Hi, I m Jenny from the MSQC. And I am here today with Lisa Hirsch from the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild. Jenny: Welcome Lisa. Lisa: Thanks for having me, Jenny. Jenny: It s really fun. So we have, in January, came out with this Mod Block. And we actually ran a, a contest at the, at Kansas City Quilt Guild, the Modern Quilt Guild. Lisa: Yes. Jenny: And what happened? Lisa: Well, I entered it with several other people and in September you guys gave me a call and I was the winner for the contest. Jenny: And she won for the contest. Now Mod Block is made up of a lot of designers that we just had them go look at our tutorials and see if they could put a modern spin on it. And Lisa put a modern spill on, a modern spin on our Hexi Quilt. And I want to show you that right here because it is really cool. So what do you call this, Lisa? Lisa: It s called the Hexi Gems. And I used a half a charm pack and a full layer cake to highlight some of the modern attributes of negative space and asymmetry, asymmetry. Jenny: Oh, it s very, very fun. I was just really intrigued by those little gems. By how she used the hexis to make the little flowers. And so we decided, you know, the half hexi was her inspiration. Our inspiration, she was our inspiration for this quilt. And so we want to show you today how to make the hexi gems. So to make this quilt, what you re going to need is two packets of five inch squares. We ve used Lucky by Lottie Yonsdautter for Windham Fabrics. And you re also going to need a packet of background squares. And we ve used the Bella solid, white for all of our background squares. And so basically, Lisa, I m going to have you show me how to do this. Lisa: Sure. Jenny: And show you how to put it together because you obviously might have some tips and tricks for us. Lisa: Sure. So the first thing is you need to get these ready to go on your on Jenny: On your squares Lisa: On your square. So you can either use some of the fusible sheet, a Heat N Bond type product. Jenny: And Heat N Bond, if you do use Heat N Bond you re going to need 2 ½ yards of that. Lisa: Ok. And if you don t have that, then a glue stick will work as long as it washes off. Jenny: Something to hold it on there. You re also going to need a half hexi ruler like this Lisa: Um huh. Jenny: And so show me how you
Lisa: Other normal sewing things Jenny: Well ya, just the normal stuff. Lisa: So because we cut this out from some yardage, you d have that pinking around it on a normal charm pack, so I m going to show you a trick of how to not have that in your finished project. Jenny: Very cool. Lisa: So we re going to first lay our fabric on top of our Heat N Bond, get our iron going. And you probably want to make sure that you can carefully work your iron around it so you don t get that awesome sticky stuff on your faceplate of your iron. Jenny: Ya, we don t like the sticky stuff Lisa: Nope Jenny: On the, on the faceplate. Lisa: Give that a little jus. Jenny: Oh a jus. Lisa: Yeah, why not? Jenny: I like that. Lisa: And we re going to come over here and Jenny: I ve got a whole new word, a jus. I m always making up words. I like that. Lisa: I do too. Jenny: Alright. Lisa: So depending on what you want to do. Jenny: Did you trim this out? I m assuming, no? Lisa: I, I like to cut it in half and come back and get the angles. Jenny: Oh, ok. So let me just trim this off of here so we ll clean this up a little bit. Lisa: So depending on, I mean, as long as it gets cut into a hexagon, a hexagon or a half hexi, it doesn t really matter, right? Jenny: Well, does it? Because, because of the little pinked edges. Lisa: Well ya, the pinked edge. Jenny: Ok. Lisa: So I like to Jenny: So now I have it in half. Lisa: Um huh. Really we d have our pinked Jenny: Let me move this so they can see it. Lisa: We d have our pinked edges out here. So I m going to put the long edge of the half hexi matching with the pinked edge so that will get hidden in the seam allowance. So I ll turn that so Jenny: Because this is, these are all going to be ironed on squares on top.
