I started this English paper pieced hexagon quilt back in April since it seems like everybody and their brother is making one. I don’t want to be left out! I think it’s cool when the new craze is really something old. I thought it would be a great take-along project to use up even the tiniest scraps. This is a variation on the Grandmother’s Flower Garden pattern. Most of those patterns have another layer of colored fabric around the flower but as usual, I dove into this project before really looking at the patterns so this is how mine is going to look. That’s what I love about quilting, there’s really no wrong way to do things.
I found a free hexagon template sheet online and printed it out on card stock on my printer. One sheet had 28 hexagons on it and I think I’ve printed out 3 sheets now. I cut out the templates and they make a nice stiff pattern to sew around but are still flexible enough to pull out. This is sort of an inch-worm project. I cut out some tiny pieces of fabric, sew them into hexagons using the templates/patterns, sew those together, pull out the templates on the inside pieces and start over.
This is a great project for watching TV, long car rides (when you’re not driving of course), watching 3 hours of talent at the Miss Missouri State Fair pageant, etc.. I’ve done a lot of these activities this summer so I’m making pretty good progress. Now that I’ve gotten this far, I started thinking about how to finish this project. I wasn’t sure how to square things up. A quick search online looks like some just go with a jagged edged quilt and some just cut the hexagons to make a straight edged quilt. Obviously I have a long way to go but you get to thinking about these things when you’re piecing little tiny pieces!