Fern in Singapore has made 30 stunningly beautiful Patchwork of the Crosses blocks so far with Inklingo.

Lucy Boston would be proud, don’t you think?

Every one of Fern’s blocks is just beautiful, and she kindly gave me permission to show some of them here. She has chosen wonderful fabrics.

Fern wrote:

“The Lucy Boston POTC quilt is my first Inklingo project and I doubt that I can ever go back to paper piecing. The results of Inklingo printing are so accurate and easy.”

Fern originally shared photos of her blocks with the Inklingo Yahoo Group. Her excellent photography shows the way she fussy cut.

Also on Yahoo, Fern wrote:

“Inklingo has transformed my stitching life! It really is so much easier and faster than EPP [English Paper Piecing]. And without open seams, the piecing looks so much better too.”

“I am having such a lot of fun and making remarkably rapid progress with Inklingo POTC that I am now relooking at all sorts of patterns for Inklingo possibilities!”

In her review on the website:

“I attempted and abandoned Lucy Boston’s quilt some 12 years ago. Inklingo makes it easy-peasy to make an complex, exquisite and magnificent quilt. I am having so much fun with mine now.”

There are several 5 Star reviews of 90° Hexagons 1 inch for POTC on the Inklingo website (left side of page).

We think Fern will inspire you to print the shapes on fabric with Inklingo. You can get great results and have more fun too.

(There are reviews by quilters for quilters on the Inklingo website for many shape collections. Have you written one yet?)

I can hardly wait to see Fern’s next blocks.

It makes me feel great to know that she is enjoying inklingoing them in Singapore and when she travels for her work.

As she wrote to me:

I am only kicking myself that I did not discover Inklingo earlier. Now I view every pattern for Inklingo possibilities and best of all, many patterns which I had found daunting in the past look easy with Inklingo.

Thank you, Fern!  Every one of your messages and photos gives me a lift and encourages me to keep adding new Inklingo shapes. You inspire me.

MORE ABOUT LUCY BOSTON (VIDEO & MORE)

There are many other articles about Lucy Boston on this blog, including a free project file for Electric Quilt and several Lucy Boston videos on YouTube, but I think this one will always be a favorite for me.

Monkey and I will be back on Wednesday with our next Tute for Pieced Hexagons. You can catch up with Wednesday Tute 04. As Monkey says:

The best time to start inklingoing was seven years ago.
The next best time is now.

If you know a quilter who is struggling with the slow pace of English Paper Piecing, let her know about Fern, okay?

You can “like” Inklingo on Facebook with just a click. It is a great way to help spread the word, and your friends will thank you. (We appreciate it too.)

Are you subscribed?

We’re glad you stopped by to see Fern’s stunning POTC blocks. If you don’t want to miss anything else, you can enter your email address (top of right sidebar).

See you on Wednesday.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

$10 Coupon!  7 Year Anniversary Special on the handbook

Inklingo Quiz – Just for Fun!

WHY INSET SEAMS ARE MORE FUN THAN REGULAR SEAMS

YES, they are!

Our 300 Inklingo Pieced Hexagons are pretty designs, don’t you think? It has been fun to design them with swatches of Timeless Treasures fabric.

These are even more fun to sew with Inklingo when they have inset seams.

Inklingoists love inset seams. Are you surprised? Let me explain!

An inset seam is required when a piece is stitched into an angle formed by other pieces (red lines, above).

They are sometimes called Y seams.

For insets, we must stop stitching exactly at the seam allowance. We cannot sew edge-to-edge.

Inklingo makes inset seams easier because there are precise crosshairs printed on the fabric. You can see exactly where to start and stop.

If you are machine piecing, learning to sew from crosshair to crosshair takes a bit of practice. (See the video.) It can be fun, but some machine piecers prefer the “normal” method and want to sew edge-to-edge all the time. (That is why inset seams got such a bad name.)

AH HA! When we sew by hand, the “normal” method is to sew from crosshair to crosshair on every seam. That means inset seams are no harder than regular seams when we sew by hand!

And it gets even better!

Thanks to inset seams, I can sew this Pieced Hexagon design with only three threads!

I look for opportunities to turn “regular” seams into inset seams. Yes, I do!

SEWING SEQUENCE – PLAN YOUR ROUTE

When I am hand piecing, I like to plan my route, so I can go from one seam to the next without breaking the thread.

THREE THREADS—1, 2, 3

Isn’t that cool? 19 pieces, 3 threads, 1 great design to impress everyone.

At the end of every seam, I can turn a corner and keep going. You can see how I do it in several of the Inklingo videos on YouTube. (See Grandmother’s Flower Garden, Kaleidoscope Stars, etc.)

DESIGN YOUR OWN ROUTE

The sewing sequence illustrated for this Pieced Hexagon is just one example. There are other good sewing sequences for this design. You cannot make a mistake! You can add the pieces in any order. The more you sew, the better you will get at eliminating starts and stops.

I find it fun to lay the pieces out wrong side up and plan my route so there are fewer stops and starts. The sewing lines and crosshairs printed on the fabric give me confidence. I know I will be happy with the finished block.

