Seven of the Tuesday Night Quilters met at Dot’s house last Tuesday (November 7) and made their versions of the hexagon table topper.

By the end of the session, all seven of the participants had finished their table toppers to the flimsy stage. One participant even had her topper sandwiched and basted, ready for quilting. This is a picture of 4 of the toppers that were completed.

This is a picture of the Christmas version that I made. I finished quilting it yesterday and finished the binding tonight. This will be another Christmas gift for someone on my list.

Note: The fabrics have changed from Halloween themed fabrics in the first part of the tutorial in the previous post to Christmas themed fabrics in this part of the tutorial.

You should now have your two stratas — 6 strips of fabric sewn together and seams pressed in the same direction.

The following instructions are for making a hexagon-shaped (6-sided) table topper. The angle for a hexagon shaped quilt is 60 degrees. If you would rather make an octagon-shaped table topper (8-sided), use a 45 degree angle.

Lay one of your stratas on your cutting board and using a ruler with a 60 degree marking, lay the ruler on your strata so that the 60 degree line runs along one of the seams of your strata.

This photo shows the two ruler method. The shorter ruler is marking the 60 degree angle in the middle of the strata and the longer ruler is butted up against it so that a continuous cut can be made across the strata.

Alternatively, a special ruler made for cutting 60 degree angles can be used. I found this ruler to be more accurate than using the two straight rulers.

Once you are sure of where your 60 degree angle is, make your first cut–as close to the end of your strata strip as possible to maximize the use of your fabric.

Reposition your ruler so that you can make the second cut and complete the triangle.

Continue cutting triangles for the length of your strata. You should get three triangles out of one strata.

In the next step you will be sewing two triangles together. Because you have pressed all seams in the same direction, the seams should nest together effortlessly.

Pin at the seam intersections and sew from the large end of the triangle to the small end of the triangle.

Press your seams open.

Once you have sewn two triangles together, sew one more triangle to this pair. Three triangles sewn together are half the project.

Cut the second strata as you did the first strata. The most important thing to note here is that what ever fabric was at the top of your cutting board in the first strata should now be at the bottom when you cut the second strata. Fabric #1 in the first strata becomes fabric #6 in the second strata.

You want two sets of three triangles with the same fabric in the “point” position. If this seems a little confusing, study the photo of the finished table topper in the next post.

Update: This post was originally posted in October. The date on this post was changed to November 13 to allow it to post with part 2 of the Hexagon Table Topper Tutorial.

This post is specifically for those 9 ladies that plan on taking the Hexagon Table Topper Quilt “class” at Dot’s on Tuesday, November 7.

In order to maximize our evening and to allow you to go home with a completed flimsy, please bring your two stratas to class that evening. You will also need your sewing machines.

You will need to purchase:

6 different fabrics for the strips on the front or top- Many of the ladies are making this a Christmas project so if that is your plan, choose 6 Christmas fabrics. You will need sufficient yardage to get two 3 inch strips from each fabric. Please do not purchase fat quarters. This is not a fat quarter friendly project.

1 fabric for the backing – this can be one of the fabrics from the front of the project or choose something different. This project is reversible when complete so consider something nice for the back that you may want to display before or after Christmas like a winter-like fabric that is not necessarily Christmas. This way when Christmas is over, you can flip your table topper over and get use out of it for the rest of the winter.

Step #1 – Cut your 6 fabrics for the top of the quilt 3″ wide (these strips will finish 2 1/2″ wide) by the WOF (width of the fabric). Your strips should be 40+ inches long by 3″ wide. You will have 12 strips on your table when you are done cutting.

Step #2 – Arrange your strips in the order that pleases you.

Step #3 – Sew your strips together in pairs in the order that they will appear in the strata.

Step #4 – Press your strips as you sew. Remember to press, do not iron. Pressing is an up and down motion. You do not want to stretch or distort your strips. You want nice straight strips.

Step #5 – Sew two pairs of strips together. Then sew the 4 strip unit to the last pair of strips.

Step #6 – Remember to press all strips in the same direction–either all towards strip #1 or all towards strip #6. It doesn’t matter which direction you press as long as all strips are pressed to the same direction. Be sure to press the second strata exactly as you have pressed this strata.

Step #7 – You should now have two stratas – each 6 strips wide, all pressed to the same direction.

We will cut our stratas into our triangles in class together. If you bring your two stratas on November 7 we should be able to get your table topper completed to the flimsy stage.

Yesterday was a day to have fun in the studio. With Christmas fast approaching, I was tempted to dip into my stash of Christmas fabrics. I was looking for a quick project that would not add to my never ending UFO list.

This was the perfect project. It measures just 12 1/2″ x 24 1/2″ and can be finished to the binding stage within a day. (The white in the picture is not a border, but is the batting before it has been trimmed away.)

The letters are fused to the background and then attached with a machine blanket stitch. Quilting is simple–an X across each square in the border and then outline stitching around each letter. After binding and the addition of a sleeve, this project is ready to give away as a gift.