Hexed!

I have some hoarder tendencies.  One thing I have a hard time throwing away is fabric.  Even the smallest of scraps seems like they could be used for something!  In fact, Tuzi has a hedgehog beanbag which is stuffed with fabric scraps instead of the bag of beans IKEA sells for that purpose.  Every so often, I go on a purge of my crafting room and throw away the bins of tiny scraps I've been saving up to that point.  I try not to go through the tubs because then I get all remorseful and half the time, I save them anyway.

Well, about a week ago, I stumbled across the perfect project to continue my hoarding tendencies!  It's well known to quilters, I suppose, but I haven't ever been very into quilting (not quite that patient; instant gratification projects are more my style).  It's paper pieced hexagons!  The technique is also called English paper piecing which fits in nicely with my English themed life lately (watched all of Downton Abbey, BBC's Sherlock and as usual have been enjoying tea all day, every day).  So anyway, I was inspired and remembered that long ago, I acquired a hexagon paper punch.  At the time, I had no idea why I would ever use it, but I kept it anyway because it's one of those Creative Memories ones that has two sizes and has the measurements marked right on the punch (very helpful when you don't like to measure things, like me).  I went ahead and punched out a bunch of hexagons and got started chopping up some scraps into little 1.25" squares.

Paper hexies arranged in a pattern	Fabric squares to match the paper hexies
One little hexie	4 hexies sewn together

After doing a few test hexies, I made the whole pattern and sewed it onto a re-sized 2XL t-shirt I had from an uncompleted project a few years ago.  Here's how it turned out:

Sorry about the weird colours; I took the photo in the bathroom mirror and it was kind of dark, so I had to adjust so you could see the hexies better.  I'll get a better photo later and post it.

Anyway, I've had hex-mania since then and have made a similar shirt for Flea and have another mini-quilt for a shirt for Sneetch (once I get her a shirt).  I've also made a little "hexie fabric" so that could produce this:

Now I think I want to try making slightly larger hexies.  These are 1" across.  If I get really good at them, maybe I'll be able to make a baby quilt one day!