Well as mentioned before I had cut my plastic hexagon template from a 1 gallon plastic milk jug. Great! Now I am ready to cut the hexagons and start sewing. . .wrong!
What on earth will I use to mark the hexagons?? In my sewing experience I have used chalk, chalk markers and #2 pencil. But this is quilting! There are so many types of markers out there. I guess the only way to find out which is best is to try them out.
I had heard that you can print on the back of the fabric and then cut shapes out for your quilting. I did that but when I test washed the fabric the ink bled into the rest of the fabric. I guess that's out. On to markers, I tried regular markers from the dollar store. First, the tip was too big and chunky and second, they went through the material to the front of the fabric. Then I tried fabric markers, same as the dollar store variety. Then I bought this really expensive pen made for marking on fabric. I got the white one. It was really neat and was a fine tip and showed up really well and didn't go through the fabric and didn't bleed when washed. So, what was the problem? For some reason, when I was writing on the fabric, the ink didn't show up for a good 30 seconds later. So, for each line I drew I had to wait 30 seconds to make sure the line wasn't crooked or that it had drawn with enough ink. With hexagons having 6 sides, that came out to 3 minutes to draw each hexie!! I had to draw hundreds of these . . .that was not going to work out. I thought I was doing something wrong so I did some research and found out that other quilters were having the same problem as I was with the delay in showing up.
So now I went to pencils. Regular colored pencils were no good because they need a heavy pressure in order to draw on fabric and that pressure would stretch the fabric. The last resort was my trusty #2 pencil. Very thin line when sharp, does not need a lot of pressure, washes out and is pretty cheap! Later I tried a #1 pencil. Do you know how difficult it is to get a #1 pencil in the mountains? Practically impossible! I ordered a box of #1 pencils online and used it very successfully. It is a very soft lead so very little pressure is needed for marking and like #2, washes out completely. Then I discovered that I could get a #1 lead in a mechanical pencil --- I was in heaven.
So here I am merrily drawing and cutting and forming my little hexies. YAY! I went from wanting a dresser scarf to wanting a bed cover. So I started looking for a workable pattern where I could use the rows that I had already sewn. Then I discovered the "Insanity Quilt" made in 1/2" hexies!!!
Oh my word was it beautiful! I was in love! I immediately decided that the hexies I was making were too large . . .LOL! I decided to use my one inch freezer paper foundations that I sell on my website and start all over! OH NO, Really???
Stay tuned for Chapter 3 in my ongoing Hexagon Adventure . . . .
Everyone, keep on quilting!
Aveli
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