Grandmother's Flower Garden

Ever since I finished hand-piecing my tumbling blocks quilt, I have felt the need for a hand-sewing project. I've managed to keep myself busy on long car trips with some embroidery projects, and other small things, but I needed something else. SisterStitches has done quite a bit of English Paper Piecing, and recommended it to me, so I finally decided to try my hand at it.

First I bought a package of hexagon papers (actually, they're card stock). I chose to use 1 1/4" hexagons. That is the measurement of one of the sides, not the width of the whole piece.

I think it was SisterStitches who suggested that I make a plastic template to cut out my fabric pieces. I started with one that was 1/4" larger than my paper template, to allow for the fabric that gets folded over the edge. Then I decided to give myself a little more fabric, and made a second template that added 3/8". I like that size much better.

Here you can see that I've traced my shapes onto the fabric. (Note: it's best to iron your fabric at some point!) Having that template really made this part easy.

This photo shows seven hexagons which have had the fabric basted to the paper pieces. (Yes, I know I'm switching fabrics on you with these pictures; please excuse me!) They are now ready to be sewn together into a "flower."

The back side of one "flower" all sewn together. . .

. . . and the front side of that same flower.

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And that brings me to show you this beautiful quilt. My GrandmaStitches made this for a wedding present for MisterStitches and myself. That was 35 years ago. Hand pieced and hand quilted, of course. I dug it out of the cedar chest to admire it, and then felt bad for keeping it put away like that.

So now it lives on our sofa, and we use it to cover up with while we're watching a movie in the evening.

A beautiful quilt like this should be kept out and admired, don't you think?

I think I can almost remember some of these fabrics as Grandma's dresses.