Quilting and Math - OH MY!

When I first thought about quilting I was a small child.  I don't even know if I understood math at that time, and I know I didn't realize how math and quilting would go together.

As an adult I am thrilled to use some of those math skills that I so laboriously learned in school!  Today's lesson is in geometry and HEXAGONS!!! 

Lets go back to the beginning of quilt philosophy.  I believe that the outcome of a quilt is directly linked to the beginning of the quilt.  I've found that if I take my time and make sure my pattern is exact, my cutting is exact (or as exact as I can make it) and I double check things before I assemble them - I usually have a much better outcome.  Not only does the quilt look better, but my temper and patience aren't nearly as taxed.

When I started working with hexagons (6-sided figures, each side equal in length with 60 degree angles) I bought premade paper patterns.  This solved the problem of making sure the patterns were perfect, but it did three things that I didn't like:

1. It COST MONEY!!! (I hate spending money if I can do it myself)
2. It made me dependent on someone else - if I ran out of patterns at 11:00 on a Sunday evening (yes, sometimes I quilt late at night) how would I handle it?  What if my LQS (Local Quilt Store) was out of those patterns? 
3. I was not able to customize the size for what I wanted.  I love to use pictures and ideas as inspiration for my quilts.  I don't always follow directions - I make up my own as I go (yes this can cause problems, but once you do this enough you'll usually be able to dig yourself out of those problems)

So let me explain how these patterns are used.  There is an old pattern called, "Grandmother's Flower Garden" today this is known as "English Paper Piecing".  In days gone by, women cut hexagons out of whatever paper they had, many times it was a newspaper or an old Sears's catalog.  She would use scraps of cloth from whatever and eventually, when she had enough pieces she would assemble a quilt top.  She would usually put a solid in the center and printed material around the edges to form a "flower".  Here are some samples of pictures I found on the web:



I can tell you there are at least 1,000+ different ways to use these little hexagons!

You need to make paper hexagons for each of these pieces of fabric.  The fabric is actual sewn to the paper, then the hexagons are sewn together and lastly the paper is pulled out.  So can you imagine how many of these you'd need to do a simple project?  Yep - a bunch.  So lets learn how to make the hexagons.

Step 1 - Figure out how big you want the hexagon.  You'll see them referred to as say a 1.5" hexagon, 2" hexagon etc.  this refers to the length of each side (all 6 sides of the hexagon are the same length).  I don't pay much attention to these references.  I rough draw the size I want for the project I want to make.  For instance, when I did an all white on white dresser runner I used hexagons that were about 1.5" and when I made hexagons for my table topper I used a size about 3.5".  The beauty of doing this yourself is YOU can control the size!!

Step 2 - Gather the materials you'll need.

You'll need:

1. Ruler
2. SHARP Pencil
3. Compass
4. Paper
5. Maybe a magazine or something thick so that the point of the compass doesn't scratch your table top

Step 3 - Draw your rough sized hexagon, then calibrate the compass to draw a circle the same size as the hexagon you've rough drawn.  I also make a dot where the center of my circle is located coinciding with the point of the compass. DO NOT CHANGE THE COMPASS SETTINGS, LOCK THEM IN WHEN YOUR CIRCLE IS THE CORRECT SIZE!

Step 4 - Draw a line through the center of the circle, through the dot that you drew in step 3

Step 5 - Using your compass (with the EXACT same settings as you used to draw the circle) put the point of the compass on the point where the line bisects the circle then draw a small mark with the pencil of the compass to bisect the circle on the left and on the right

Step 6 - Repeat step 5 for the other end of the center line and when you're done the drawing should look like this.

Note you have SIX marks on the circle, the two you created in step 4 with the line, the 2 you drew in step 5, and the 2 you drew in step 6.

Step 7 - Connect the dots!  Use your ruler to draw a line between each of the marks on the circle - you will draw SIX lines.

When you're done with step seven the drawing should look like this

Step 8 - Now cut out your master hexagon

Step 9 - I call this my DOUBLE CHECK step.  I cut out 5 or six patterns out of paper and then put them together to make SURE that the hexagons are correct.  If you did everything above, took your time and made sure you were precise it should look like this.

That is all there is to it!  You've made your hexagons.

What's around the corner?  I will create a new page on the blog for instructions on how to make a project using your newly made hexagons.