Today I go on the record with my plan to make a traditional Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I've loved them from afar. I've taken pictures of them at quilt shows. I've saved images of them on all the platforms. It's time to bite the bullet and make one.
A lot of the work has already been done. The flowers for the garden are finished. Over the last few years, I've made all these, mostly just for play. I didn't have a plan; I just enjoyed making them. I sorta' thought I would end up appliqueing them to neutral background squares and then sewing the squares together.
But every time I saw pictures of traditionally done GFGs, with their paths around the flowers, I considered going in this direction. The very idea of making all those plain hexies absolutely seemed overwhelming.
I enjoy making the hexies when they are colorful, but endless plain ones? Surely I would grow bored. Wouldn't I?
The most recent flower I made was back in November when I stitched this one from my aunt's fabrics. It was during this time that I began looking seriously into making the traditional GFG. I found a big collection of neutral 2.5-inch strips in my stash while doing that massive cleaning and purging. I realized that the paths need not be a solid fabric; they could be made with these low-volume prints.
The entire project is largely a long series of unknowns. I have absolutely no idea how many of these low-volume hexies I have prepped, nor do I know how many of them I will need to complete my quilt. Moreover, I do not know if I even have enough flowers to complete a quilt, and I don't know how I will proceed with finishing the quilt, once the top is all sewn together.
I'm walking headlong into a mystery, I suppose! What an adventure!
For awhile, I was entirely out of hexi papers, and I asked my friends in the Frankfort group if they had any I could acquire. By the time of our next get-together, sweet Becky gave me a baggie full of hexies that she'd punched out of card stock. I was so touched! I must say, Becky is quite a skilled hand stitcher. Few compare to her when it comes to a needle and thread. She told me she was so happy that I'd decided to make my paths and do the traditional quilt, that she made the hexies for me as her way of encouraging me forward. Bless her.
Just because I'm curious and need to see a visual, I laid out some paths around a few flowers. Sometimes, ya' just gotta' see how it's gonna to look.
And I think it's gonna look mighty fine. *smiles*
Happy Quilting, Friends!
Jayne
Your scrappy paths are perfect!!! You may have just inspired me to start one. What size hexies are you using? I still have Christmas cards here that I can use. Just need to know what size punch to purchase.
ReplyDeleteGFG are so nice with the hexi paths between. I used just beige plain around mine simply because that's all I had. When it came to the edges, I had the paths around but the thought of binding all those in and out edges gave me nightmares, so I squared them off and just had half hexes which was sooo much easier to bind. Just a thot but got me out of the "how do I finish this now?" question and to a finished quilt. 😉
ReplyDeletePreciosos hexágonos. BESICOS.
ReplyDeleteI could copy this post, change the GFG for just hexies, and post it on my blog as it is exactly what I did too. I would sew the hexies in a diamond shape during lunch break at work until I thought I had enough. I had no one to teach me the next step or guide me so I saved all the pictures and how-to I found on the net. My quilt is done and waiting patiently to be quilted. It takes a long time but it is worth it. Go for the path, otherwise you will end up hating it. Enjoy the process. ;^)
ReplyDelete