Hexie quilts are so pretty and simple, they’ve inspired many a quilter to take up paper-piecing. Quilters get into the slow process of hand-sewing the hexies together, and one day, they have sewn together enough motifs for a quilt top!
I’m all about flowers, so I studied the “Grandmother’s Flower Garden” version of a hexie quilt, where you make lots of motifs with a yellow hexie in the middle, and surround them with rounds of flowery colors. My thoughts went something like this: “Hm. I could crochet that, but crocheting a bunch of hexagons and sewing them together does not appeal.” That was the end of that.
It was the end of that, until the summer of 2021, when my husband Charles invited me to come to Kerrville on one of his work trips. The idea was that I would enjoy a break from routine, visit a few bookstores, yarn shops, coffee shops, and so on, while he worked at an archeological field school.
We shared a nice town home with Charles’ colleague Gus and his wife Mel. The wonder of it all, was that Mel is a spinner and knitter! A yarn crawl partner! A coffee shop pal! A fellow bookstore afficionado! We visited The Tinsmith’s Wife, a large yarn, cross stitch, and needlepoint shop in Comfort, Texas. We stopped by The Sheepwalk Ranch and Fiber Arts Studio, a yarn shop, workshop venue, and sheep farm in Bandera County, promising “A Farm to Fiber Arts Experience.”
One evening, the four of us went to a pleasant party to socialize with archeologists, at an Airbnb house in town. The bathroom floor design at the house was a lot like a Grandmother’s Flower Garden hexie quilt pattern. The difference was, each hexagonal tile was surrounded by grout.
Grout. Really?
Yes! The grout gave me a whole new perspective on designing with hexies. Suddenly I could visualize how to crochet the outline of a hexagonal space. The space could be open, or I could fill it with more stitching. It was a big mind-shift.
I printed several copies of my photo of the hexie floor, sketched various ways to crochet the design, and wrote notes on the copies.
In the end, the best way to figure out a crochet pattern is to crochet. Late in July, Charles and I boarded a plane to visit our daughters in Boston. With no dogs needing to go in and out, no phone calls, no snacks calling my name, I had three uninterrupted hours to figure out how to crochet the hexie pattern.
The first draft was way too complicated. I had to rethink. I kept trying, until the method of crocheting the design became clear to me. It finally did. Yay! Here’s a photo of my moment of triumph, with the photocopy of the bathroom floor at the lower edge.
Today the Kerrville Honeycomb Doily pattern is for sale on Ravelry. Instructions include how to make the doily in larger sizes, and how to starch the doily. When you buy the doily pattern before March 31, 2022, you can download a Honeycomb Snowflake pattern free. No coupon code needed.
