I have recently finished 6 quilted placemats which I adore very much. I will be sending it off to my Modern She Made Swap Partner soon so I plan to make two more in Black and white for me and hub.

 
Here they are, all bright and cheery.. hope my partner will love it.
 
 

I had a lot of fun quilting this! Placemats are perfect to go crazy and practice free-motion quilting. I purposely left a lot of negative space to have fun with the quilting.
 
Quilted placemats
 
The hexagon in the quilting were first traced with an erasable marker using an english paper piecing hexagon template and I use Fine Line Ruler to guide me quilting.
You can also use any quilting ruler and use a low shank foot to quilt using ruler with your own domestic machine!
 
I post a lot of in the making of these hexies placemats over at my instagram, do visit me there and say hello.
 
For the starting hexagon, I use Hex n More ruler by Jaybird Design and easily cut 4″ hexagon.

I am loving my Hex n More ruler by Jaybird Design.  I can see a lot of potential for this ruler! Makes it so much easier to cut hexagons and triangles. I am yet to try diamond shapes…

IMG_2583

Products from Amazon.com

Do you want to try and make one too? I have made a free tutorial for you! The tutorial include step by step photo on how to make the modern hexagon placemat top.

[bctt tweet=”Free tutorial ! Make your own modern mini quilt or placemat!” username=”amira_lilmushroomcap”]

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to cut the pieces and piece them together into a placemat or a mini quilt if you wish!

Size of the final quilt/placemat is up to you – but I will show you how to easily do so!

 

Modern Hexagon Quilted Placemat Tutorial

I am not providing any material requirements in this tutorial as you can make this at any size and any amount of placemat/ mini quilt. From the tutorial you can estimate how much fabrics you will need.

1.Begin cutting out hexagons. I use Hex n More ruler by Jaybird Design. You can, of course, start with any size, this is an improv style anyway, no rules in measurements here. Just for your info, I cut a 4″ hexagon.

IMG_2583

2. Then start cutting strips.  I chose to cut all of the printed ones 1.5″ wide. However, you can go more improv by varying the strip’s size. You will end up with a non-symetrical hexagon in the end but it will still be the same method. The background fabric has to be of a larger strip. I cut 3.5″ strips from my background Essex dyed linen.

IMG_2589

3.Start piecing strips to one of the hexagon sides. Put the strip right side together on the hexagon piece. Strips need to be about 0.5-1″ above the first corner. We will trim it later.

IMG_2592

4. Press and Trim. Align your ruler with the sides of the hexagons and trim away excess.

IMG_2594

5. Continue with all sides.

IMG_2596

IMG_2599

Sew & Listen to AudioBooks
IMG_2600

IMG_2601

5. Do again the same for another layer. You can continue to do as many layers as you want.

IMG_2602

6. Now it’s time to slash it in half. Find a suitable angle that basically cut the hexagon in half, yet not so exactly symmetrical. Remember, you want this to have that edgy modern improv feel.

IMG_2607

7. Now, the newly cut side is going to be the main side of your final block.You do not want to sew background fabric to this side. This side is from now on referred as the base side.

IMG_2609

8. Now you can start piecing the background strips to each side except the base side.Just be aware, this is a larger strip than before, so you would want to give some extra gap at the beginning by placing the end of the strip about 1.5-2.5″ away from the hexagon corner.

IMG_2612

9. Trim as before.

IMG_2615

IMG_2617

IMG_2618

IMG_2619

IMG_2620

10. Now we are going to square up the block. Take your ruler, make sure one edge of the ruler is aligned with the base side. This will make sure you have a square corner when you cut. Move your ruler along this edge and make a cut. (I guess, you will have to kind of have a feel where to cut. Of course, make sure your hexagon IS in the final block!)

IMG_2622

11. For the second cut, align your ruler with the newly cut edge. I didn’t make my blocks the same size, so I just try my best to cut where waste is minimal and yet all corners are squared.

IMG_2623

IMG_2624

12. And you are done with your block! All corners squared up and it will be easy from here to piece one block to another.

IMG_2627

13. For the placemat, I used a design board where I tape a final size of the placemat with a washi tape.

IMG_2634

14. Then I play around with the blocks. Putting two half hex blocks on the placemat and filling in the space between them with more strips of the background fabric.

IMG_2636

IMG_2643

15. To know how large should your strip be, measure the width of the gap and add 1″ (for a 0.25″seams). That should be the strip size you should use to fill in the gap .

IMG_2644

Tadaa….

IMG_2651

I hope you will give a try! I had so much fun making them. I personally love giving placemats to friends who have just moved to new home. It makes a perfect gift wouldn’t you say?If you are not planning to make it now – make sure you pin it for future reference! These makes the perfect gift – for all kinds of occasions!

so?

Modern Quilt Hexagon Patchwork Quilted Placemat tutorial

Products from Amazon.com


23 Comments on FREE Tutorial : Improv Pieced Hexagon, for a modern quilt

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.