunch in between.  That's always a fun time.  I've been working on the project for next month.  I'll post it when I'm finished.

And the day after fun at the quilt shop I had an appointment with my knee surgeon.   For those of you that don't know I had a right knee replacement July 21, 2025 so this was basically my one year check up.  I've had pain on the outside of that knee since last December.  I had an appointment with him in January and another in March complaining of knee pain.  The first visit he told me to exercise which I'd been doing.  The second visit he said to keep exercising and that he doesn't do anything in the first year after surgery.  This visit he gave me a shot of cortisone (with a really long needle) in the outside of my right knee.....AND, he's sending me back to physical therapy 2-3 times a week for 8 weeks.  No, I'm not thrilled.  To say I'm not thrilled is pretty much of an understatement.  But, I'll do it because I don't know what else to do.  So in between that, I'll just keep on stitching.  

I'm linking up with Judy for Design Wall Monday.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.