I've been working on a hand pieced hexagon quilt for the last 17 years.
It's made with vintage fabric in the rosettes, and a blue I dyed. Heaven knows what the white fabric is, and that's sad because I need more of it to finish this top. I think that's the main drawback of ancient projects: there are rarely replacement fabrics on hand, when the original runs out or is lost.
I've been stuck on this for more than 15 years because I can't decide what to do at the sides. I don't like the look of those half hexagons, but I can't come up with any other arrangement that I like. That chain of blue diamonds is really cute, but it makes designing an edge and border really difficult.
After I finished the little wall hanging of ancient embroidered blocks I was inspired to tackle this again. And I'm determined not to set it aside again, just because I can't decide what to do.
I've made a heap of half rosettes to place along the sides, and I think I've come to terms with how it's going to look. Now I just have to add the white hexagons to each one, ready to sew to the blue diamonds around the edge. It's not coming off my design wall until I have the all the pieces kitted up ready to sew.
I know that I've cut out nearly all the blue pieces I need. There are a lot of white hexagons that will fill in around the edge, and I have to comb through my stash to find a suitable replacement white fabric. That's a job for the daylight hours, so for tonight I'm going to go on making decisions, until I know exactly where this project is going.
At this stage, I don't even like it anymore; I hope it appeals to me again after I've done all the hard work of finishing it. And I think it will have to be handquilted, so it won't be on a bed anytime soon. Some quilts are a really, really long term commitment.
4 comments:
Older UFO’s can be so challenging but also so satisfying when you finally get it done! I often find that through the hand quilting I fall in love with the quilt all over again. I hope you do too!
I had one almost the same length and width of yours...my solution? I gave it away to a EPP lover! She loved it, and I am on to things I like better now!!
Your quilt is beautiful! I made a similar quilt years ago and I also ran out of the white fabric. Mine wasn't as large as I wanted. I filled in those side edges with partial flowers then added the diamonds on the outside. Then I appliqued it to the borders and hand quilted. I am the most proud of my flower garden quilt over all the other quilts I've made over the years. It took me 8 years from starting the EPP to finishing the hand quilting. Grandmother's flower garden quilts are definitely not a fast project. Happy Stitching!
A friend of mine finished an older quilt of this design by facing the diamond edge after the quilting was finished. I thought that was genius of her.
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