SEW Hip! Hexagonal....Completed!

My SEW Hip! Hexagonal table runner is done!!... four 2010 SEW Hip! Challenges down, just another 20 odd to go!

I am rather impressed with my efforts on this SEW Hip! Challenge.

Not only have I completed a project that SEW Hip! has rated as intermediate (I class myself as a beginner) but I have managed to work out how to machine sew hexagons without the aid of the internet.

Of course that is not for want of trying.

Before I started on my SEW Hip! Hexagonal table runner I tried to find a tutorial on how to machine sew hexagonals; but there aren't any.

Apparently machine sewing hexagons is not a popular activity. 'Paper piecing' hexagonals by hand is.

After reading a few favourable commentaries on 'paper piecing' my general thought process went something like this;

"Machine sew 46 hexagonals, or hand sew 46 bits of paper into my hexagonals BEFORE hand sewing them together? "

Hmmm...tricky......

I decided to wing it and machine sew.

Winging it has benefits, you learn quickly from your mistakes and you get to laugh at yourself. Laughing is great, cutting extra hexagons to practice on is even better.

My maths has always been rubbish so lucky for me I had an extra 7 hexagons to experiment on before I let myself anywhere near my Sew Hip! Hexagonal table runner.

I highly recommend practising before hand - it wasn't until I was well into piecing my 3rd column of hexagons together that I finally got to grips with it (sort of).

My technique isn't pretty, it isn't pleasant but I managed to get my hexagons together.

The rest of the table runner is easy to deal with once you have made your hexagonal centre piece. In fact it is so easy I ignored a few steps, especially step 4.

Step 4 SEW Hip! instruct you 'square off' your center panel of hexagons before attaching the side panels. This involves drawing and cutting nice straight lines around your hexagons.

I ignored that and simply attached the side panels to my 'unsquared' hexagonals and then cut off the excess hexagons afterwards.

All square with minimum effort.

I would like to thank KL (Dots or Stripes) who was kind enough to give me a heads up last month about a mistake in the SEW Hip! Hexagonal assembling instructions.

Please ignore Step 7 It's wrong.

Lay the backing fabric down (right side up), place top piece over that (right side down) and then the batting on top of that, sew all around leaving a gap, then flip inside out.

Running stitch is child's play (even for me) so here it is my Easter version of the

SEW Hip! Hexagonal.