Continuous Line Quilting a Hexagon

Brighton Church Windows

I love handwork and I've been hand piecing and quilting this tessellated long hexie quilt for a year or two. Above the choice of blue or black William Morris print for a border.

I went with the black print

Compton from my latest Morris line Morris Earthly Paradise

This is why I don't have a good picture of it yet.

Dottie keep getting in the way.

But it is finished.

I usually quilt around each hexagon in the traditional fashion.

Here's Pyracantha from my Morris Modernized line a few years ago.

I stitched around each hexagon, skipping under so I didn't have to keep

knotting and starting a new line.

Spatial relations are not my skill area. 

It wasn't until the last three or four rows of quilting this one that I realized you can do a continuous line quilting if you quilt it in horizontal rows. Eureka!

First you quilt a continuous line across the top of each,

skipping under the seam line if you like.

Then you go back and quilt a line down one side, the bottom and up the other side.

Skip under the seams between hexagons (a small skip) and go to the next one, going down the side.

This would work on equilateral hexagons too.

And with machine quilting.

It doesn't matter what order you do the lines in. Sides or top first.

Why this took me so long to figure out---well, I said I wasn't good a spatial relations.

I'm encouraged to quilt some of the other hexagons in the stack.

Morris Hexagons from 5" squares.