English paper-pieced hexagons

I have fallen in love with hexagons. Hand sewn English paper-pieced hexagons to be exact. It all started with a quilt I was making for a 10 year old soccer playing boy. The top of the quilt was whole cloth patterned with bright splashes of color and white/black soccer balls. The back of the quilt was black with two large soccer balls (appliqued) - one orange, eclipsed by a black and white ball made of English paper-pieced hexagons. And I couldn't wait to finish the quilt so I could move on to more hexagons - trying more color.

The beauty of the hexagon, or 'hexies' as they are fondly referred to by other lovers, for me is their portability - they can be popped into a bag and taken out while waiting for an appointment at the doctor's surgery; or just taken on a short or long flight with ease, all I need is the template, some cotton and a needle. The only laborious part of the hexie love affair is preparing the template and cutting out the fabric - not as fiddly as the usual pieced block because the cutting of the fabric just involves cutting up a pile of fabric pieces its still a barrier to rolling up my sleeves and getting to the fun part.

Time and fabric are as much or as little as I care to expend - my favorite at the moment is the 2 1/2 inch hexie which only requires 3 1/2 inch square piece of fabric. The fabric can be the same for each hexagon or different... the choice is endless.

The outer hexies, which form a whole hexagon, can be the same color...or (my favorite) different. These remind me of crazy quilting, there is the freedom to use a variety of color/patterns yet the satisfaction (for me) of seeing conformed shape and structure. I love it.

The inner hexie can be the same for each 'whole' formed hexagon, or different (like these).

Once the hexies are hand sewn into whole hexagons (the flower shape) the paper templates are pulled out from under each fabric hexie and pure pleasure is smiling back at me. The last thing I have to say is that it is a lovely relaxing experience to sit and baste the fabric over each template, and then hand sew each basted hexie to another, forming the overall whole hexagon.

I've read a few comments around the webisphere about buying templates etc. but I just print pages of hexagons on standard (for me this means 'cheap') photocopy paper and cut them out while I'm watching something in front of the television. I have gazillions of homemade templates from this process, and I reuse them - and they are firm enough to do the job.

The only energy expended in the whole process is trying to tame the imagination long enough to get through the hexies in front of me, so I can move on to try something new... like larger hexies, or smaller hexies, or half hexies (two halves, each covered in a different fabric). Viva la hexagon.