Big hexagons make big bags Part 1

Well Bridget - the bag is nearly finished and I'm confident that the design will make a nice big bag. It should be done by next week - I didn't have a big enough piece of fabric to line the bag with so it's on hold until I get to the quilt shop.  I decided to change the way I sewed the hexagons together but you can use the original quilt as you go design shown on the tutorial. For this design I added more hexagons.  The original bag had 16 - the new design has 34.

Starting with the hexagons - these measure 6" (15cm), but if you make the quilt as you go hexagons you'll need to cut a lining hexagon measuring 7" (18cm):

I marked a quarter inch seam on each hexagon (I love hand stitching and this makes for very accurate hexagons)

 Press the seam and see the little hexagons appear at the junctions,

This makes the joins very crisp.

Sew the hexagons together into rows of 3,4,5,10,5,4,3

 Then sew the rows together.

Sorry it's a bit wrinkled!

At this stage, if you've used the quilt as you go method then sew the sides up in the same manner as the one in the tutorial. You'll have an extra one up the side. If you are making this method you need to layer the hexagons on to wadding and backing wrong sides together.  I'll post Part 2 next weekend.

The little bag measured about 6" finished

- the medium bag measures about 15" - they look the same but you can see the difference in the number of dragonflies in each hexagon.  The medium bag is full of 50g balls of wool.

The yellow design, when finished will measure about 21" across. I'll borrow the dragonfly bags back to photo them all together.

I'm having a bit of a nightmare loading photos so will have to stop here and try later. I've got lots of things to share so let's hope I can sort things out.

Until next time.