Lisa: Yes, ma am, they re just going to be satin stitched or whatever you like to do for your Jenny: I like that. Do you like the satin stitch? Lisa: You know, I like a good satin stitch or I like a good blanket stitch. It kind of depends on what I m doing. Jenny: Yeah. Lisa: Is it more about how it s being attached and who s going to use it. Jenny: Right. Lisa: Versus, is it going to be more of like a showy kind of thing. But I kind of make all my quilts for people to use and love and wash a bajillion times and so. Jenny: Ya, me too. I m pretty much a utilitarian quilter. Lisa: So now, we ve got that cut out. Always close your rotary cutter. Jenny: Alright. So now basically we have to make two different sets of blocks for this quilt. Lisa: Ya, ya. Jenny: So let me get some solid squares out here. Down here on the bottom, I think. Lisa: Uh huh. Jenny: Alright. So here s our solids and we ve got a few more of these hexis cut out over here, ready to go. Now our first block is just going to have two squares on it, correct? And so you re going to just take two Jenny: We can actually, we probably, well let s do it right here so they can see it. And we ll carefully move it to the iron, the ironing board. Lisa: Ok. So I m just going to take two of contrasting fabric patterns. Maybe like a light and a dark. Maybe like a striped and a print. Whatever you like the best is good. We just used little strips on this one instead of using the whole sheet. Jenny: Well ya. This is, that s great for scraps. It s got to hang on long enough to do it. Lisa: So what I do is, you re working towards meeting this corner from the short end of your half hexi. And it s going to need to touch the other one. So right now they re a little off kilter. And so you re just going to move it on down. It s about an inch and a quarter depending on how the manufacturer has got your five inch charm pack. And so they just kind of touch, just ever so in the middle. Jenny: That s perfect. And then we iron those Lisa: Iron those suckers down and you re ready to go to your machine. So with that transference we ll just kind of get it back into place. Jenny: I just loved how this came together. This was like Lisa: So fast.
Jenny: You know it was one of those. Well and you do, you do so many of these things. And somebody just tweaks it and does something different and it s like a whole new something. And it s just like, Oh my gosh, that s so cool. Lisa: Ya. And so the neat thing is, because my mom, she is a huge inspiration in all the creative things that I do. And sometimes you ve got to like start with a box mix and then put a little spin on it Jenny: There you go Lisa: A little lemon zest in it and it s a whole new thing. Jenny: Alright so now what we re going to do is we re going to stitch around these. Lisa: Uh huh. Jenny: Because we want them to hold on. Lisa: Yep Jenny: And you can use, like you said, a satin stitch, we re going to use a little blanket stitch. And we re just going to stitch around these and you ll be able to see this right here as I m coming around the mountain. And. Lisa: And I don t think you have to worry too much about the corner on the long edge because it does get stuck into that seam allowance. I was really picky about mine. But it wasn t really Jenny: But nobody saw it. Lisa: No one saw it. Jenny: Ha, ha. Lisa: Spend your time on other things, right? Jenny: I love how we do that though. We re like, Oh my gosh, you know. Lisa: I ve got to pin it. No, just get around it. Jenny: Ha, ha. And it s like, oop, nobody even saw that. It was in the seam. And so if you re really particular you could match your thread to each one but in the end, you ve got to just decide how much time do you want to put in it. Jenny: Ya, I would never do that. Lisa: Well I was a little special and I did that on the gray one. Jenny: Did you really? You changed Lisa: Eleven different colors of thread. Jenny: Oh my gosh. That s really, well you know, and that s really, the cool thing about that is everybody is different. Everybody going to do something a little different. Lisa: Ya Jenny: A little bit differently. And it s going to work. Lisa: The second time I made it, I didn t do that. Ha, ha. Jenny: You re like, alright, I admit it. True confessions.
