In my experience you can often e-use them, at least the bigger ones. The smaller ones often get destroyed in the process. I have tons of 2" hexies from a swap on the old place and they keep surviving. It’s indeed a great sewing-on-the-go type project. I always enjoy it.
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I’ve seen a lot of techniques, sewing the templates in, gluing them in, sewing the hexies together without templates, machine sewing them, sewing them with a backing that binds round the edges, like too many ways, it boggles my mind! I’m just going to do it the traditional way to start.
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I’m not a fan of glueing. I received some glued-in hexies from swap partners and I never managed to pull them off in one go without leaving any kind of residue. I’m sure my swap partners used fabric glue but still, glue is glue. I sewed them in, I enjoyed the sewing templates in part as well as the sewing the hexies together-part.
I’m working on another hand-sewing project right now, diamond shapes instead of hexies, and I’m sewing those without a template (I traced the outlines onto fabric, then cut the fabric out & line up the outlines). I wanted to try to that method, but I think sewing with a template is easier for mindless busywork. If you use fabric sewn onto a coardboard template you can sew them together without looking at your work, but when the outlines are drawn onto the fabric you have to look down constantly to make sure they’re still lining up.
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I have a hexie punch but I also buy precut pieces. They are relatively inexpensive and they can be used several times.
No matter what, you need to have a hole in the paper for easy removal. The precut ones come with a hole. On ones I punch, I use a small hole punch to make a hole. When you are done sewing, you can pull the paper out with a crochet hook.
I do not sew through the paper. I only sew through the fabric. I use quilting cotton thread. I don’t take out the paper until after I sew the hexies together.
I have found that a dab of washable glue stick helps hold the paper to the fabric. By the time I am ready to remove the paper, the glue is dried up and the paper easily removed. If pieces stick, they wash out .(@Immaculata … I will remember that you don’t like the glue if we ever swap those again! Sorry!)
I do have a travel kit for just hexies.
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Wait, what? You don’t sew or glue the fabric to the hexie template? How does it stay in?
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I sew them exactly the same way, you fold the fabric around the paper, put a paperclip on each side and sew the folds in place using a tacking stitch. Then the fabric is secure enough to sew and the paper can be removed without damage.
@AIMR maybe I didn’t even notice your glue stick! I’m pretty sure the difficult to remove ones were glued with some sort of liquid glue.
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Ohhh, I get it. Then you would use a stiffer template & be able to reuse them because you haven’t stitched through them. I think that would require a lot of clips, no?
I just found this really ingenious faux pieced tutorial, it’s so smart. I’d poke a hole in the centre of each square before sewing them together though.
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Just six, after the tacking stitches I remove them, it’s pretty sturdy! I’ll see if I can find some pictures, I’ve made about ten million of them so I should have a picture somewhere.
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That was interesting…but as she says, you have to not care about the points…when it is a whole quilt like that, it does look like you intentional rounded off all the points…almost like a snowball pattern…sure would be a quick way to do up a quilt and once it is actually quilted and washed, the recipient would just love it!
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This is fascinating. I’m going to have to meander down some video rabbit holes because I just can’t picture how one sews without sewing them in… to the google!
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I, AIMR, submit this as my LATE July BOM.
Two more to go and then I am caught up!
Here are the six I have in this grouping so far. I normally do the star patterns in rwb for future charity quilts.
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The hexie discussion reminded me of a long lost project in my closet. I got a die cut for making the hexies from card stock and cutting the fabric.
Here’s the back after adding the tacking stitches but with the template still in place
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@AIMR your quilt is shaping up, the colors are so soft and warming.
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@marionberries, I’m looking forward to seeing your scrappy blocks altogether in a quilt! What size do you want to count the blocks as for the scrap-a-thon entry?
@AIMR, what a fun candy corn pillow! Your batik BOMs are looking really good.
@immaculata, I hope the shop is able to find an easy fix to your machine issue!
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@Magpie, that is a really interesting technique, I will definitely try that, they are essentially enconomy blocks.
@AIMR I love your BOMs the colours are really lovely
@photojenn and @Immaculata I bow to the patience of you hexie folk.
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Don’t bow too much on my account, you’re seeing the sum total of how far I got several years ago then decided it was too much work 
It might be nice to pick back up again at some point, a good project for when watching tv.
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Medium would be good
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In return, I am just as baffled at your speed! All my projects take literal years, although my hexie quilt took a long time even for me. It’s still not completely done, I’m hand quilting it and am about halfway done, I hope to finish it this winter. It’s not extremely warm but it’s nice and snuggly and heavy. I slept under it all week when I had Covid during the heatwave this summer.
Progress picture:
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I love this! What size are your hexies?
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They’re pretty big, the sides are 2". They’re much less fiddly than the smaller ones.
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