Jack O'Hexie Wall Hanging: A Tutorial by Allegory

Hello poppets! (I totally stayed up late watching BBCAmerica while I was binding, can you tell?)

Allegory the Halloween Crafting Cohort here. Or..yanno...just Allegory. I really like that full title tho'. Do you think it's too much? 

I blog over at {sew} Allegorical and I'm just the slight bit obsessed with Halloween fabric. 

No..really. 

When my collection from college was shipped to me it ended up coming in a twelve pound box. I'm using all that fabric to make the Farmer's Wife quilt. Because I want to sew Halloween things all year long. 

I was absolutely thrilled when Bree asked me to do a guest post. I immediately went into my container of Halloween WiPs to find a project. Why yes...there is a whole container. Halloween projects are love. 

Years ago before I "abandoned quilting for good" (which really just turned into a six year break that spawned the current chaos) I had been working on hexagon I Spy baby quilts. I was crazy to try hexagons as my first quilting experience. It's the reason I "gave it up." 

Those I Spy Quilts had led me to sketch out a Halloween Wallhanging tho'. A sketch that I kept all these years and now...

I made it.

Wanna make one with me?

Jack O'Hexie Wallhanging Tutorial

Materials Needed:

1/2 yd Solid Orange

Orange thread to match

1 yd Black (I had a ton left over from a yard but the extra gives you room to play with the face design)

Black thread

Heat'n Bond (cause I'm a cheater)

Scrap piece of green fabric or green ribbon

Steps: 

*I used my Accuquilt GO!Baby to make my hexagons (did I mention that I'm a big cheaterhead, sometimes?). You can certainly make your hexies by hand. I had started the project this way and then I won a GO!Baby....and I really wanted to play with it. 

Lynne at Lily's Quilts hosted a Hexalong this summer that has some absolutely fabulous resources on hexies by hand. 

 1) Whether by hand or GO!Baby, get yourself a nice pile of Hexagons. 

2) Using a nice flat surface, start to layout your hexies to decide how big you'd like your hexa-pumpkin to be. 

2.5) Realize in all of your pictures that your cat has been "helpful" again and  dragged random supplies into the workspace. Promise yourself, yet again, to get some photography skills. 

Important note: I'm using 30 hexagons to make my main pumpkin body. 

Unless you are far braver than I, you're going to want to add hexies along all of your edges to be cut down into a smooth edge for binding. 

I was probably chasing the cat (who kept stealing things) which is why I didn't take a picture of the addition. 

I added two hexies to each straight end. Then three on each diagonal. 

You can certainly fit triangles into all these spaces to make your edges as well. Triangles and I just aren't friends. 

3) Start chaining together hexies to make your rows. If you want to make yours completely by hand, whipstitch hexagon to make vertical rows. 

I was using white thread so my stitches would show up. You'll want orange thread. 

Hey, that's kinda cute bunting. Oh, wait..Don't get distracted in the middle of a project!

4) Keep joining hexies vertically until you have all your rows made. Then join your rows. 

5) Cut 3" strip off of your black fabric. Then cut HST and strips out of that 3" piece. Start playing Pumpkin Potato Head! (Ignoring the fact that I played Pumpkin Potato Head before I had put my hexies together... I got excited..) 

Traditional Triangle Face

I think this Pumpkin ate too much candy....

6) Once you've decided on a face, iron Heat'n Bond onto your face parts. Then iron your face parts onto your pumpkin body. You can totally stitch your pieces down. You don't have to be a cheater cheater pumpkin eater like me. 

 Pirate Pumpkin won the Pumpkin Potato Head game for me. 

7) Now it's time to trim down those edges. Because the idea of all those mitered corners makes me feel like *I* ate too much candy..

See how you're just going to end up with little triangles along the edges? Those are the triangles I was saying you could just sew in. I'm not that brave, yet. 

8) Place your now nicely trimmed pumpkin on top of your black backing fabric. You're going to want to cut it at least 1 1/2" larger than your top on each edge.  (I worry sometimes about not having enough fabric so I cut mine 2 1/2". I ended up doing a lot of trimming as I was binding. )

9) Make yourself a lil' quilt sandwich. Backing fabric right side down + Batting + Pumpkin face right side up. 

10) I used this QAYG tutorial from Sarah at Pings and Needles as the basis for binding my wall hanging. Basically, fold your extra edge of fabric down to meet the pumpkin edge. Then fold again and stitch. I used some chunky monkey stitches because I like that Frankenstein look on the edge of this piece. You can stitch yours as neat or messy as you like. 

11) Attach your green fabric/ribbon in a loop to the top. 

12) Hang on the front door to confuse your new neighbors. 

Feel free to skip step 12. 

Now you have your very own Jack O'Hexie! 

I hope you like it.

I sure do. I'm already planning to make a Frankenstein face out of some green fabric. If you don't want to hang them up on your walls, I bet it would look super cute on a table as well. 

Don't forget to link up at  Fabric Donkey with any of these awesome Halloween projects you make this month. I'd love to see what sort of face you give your pumpkin.

You can always find me over at {sew} Allegorical. (There just might be a Halloween fabric giveaway the first week of October...you heard it here first.)

Thank you Bree for letting me bring my craziness  project over to your blog!

I'm off to make some of that awesome Candy Corn Bunting now. I've got a whole house with bare walls. Clearly they need to be filled with candy corns.