Framed hexagons - quilt-as-you-go

Yesterday, my fabulous husband made me a couple of Lexan hexagon templates. Okay, I hounded him until he made them to shut me up.

I saw some projects that people made with this framed hexagon technique and just had to try it, particularly since it's quilt-as-you-go. I found the instructions and templates at OzQulits.com. Anyone who knows me knows that I don't have patience to wait for things and I especially didn't want to wait for a couple of templates to come all the way from Australia. Besides, for what purpose is my 3-car garage filled to the hilt with power tools of all sorts other than to make whatever I desire? Ha! (and that's not exactly what he'd say if I told my husband that!) Anyway, the templates for sale were 5" and 7" but I wanted them to be 6" and 8". "No problem", he says, and these are what he made for me. In fact, after seeing the completed hexies, he offered to make me a 10" template. See why I love him?

He made these templates from 1/8" Lexan (similar to plexiglas) so I can just position them over my fabric and rotary cut them. So quick! Also, because they're clear, I can fussy cut the fabrics if I want. I may offer a set on my Etsy shop to see if anyone else wants one.

I must tell you that like any sewing project, pressing is absolutely essential. I tried to do one without pressing and it was not pretty. Also, I found that for me, a small (1.8 L X 3.4 W) zigzag stitch was much easier for me to handle than a straight stitch. I really didn't have the desire to hand stitch these. I will, however, whipstitch them together by hand when I'm ready to connect them. I can get 8 of these hexies from one fat quarter for the front motif. I'm not sure how much of the backing fabric I've used. This is a fun little project and I can see these turning into a table runner. On their own, they make cute coasters.