Hexie Flower Fun

If you’ve been following along with me for a while now you’ll know I love English Paper Piecing and I started my journey into EPP with the humble Hexie.  I wanted to share with you today a while post of Hexie Flower Fun to get you inspired and excited about giving this wonderful patchwork craft a try for yourself.

My first delve into sewing hexies came when my youngest was born and I discovered hexies from the Focus Cutting Sewalong community over on Instagram.  The challenge to sew a hexie flower a day for 14 days – I took part and absolutely loved it.  I had my daughter during the challenge and it kinda cemented the love even more.   Here are my two kiddies loving my craft, yes that’s my littlest the day she was born:

My lovely boy taking an interest in my Half Inch Hexie Ispy Quilt that made back in 2018 –  It was an epic 3 year hand make in the end but a very rewarding quilt to make.  I had so many great learning experiences from that quilt and you can read all about it here.

Do you want to have a go?

Have you ever wanted to learn how to sew hexies yourself.  I really recommend it as a fun past time.  A little further down I’ll give you tiny tutorial in how to sew you own but first I wanted to give you some reasons as to why taking up EPP and sewing Hexie Flowers is a good idea.  First up with a couple of my projects

13 Reasons to Love English Paper Pieced Hexie Flowers

1. Portability

• English paper piecing (EPP) is perfect for taking on the go. You can sew by hand, making it a wonderful project for travel, waiting rooms, or even watching TV.

2. Precision

• The method allows for highly accurate shapes and seams since the fabric is basted to paper templates, ensuring that your Hexie Flowers fit perfectly together.

3. Relaxing and Meditative

• Hand-stitching is often described as calming. EPP provides a slow, meditative crafting experience, which can be a relaxing break from modern life’s fast pace.

4. Scrap-Friendly

• Hexie Flowers are a fantastic way to use up small fabric scraps. Since each piece of the flower is small, you can give new life to fabric remnants and create beautiful, vibrant designs.

5. Creative Flexibility

• The simple hexagonal shape allows for endless creativity. You can create different colour combinations, patterns, and arrangements to make each Hexie Flower unique.

6. Great for Beginners

• EPP is beginner-friendly because it only requires a few basic materials and simple techniques. It’s a fun introduction to hand sewing for new crafters.

7. Portable and Low-Maintenance Tools

• You only need fabric, thread, needle, scissors, and paper templates, making it a low-maintenance craft with minimal space and storage requirements.

8. Quilt Heritage

• English paper piecing, and specifically Hexie Flowers, is steeped in quilting history and tradition. Many people enjoy feeling connected to a long line of quilters.

9. Therapeutic for the Hands

• For those who enjoy tactile crafts, EPP provides a satisfying hand-sewing experience. It’s a great break from machine work and can improve fine motor skills.

10. Social Activity

• EPP can be a social craft, often done in quilting groups or “sew-alongs.” The slow pace allows for conversation and sharing, creating a communal aspect.

11. Portable Puzzle-Like Fun

• Hexie Flowers are like crafting a puzzle. You piece together small, manageable sections of a quilt, and the satisfaction of completing one flower at a time keeps the project engaging.

12. Endlessly Customisable Projects

• Once you have several Hexie Flowers, you can decide on the final project, whether it’s a full quilt, a pillow cover, a tote bag, or even framed wall art.

13. Zero Waste Mindset

• Since EPP encourages using up even the tiniest scraps of fabric, it fits into the growing zero-waste and sustainability movements within the crafting community.

How to Sew your own Hexie Flower

You can set going with the Hexie Flower pretty easy.  Some of my first hexie flowers were with the most scrappiest pieces of material that I scavenged from my fabric pile.  You just need a tiny amount, paper print outs with the templates on, thread and needle and you can pretty much crack on with it!

You can grab a pdf print out some 1″ hexies above, no sign ups or payment, just click download an the pdf should open in your browser to print.  How to get sewing though, you will have to watch the video to learn how:

A little Inspiration from around the web

My good virtual friend Betsy started a fun hashtag in the Summer #hexieflowersinthegarden24 on Instagram .   I joined in with my stack of Liberty Flowers, take a look at it, Betsy was way way more adventurous than me with her pictures – You could say mine were on the Garden table!!    If you want to take a look back at some of my older hexie flowers from the ISpy Quilt days you can see them on #twotinymakesfussycutsewalong on Instagram

I have a whole board dedicated to Patchwork and Quilting over on my Pinterest account plus a general search on #hexieflowers on  Instagram  is a real neat idea if you are looking for inspiration.

Take your EPP Journey Further…

If you have loved finding out all about the hexie flower journey that I have been on then you are going to love the free half hexie mug rug tutorial I have for you over in the members area.

If you are feeling a little bit more adventurous then the EPP Crown is for you, a Two Tiny Makes pattern – with tutorial/full picture instructions and 3 different crown styles a fun make for anyone to have a go at:

Are you going to have a little Hexie Flower Fun?

I hope that you have had enjoyed a little delve into what I love about Hexie Flowers.  To be fair I love most EPP but there is nothing better than reaching for the humble hexie and whipping up a flower to keep my hands and mind busy a the end of the day!

If you do have a go then make sure you tag me on Two Tiny Makes (@twotinymakes) and share you favourites with me.  If you connect with me via email – sign up to my newsletter below and drop my an email!

Take care

Karen x