Lisa: Nope, nope. Get done. Jenny: Alright so are actually going to make 20 of these. Lisa: You re gonna make 20 of those. Jenny: And now we have to make the other set. Jenny: Which is the same thing but on both corners. Correct? Lisa: Yep, I m going to move it over here so that it s a little bit easier. Jenny: Ok. Let me scoot these things here so we can make sure we can see. Lisa: And not move it around. And so when I m looking at, at which ones to pick, I do kind of want a little bit of everything. And since I have that blue and the polka dot over here, it s alright. I m not going to put them next to each other in that one. Jenny: Right. Lisa: So then you have a little bit more variety, sometimes you can control that planned chaos a little bit. Jenny: Ya, I love that word, planned chaos. That s great. I call it controlled scrapping. Lisa: Controlled scrapping Jenny: Oh here s a plain orange, do you want another? Lisa: Oh, well Jenny: You want a flower so it s different. Lisa: I ve got a flower. It doesn t matter. So we ll glue it down, stick it down and then, when you tumble them around, we ll just make sure they match up. Jenny: And again, when you cut your tumblers, not your tumblers, your half hexis, you want to make sure that if you have a pinked edge on one of yours that the pinked edge is on the bottom. Lisa: Uh huh. On that one edge. Jenny: So that it will go into the seam because all the rest of it we topstitch down. And you don t want to have that little pinked edge, you know, on your line like that. Lisa: Uh huh. Jenny: So that s probably, I would say that s probably one of the main tips. Lisa: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And you can get rid of that. There we go. Jenny: So now what we re going to do is we re going to do the same thing and we re going to stitch all the way around these just like we did on here. Jenny: So once you get your blocks done, we re going to have 20 that have two s and 20 that have four s, we are ready to lay them out.
Jenny: And this is actually a standard layout because there are 42 blocks in the, in the, in the layer cake, you re going to get six, six blocks across by seven rows down. And so we have four here. And we have four because. Yes, we re going to put a solid square at the, on, on each side. Jenny: So you can see what we ve done with this top row. This top row is all just the two s. And we ve just laid them right sides together. And Lisa, you, you, have a little trick for keeping these together. Lisa: Yep, all you need is probably two pins. If you get to be a fancy expert you don t need them at all. But you would just pin it right where those half hexis start and stop to kind of keep that. Jenny: Well you want to make sure those are lined up. Lisa: Ya Jenny: You do want to make sure those are lined up so that s a good, that s a good tip. Lisa: The white area, kind of that secondary focus, and so it doesn t matter so much if they re a little off Jenny: Right. Lisa: I d rather cheat that area then to have that area. Jenny: Oh gosh yes. So, so this is our, actually our first row. So after the first row, then what happens? Lisa: Then I like to kind of figure out the four s a little easier because, you know, those are big. And then I like, alright now I know what needs to come into here. Jenny: You start making your gems. And so then, you can go like that. And then, oop. Jenny: Oh that s so cool. Lisa: I need you to put that one over there. Because it s a four. Jenny: Oh I will. Oh here we go. Lisa: And then on the Jenny: Wait. Lisa: The first column and the last column, you ll always use a two block so then you can have that kind of resting place for your eye. If you wanted to have a half of a hexi gem, you could do that too. Jenny: So then on this one over here I m going to Lisa: Yep Jenny: Match these up and then out here, I m going to have a two. Jenny: That is very cool. So then that really just leads you into the next row.
Lisa: You bet. Oh yeah. Jenny: Doesn t it? Because really what you re making is these little gems. Lisa: Yep Jenny: So you ll go ahead and do six rows of these. Again there s seven blocks across and six down. Match your gems and put them together. So the main tips on this are we re going to use pins right here when we put them together. Lisa: Uh huh. Yep. Jenny: We re going to make sure that our pinked edge Lisa: Your pinked edge is the long edge of your fabric Jenny: On the bottom that s going to go in the seam. Lisa: Uh huh. And then using some kind of, either a glue stick of your Heat N Bond will save you from any. Jenny: Slippage. Lisa: Slippage. And if you put pins in there it gets kind of a little cumbersome. Jenny: So I just love the way this flower went together. I love, you know, it s such a cute block. It s, you know, I love, I just love what you did with it, bringing them together. And you even made a little pillow out of it too. Lisa: Oh sure. So sometimes you need those little fast, quick gifts. And so it s really simple Jenny: And sometimes you really want to see what it s just going to look like. Lisa: Oh yeah. Test it out too. Jenny: So isn t this darling? I think this is a really cute idea. And sometimes you just have that one block that you need something for. Lisa: You bet. You bet. Jenny: This is a great idea for that as well. So Lisa s quilt, you can actually find in Mod Block. It s right here. It s called Hexi Gems, right here in our Mod Block. And we re calling ours Hexi Gems Garden, Lisa: Garden. Jenny: The Hexi Gems Flower Garden. It s been so great having you here today. Lisa: Oh thanks so much for having me. Jenny: It s been really fun. So we hope you enjoyed this tutorial from the MSQC.