CONTINUOUS STITCHING IS LIKE CHAIN PIECING

“Continuous stitching” is the hand piecing equivalent of chain piecing by machine.

Sewing continuously with a running stitch gets me into a relaxing, enjoyable rhythm. It makes me feel happy.

See all the advantages of Hand Piecing on the Inklingo website. There is other cool stuff under the Hand Piecing tab, like Why English Paper Piece?

I could sew one seam at a time, but do you see why I consider it an advantage when a piece is stitched into an angle formed by other pieces?

“Continuous stitching” makes me love inset seams.

You can impress your friends with all of your insets, but please tell everyone how easy they are with Inklingo.

We have more tips like this to share in the next Wednesday Tute.

Would you like to catch up from the beginning?

• 300 Inklingo Pieced Hexagons
• Wednesday Tute 01 (with video)
• Wednesday Tute 02 (also with video)
• Friday bonus – Pieced Hexagons to Color (free PDF to download)
• Wednesday Tute 03
• Pieced Hexagon Poetry

If you can’t wait for next Wednesday, you might like to see me “circling the intersection” for nice, tight, precision matches when 5, 6, 7, 8 or more pieces meet. There are close-up sewing sequences in Part 2 of Kaleidoscope Star on YouTube.

300 PIECED HEXAGON DESIGNS? YES!

Pick a size and choose the ones you like the best!

Please “like” Inklingo and tell your friends on Facebook about the new Wednesday Tutes! It is not too late to jump in.

Are you subscribed?

If you don’t want to miss anything, you can enter your email address (top of right sidebar).

See you next Wednesday—if not before. Thanks for visiting.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

$10 Coupon!  7 Year Anniversary Special on the handbook

Inklingo Quiz – Just for Fun!

I have stacks of shapes printed and cut and ready to sew on the front porch.

The weather is perfect for it and the chipmunks have been visiting my windowsill.

I might even get lucky and catch a photo of one of the babies.

The fabric is decided, the shapes are perfect.

With Inklingo, I can print and rotary cut the shapes quickly. It makes the prep so easy that I can always be ready to sew on a lovely summer day.

This interlude is brought to you by Christopher Marlowe (1591) & Monkey (2013).

Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.
Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
. . . . . . Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe 1591)

You can still catch up before the next Wednesday Tute:

• 300 Inklingo Pieced Hexagons
• Wednesday Tute 01 (with video)
• Wednesday Tute 02 (also with video)
• Friday bonus – Pieced Hexagons to Color (free PDF to download)
• Wednesday Tute 03

300 PIECED HEXAGON DESIGNS? YES!

Pick a size and choose the ones you like the best!

Please “like” Inklingo and tell your friends on Facebook about the new Wednesday Tutes! It is not too late to jump in.

Are you subscribed?

There is more good stuff coming! If you don’t want to miss anything, you can enter your email address (top of right sidebar).

See you Wednesday—if not before. Thank you for visiting.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

$10 Coupon!  7 Year Anniversary Special on the handbook

Inklingo Quiz – Just for Fun!

I have been having fun getting a summer sewing kit ready, so I can sew as many of the 300 Inklingo Pieced Hexagons as my heart desires.

Monkey and the chipmunks are waiting for me on the front porch.

If you get a sewing kit ready, I think you will enjoy our Wednesday Tutes even more.

I picked a few fabrics from my stash.

Inklingo cutting and stitching lines show beautifully on the dark brown fabric and some of the shapes in the design give a fussy cut effect.

I am using up some beige-y/gold scraps too.

There is a choice of several sizes but I decided to make Pieced Hexagons with 1.5 inch 60° Diamonds and related shapes.

• downloadable 60° Diamonds 1.5 inch
• Inklingo Shape Collection # 3 (book and CD)

I chose a few Custom Page Sizes and started printing. Most of the 10 designs illustrated in the free PDF posted last time use 3 or 6 of each shape, so I printed sheets which give me sets of 6 shapes. For example, with 1.5 inch:

• Diamonds – 6 in 4.25 x 7.75
• Diamonds – 12 in 6 x 9.75
• Diamonds – Half – 24 in 8.25 x 10.5
• Triangles – 30 in 8 x 11.5
• Triangles – Half AB – 24 in 4.25 x 11.5

There are many other suggest Custom Page Sizes in the shape collections too.

How to print on fabric best tips is under the Top Ten Tutes tab (above).

I can use a rotary cutter to cut rows, stack the rows and cut several layers at a time or I can use scissors if I need it to be portable.

It will all work out because I can mix and match the shapes.

I loaded up my Smartlap Portable Desk. (More about Smartlap here.)

I was going to wait until I could sit on the front porch, but it was irresistible. I sewed a few while I was watching Foyle’s War on PBS on Sunday night. (New series. Hooray! The script writer is brilliant.)

You may have noticed that this is Wednesday Tute 03. You can go back and start with the first one.

