The hexagons had been sitting in a drawer for years, bought by the bag at a quilt show. What Joan Parker did not have was the template set that turns them into a quilt, and she was ready to order one. Then she worked out that she could cut the missing piece herself, and it took her two tries.
She quilts as Shelby Stitcher, and the rule she signs off with is use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without. This project is that rule applied to a notion. The hexagons measure 5 1/2 inches from flat edge to flat edge, which puts each side at about 3 1/4 inches, and all she needed was a 60 degree triangle whose edge matched. Her first one was too small and the second too big, so she split the difference and the third fit.
The reason it works is worth having in writing, because it is the part that goes by quickly on screen. A triangle sewn to two opposite sides of a hexagon turns an awkward six sided piece into a unit with two straight edges. Straight edges butt against each other, so the rows join with ordinary seams instead of the inset seams that hexagon to hexagon piecing forces on you. And when the rows finally go together, the triangles that were only there to square things up read as a star around every hexagon.
The video went up in September and it runs long, because the second half is her pressing the center of a selvage quilt and talking through every decision while she does it. That part is the one to watch even if the hexagons are not for you. She lifts the nose of the iron over the seams that point up so she does not flatten them the wrong way, and she picks up a wide handful of the quilt top to move it instead of pulling on one piece, because every outside edge on a string block is bias.
If your own novelty prints and selvage strips are still in bags waiting for an idea, our guide to sorting scraps and sewing them into a quilt covers the sorting first and the piecing second.
The channel is Shelby Stitcher, where Joan Parker posts quilting tutorials, techniques and tips.
