Craft: Quilting: Hexagon Quilt. Part 1.

OK, so this one has been on the go for ages. A couple of years at least. It was what got me started with the quilting in the first place. I read about English Paper Piecing and it jogged my memory to when I was a teenager and I had an interest in patchwork.

 

I bought Tacha Bruecher's excellent book Hexa go-go. My first project from it was a pair of placemats; yes, a reasonable way to launch into the world of patchwork. They turned out quite well (I use them so that's a mark of success) so looked for Quilting Project 2. And, of course, chose one of the biggest quilts in the book. As I am insane. A double bed size take on a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. 804 hexagons to hand sew. Then strips and panels and quilting. Oh yes.  

 

 

I started off by cutting out 804 1 1/2 inch hexagons. That in itself was a huge task as I found it tricky to get accurate sized hexagons. I tried printing them out from my computer but that didn't always give me accurate hexagons. I eventually opted for making templates out of a plastic folder and marking round them onto paper then cutting them out. I then cut out the required number of fabric squares and tacked them to the paper templates. All 804 of them.

 

 

The centre of each EPP block is a hexagon flower so I made 12 of those. I tried to vary the fabric so there is a good selection.

Then plain fabric hexagons were sewn to the flower. I have various colours in shades of blue, yellow and green, and also white. (Yes, that's the Bow Baby Blanket there).

Then the remaining patterned hexagons were sewn and a final border of the white hexagons. I have to do 12 of these in total. I have done 10 so far.

 

As I reached the 8th or 9th block I realised I had no idea how I would move onto the next steps once they were all finished. I didn't want to practise on such a large (and expensive when I calculate all the fabric and whatnots I have bought) piece. So this is why I made the Charm Square Quilt and got interested in the Bird Quilt. I do feel ready to tackle this larger hexagon one now and am also considering quilt as you go (Tacha advises this quilt lends itself well to that technique and nothing ventured nothing gained).

The plan is to finish all 12 blocks and finish the Bird Quilt. At that point I should be ok with what I need to do with this one.