Tuesday, July 10, 2012

30 Years - Hundreds of Hexagons

Thirty years ago we moved from a four bedroom house to a one bedroom apartment.
I sorted through my fabric scraps - cutting hexagons to make a
Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt with the English Paper Piecing method.

I ended up with fewer scraps.  And a lot of work.

But this week, I finished sewing all the hexagons together.


The DEFINITION: "Scrap Quilt"
is seen in this quilt. 

I used all kinds of fabrics - because they held so many memories
and, well, that was what was in my scrap bag!


This green flower is The First of the flowers that I sewed. 
You can see the tiny stitches - and double thread on the solid green.
By the time I was stitching the last of the calicos on this flower,
 I realized I did not need to double the thread.
(I was riding in a 70's VW bus with my In-Laws, 
on the way to meet my husband's Grandmother)
(What a great memory!)

I have decided that the most important thing to me about my hobby of quilting is
THE JOURNEY 
THE PROCESS
THE 'DOING'

I even enjoying THINKING about what I might make in the future.  And I like to touch fabric and look at pretty colors.

And that is what I did with this quilt for 30 years.


I left the last row with the paper still basted in.

I had always said that I would never let a machine touch this quilt - after all the handwork I've invested.
But, now that I have finished, I mused out-loud to my daughters about quilting some of this with my machine, and some by hand.

They both immediately protested.  And I agree.  It deserves to be hand quilted.

 

After I had finished all the flowers, I did not like the top and bottom and I did not want to put half-flowers there.  So I created the green 'leaves' to kind of even those edges.  Then I decided a dark green frame would be a sweet accent.  When I went to sew on the last row of light green - the hexagons were missing.  You can read about THAT fiasco here.

But now I am done withe the English Paper Piecing.
I am done with Hexagons. . . at least done with THESE hexagons!
And Now I just have to hand quilt this baby.


My goal: finish hand quilting it by July 4, 2013.  
(This picture is too big for the blog-post, but it just makes me happy!)
CathyH

4 comments:

  1. It's SO PRETTY! Congratulations :)

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  2. What an accomplishment! This quilt is a masterpiece. I agree about the hand quilting, but then, I'm not the one doing the quilting. Keep posting about your progress.

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  3. Oh, My!! That is sooo pretty. That is a lot of work. I totally agree, NO Machine quilting!! Good Luck, can't wait to see it finished!
    ~AmY~

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  4. So beautiful! Such nice colors, and amazing precise work! And treasured memories!

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