Snow GO! Hexie Runner Tutorial…

As promised, here is the tutorial to make your own Snow GO! Hexie Runner~

SEW here we… GO!

First you need some blue and white WOOL…I got out my little bag of blue wool…a lot of this wool has been recycled (Thrift Shop finds) and wool that I hand dyed before we left for this year’s Snowbirding trip.  I  cut my wool into squares about 1/2” larger than the biggest 5” hexagon shape on the die.  I ironed on some Heat and Bond Lite…(I use Heat and Bond Lite or Steam a Seam Lite to stabilize the wool and keep it from fraying).

I got out my Hexagon Die and my Holiday Medley Die and …

…ran the wool through my AccuQuilt GO! machine…(I did one layer of wool at a time as this wool is very thick and fluffy). The AccuQuilt GO! cut the wool like butter..and probably could have taken more layers..  Now if you have ever cut wool hexagons by hand (the old fashion way) then you know that you can NEVER get a perfect cut..something always manages to go wonky.  Well with the GO! they are PERFECTLY EXACT…each one fits right up to the other and there are no wonky holes.. I LOVE THAT!! 

I ended up cutting out 12 blue hexies and 4 creamy white wool hexies… a total of 16 hexies…lickety split…in just a few minutes!!  POW!  ZAP! DONE!  The AccuQuilt GO! makes me feel like Wonder Woman!!

I also cut out two wool snowflakes using the same creamy white wool..now just look at THAT snowflake..took me 2 seconds…it would have taken me an hour or more to cut it out using scissors…and it wouldn’t have been this perfect or this pretty!  I love this snowflake!!

Now comes play time…arranging the blocks…and this is what I came up with for the wool hexagon runner.

I put the good sides together and  whip stitched the hexagons together using ordinary thread and small stitches…. (I was SEW glad that there was Heat and Bond on the back as it prevented any fraying!)  I know…I know.. I need a manicure…badly…but who has time?!  I GO!t to SEW!

Here you can see the whole runner has been whip stitched together and you can see the coating of Heat and Bond…not very pretty for sure!  But wait…let me flip it over…

…Ahhhh…the front of the runner is coming along nicely!

Next step… I needed to secure those seams even more and HIDE those little whip stitches!  I used a creamy white wool thread (you can use Perle Cotton, embroidery floss, you can even use crochet cotton if that’s all that you have…).  I used a white wool thread and loved the effect!  I stitched the Fly Stitch and went around each block..DO NOT STITCH THE EDGE OF THE RUNNER.

I then tack stitched each snowflake to the ends of the runner…and turned the white hexies into…..SNOWMEN!  It was easy to do…sew on a triangle of orange wool for his carrot nose and two button eyes…I kept it simple..

For the backing, I laid the whole runner on top of a large piece of white wool and using my scissors cut around the shape of the runner…With this pinned in place, I then blanket stitched the edges of the mat, securing it all together. 

Instead of quilting it, I stitched little snowflakes through the layers.  This holds the whole thing together nicely…

SEW there you have it..my Snow GO! Hexie Runner! 

Done…and in time for the holidays…

So while we lay around catching the Winter Rays down in Palm Springs..I hope you will fire up your GO! and dust off your Hexagon and Snowflake dies…this is truly an easy project!!

..and for the whole Winter Season this little guy will be gracing my 5th wheel …reminding me that it REALLY is WINTER out there…somewhere…

So there you have it…and if you don’t have an AccuQuilt GO! machine all you need to do is cut out a 5” hexagon template (I’m sure if you google 5” hexagon template you will find one) and GO! from there…have fun!!

Have a Sunny Saturday and Happy Quilting!~P