• 300 Inklingo Pieced Hexagons
• Wednesday Tute 01 (with video)
• Wednesday Tute 02 (also with video)
• Friday bonus – Pieced Hexagons to Color (free PDF to download)

HEXAGON LOVERS UNITE

Do you have a portable project ready for the summer?—or winter, if you are south of the equator? Do you know quilters who like Pieced Hexagon designs?

Please “like” Inklingo and tell your friends on Facebook about the new  Wednesday Tutes! It is not too late to jump in.

Are you subscribed?

There is more good stuff coming! If you don’t want to miss anything, you can enter your email address (top of right sidebar).

See you next Wednesday—if not before. Thank you for visiting.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

$10 Coupon!  7 Year Anniversary Special on the handbook

Inklingo for Beginners

Inklingo Quiz – Just for Fun!

Click to download the PDF. (1 page, 149 KB)

With this PDF you can color 10 different designs made with 4 Inklingo shapes.

The setting does not have any plain blocks, so it is similar to Candied Hexagons and VariaHex. There are other exciting ways to set Pieced Hexagons together too.

These are 10 of the 40 designs in the 3 minute video. I used swatches of Timeless Treasures fabric again because they are so pretty.

Click to watch.  (3 minutes)

These designs can be made with only one Diamond Shape Collection!

You can be very creative with only 4 Inklingo shapes.

If your “shape stash” also includes Inklingo hexagon shape collections to print on fabric, you can make all 300 Pieced Hexagons in this video. (7 minutes)

These shapes are available to print on fabric in several sizes.

• Main Hexagon Page
• Main Diamond Page
• Main Triangle Page

HEXAGON LOVERS ON FACEBOOK

Have you “liked” Inklingo on Facebook yet?

That is a great way to tell your friends about the new videos and the new Wednesday Tutes for Pieced Hexagons.

(Monkey says they will thank you later!)

Are you subscribed?

If you don’t want to miss anything, you can enter your email address (top of right sidebar).

See you next Wednesday—if not before. Thank you for visiting.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

$10 Coupon!  7 Year Anniversary Special on the handbook

Inklingo for Beginners

Inklingo Quiz – Just for Fun!

In our last video, we showed you 300 pieced hexagons you can make with Inklingo Shape Collection # 3 or with other hexagon and diamond shape collections.

Today there is a new video.

Click to watch “Inklingo Pieced Hexagons from Diamonds.”

Would you like to start with only one Diamond Shape Collection?

This new video shows about 40 Pieced Hexagons that use only 4 shapes.

You can have fun making enough Pieced Hexagons for one of the Settings for Pieced Hexagons we shared earlier this year. (That’s one of my favorite pages.)

You can be very creative with only 4 shapes.

These shapes are available in several sizes. The triangles are half and quarter diamonds.

All of the sizes are listed in the Index of Shapes (under the Support tab), but we’ll list them here too.

• 0.5 inch (download)
  (The half triangle is so small, we just print the whole triangle and trim.)
• 0.75 inch (Inklingo Shape Collection # 3 CD)
• 0.75 inch (download)
• 1.0 inch (download)
• 1.5 inch (Inklingo Shape Collection # 3 CD)
• 1.5 inch (download)
• 2.25 inch (Inklingo Shape Collection # 3 CD)
• 3.0 inch (download)

All of these collections have everything you need to make all of the designs in the video.

There is also a small shape collection with the 2.0 inch 60° Diamond, but you need a second shape collection to get the related 2 inch 60° Triangles.

• Main Hexagon Page
• Main Diamond Page
• Main Triangle Page

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PIECED HEXAGONS IN THE VIDEO

There are illustrations of Pieced Hexagons made with Diamonds in an earlier blog message.

I started designing a new PDF with illustrations of some of these Pieced Hexagons because they look so pretty with the Timeless Treasures swatches.

It was a nice plan, but I had a massage this afternoon to ease my neck after too many hours at the computer. When I got home I was so relaxed that I found it hard to concentrate on the details. I made a mistake uploading the video to YouTube too, or this would have been posted hours ago.

Don’t worry. It should be possible to post a cute new PDF before next Wednesday’s Tute, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, there are several articles about Pieced Hexagons in the blog archives and there are other Inklingo videos on YouTube about designing and sewing hexagons:

• Sewing Grandmother’s Flower Garden by Hand (the movie)
• Sewing Hexagons by Machine (the movie)
• Wednesday Tute 01 – Inklingo Pieced Hexagons

HEXAGON LOVERS UNITE

Do you know quilters who like Pieced Hexagon designs?

Please tell your friends about the new video and the new Wednesday Tutes!

Are you subscribed?

If you don’t want to miss anything, you can enter your email address (top of right sidebar).

See you next Wednesday—if not before. Thank you for visiting.

Linda & Monkey

New to Inklingo? Order and download free shapes and start sewing in the next few minutes. Quick Start (Always FREE.) There are triangles, diamonds, and squares in the free collection—great for dozens of different blocks.

$10 Coupon!  7 Year Anniversary Special on the handbook

Inklingo for Beginners

Inklingo Quiz – Just for Fun!