Rue--post 1 of 4

Hexagons waiting for a design

This hexagon project has been on my finish along list for at least a couple of years. As I've finished other goals on my list, I've been mulling over options for this project. The hexagons were made using different techniques that JoJo over at Through My Hands shared with me at least four years ago.

Reverse side of the hexagons

I machine pieced the large one using Gyleen Fitzgerald's butterfly technique. Fabrics on two of them were preprinted with the hexagon seam line and cutting line printed. The bright blue one I hand pieced; the striped one I machine stitched. On the green one, I fused interfacing to the fabric and then glued the seam allowance to the interfacing. On the darker blue one, I stitched around the hexagon using an interfacing on the wrong side. I slit the interfacing; then turned and pressed each part of the hexagon which made individual pillows. I hand pieced the orange one using the English paper piecing method.

Horizontal view with pieces of net "visible"

I included a photo of the back of the hexagons so can see what I'm trying to describe! Stitching all these hexagons was so much fun! In fact, I found these hexagons to be a little like trying to eat just one potato chip.  . . almost impossible! More on that thought in a future post though!

I decided that I wanted to put all of my samples into one wall hanging.

Our book club read "The Hunger Games" trilogy a couple years ago. In the "Mocking Jay" book, one of the characters, Rue, was captured in a net.

It was that section of the book where I found the inspiration of setting these hexagons in a net because the hexagons reminded me of the flowers that Catniss (one of the main characters in the story) Rue.

Green flower with red ribbon accent

I was stalled first because I couldn't find a background that I liked and because I wasn't sure how to create the illusion of a net.

The background that I eventually chose, I like. Now that I have Joen Wolfrom's color class behind me, I realize that this background is a bit brighter than the other one that I had auditioned. The other one was more grey so now I know why it wasn't working for me!

I purchased a half yard of an orange print fabric for the "net" strips. Then I couldn't decide how to apply the narrow strips to the fabric. I could slice the fabric and insert the strips. But, if I wanted the strips to cross, matching the cut edge would be tricky. Plus, cutting the background would make the background smaller. Since I was limited with the background fabric, smaller wouldn't be good. So I decided to machine appliqué the fabric strips. 

Interestingly, I didn't use the fabric that I had set aside for the "net." Again, the fabric I had selected was a little too gray! No wonder that I wasn't excited about cutting into it! Instead, I used some leftovers from my QAYG project. I used the orange as sashing in that project.

I stitched the orange strips together, pressed the strips in half, stitched 1/8 inch from the cut edge and then pressed the cut edge along the stitch line.

After I had auditioned the strips and selected where I wanted to place them, I used a little bit of Elmer's glue and temporarily, fused them in place.

Blue flower with yellow ribbon accent

Auditioning the strips took some time. At first, I created an overall grid; but decided that approach gave me more orange in the piece than I wanted. So I channeled a little of Miss K and removed some of strips and shortened other strips. I liked how this approach gave the piece a more modern feel which is a direction I want to explore. I glue basted the strips in place and then machine stitched them into place.

While I was auditioning the strips, the piece seemed to want to go horizontal instead of vertical so I turned the piece horizontal.

Auditioning ribbon

The next step was stitching the green and the blue hexagons together. I had considered letting some of the "petals" separate from the flower; but, decided putting the flower together was better for the overall design. Earlier, I had purchased some narrow blue, yellow and red ribbon to accent the petals in some way.

On the green flower, I used red ribbon to accent the seam joins. My plan was to tuck the raw edge of the outer edge of the ribbon under the flower during the appliqué process. I liked how the red zigzag looked around the center so I didn't cover that area with ribbon.

Vertical orientation

On the blue hexagon, I zig zagged the edges together, then covered the zig zag area with yellow ribbon. When I placed the hexagons on the background, I decided that I needed more lines on my background. I auditioned some narrow orange ribbon which I liked so I appliquéd those.

 Then, the piece seemed to tell me it wanted to be vertical. . .so I listened! As I hand appliquéd the hexagons to the background, the one with the red ribbon wanted the ribbon ends to stick out and be three dimensional so I left it that way. I had planned to quilt more grid lines in the background to create the sense of the net; but, I had an idea of hand stitching some hexagon shapes in the background. I had a heavy weight blue and red thread so I decided to draw a few of these on the top and see if the idea in my head could transfer to the top!

My first few attempts at drawing were awful.  Then, JoJo reminded me that I could cut a template using my accuquilt. I did it. Actually, I cut one of each size and started drawing! This attempt worked!

Hexagons drawn & ready for the next step

I drew a bunch of hexagon shapes of various sizes. Now, I'm thinking that hand stitching this many may take me a year. . . .well, not really, but, maybe hand stitching could take longer than I want to spend. I'm concerned about stabilizer and my stitch length.

Pieced back

I pieced the back and figured out what I want to use as the hanging sleeve which gave the piece time to "talk" to me about what I wanted to do with the drawn lines.

I listed some of my options:
Should I hand stitch the outlines in a contrasting thread?
Should I layer and pin baste and quilt the lines via machine?
Once it is a quilt sandwich, should I try bobbin work?
Should I use a contrasting thread or similar thread to quilt the hexagons?

Auditioning hand stitching using
embroidery thread

What should I do with the spaces that I haven't drawn a hexagon?
Seriously, how much more time do I want to spend on this project?

I decided that I would audition some embroidery thread and some hand stitching to see the result. I decided I liked the hand stitching look enough to keep going. I notice that as I pull the thread through the fabric, the fabric stretches a bit.

Had I planned, however, to hand stitch from the beginning of the project, I would have applied shape flex (a stabilizer) to the back of the fabric as that would have made the stitching easier to achieve.  I think I can continue stitching, carefully, and be able to fill the background with a variety of hand stitched hexagons.

I may not finish this project by the end of the quarter; but, since this project has been hanging about for too many years, I'm pleased that I am making progress!!!