Heritage Stories: HEXAGONS

I am sure most of you have seen a Grandmother's Flower Garden full of hexagons from maybe the 1930s or 40s.

I had too in shops and online and they were never my favorite.

Then I was given a bag full (40+ flower heads) from

a new client that her mother had hand pieced while

working in a textile company.

 

This woman had been searching for almost 10 years to find someone to complete her mother's legacy with many twists and turns.  When she met with me (a total stranger), she handed me the bag and was ready to leave them with me.  I asked whether she might want to wait until I wrote up a quote, etc.  She replied no because I was her last hope and if I couldn't do it, they were just going into the trash.  I almost cried and I didn't even know the full story at that time.

We discussed ideas for her abundance of hexagons and she told me that she really wanted to share the wealth with family members.  A table runner and twin quilt for herself and stockings and mini pillows to share with others.

I set out figuring the best way to approach this project.  Many others had turned it down because the edges were too frayed to work in the traditional English Paper Piecing but I am an excellent appliquer (if I do say so myself:) and those edges could be tamed in that technique.
We agreed that hexagons would be appliqued to squares and set with sashing...Easy:)

Hand Quilting Detail

Finished Table Runner

As we go through the post, note all the fun colors of flower heads I was given to work with.

The stockings were a lot of fun to make once I drew out my template and decided how and where to utilize the hexagons for maximum design effect.

That red and black one to the right was hard to part with:)

Mini Pillows

Hand Quilting Details of borders

 Ta-Da!! Last but not least, the Twin Quilt just for her.

 

This story brings tears to my eyes and it is why I Love being a Heritage Architect!  Every stitch I put into this project brought me closer to the quilter and mother that made these

precious pieces and gifted them to her children. 

Now her children and grandchildren can enjoy these heirlooms for generations because they are being taught the importance of appreciating what has been made by hand.

Keep Quilting!

Everything old is new again...

I came across these 2 little magazines at a thrift shop and they happen to be from exactly 25 years ago.

What was happening 25 years ago in quilting, you ask?

Do those colors remind you of the Pantone colors of the year?? Well they are and now I need to go see if they are just mining past years in a particular order...

The blue/pink combo continued on into the March/April
edition but not quite as pastel thankfully.

Solids were quite popular and have made a comeback
in the last couple of years too.

Did plaids ever go out of style??

I have always liked them and have a collection just waiting for the right project... Which could be one of the following quilts:

Plaids on Hand by Roberta Horton

OR

Plaid Pineapples by Teresa Reilly

Our love of classic historical quilts has not died either. The Star of Bethlehem and the Hexagon quilts are just as timely as ever especially with the revival of English Paper Piecing.

I hope you have enjoyed this walk down memory lane
and found some inspiration!

Until next time:)

I LOVE October!

Hexie Pumpkins

Not just because it is my birth month, but we have somewhat cooler temps in FL (80s instead of 90s) and pumpkin 'everything' comes out of everywhere:) and my FB feed gets bombarded with beautiful Autumn pictures that I am so envious of!  My energy levels jump off the charts (usually) when surrounded by all that color and crispness.  Here in FL not as much but I can feel a difference than before all the aforementioned.  I just want to design design design!

 

This year I haven't had as much time to do so since I was still playing a bit of catch up over my crazy summer and preparing for my trip to Virginia to teach workshops at the Fairfax Quilters Unlimited guild.  If you are in the area, contact them and come play!

Beaded Holly class



Seahorse Workshop

Make sure you tune in for the November, Quiltmaker 100 Quilt Blocks Blog Hop of which I will be participating in for the release of Volume 12.  I have a fun new block in there.
In other good news, I have 2 quilts to finish when I get home for upcoming magazines so stay tuned for that as well. 
If you read this particular post because of the pumpkins, maybe you don't know about my shoe BOM.  Scroll through a few other posts and if you are intrigued, you will want to watch for the fun October boot next week:))

In the meantime, keep quilting!

Purely by accident....

I came across a WIP (works in progress) blog hop this morning starting here at Freshly Pieced. How fun it was to see so many others enjoying the art of quilting.  The projects are varied as are the stories that go with them.  It is easy to miss out when there is such an abundance of blogs to choose from but fun to take a few minutes (hours) every so often and see what trends are happening.  The timing was great too since I have a couple myself.  OK, not just a couple but only a couple got photographed for today.  I actually did start a list yesterday of WIPs and it is getting long:)

 

For today though I will start with one that has been hanging around for a while now and getting closer to finished.  I wrote about it here.  One day this little Drunkard's Path will be finished.

 

Drunkard's Path by hand

Drunkard's Path by machine

So even though they are finished at this moment, they weren't until just last night.  These are fun, quick little mug rugs for charity baskets I am assembling.  I guess the WIP part is that the baskets aren't done:)  I found some cute baskets at the local thrift shop along with some fun mugs and then created the quiltlets to match so I can have themes.

Fusible Applique Flower

Woven Heart

Small Scrap Art

This scrappy piece is going to have a sea scene quilted onto it.  It was made using the scraps from a paper piece design.  (Sorry can't show the design yet since I am waiting to hear back from a magazine.) Always said I wouldn't be one of those quilters that saved every scrap but I have a hard time throwing away the triangle bits when paper piecing.  When you stitch them together, a bit freestyle, they can make some interesting designs.  This piece only measures about 10" square but with some creative free motion quilting it will be frameable.

Lastly, Hexagons!  This is the trend I noticed as I went through the blog hop and seeing others' blogs as well.  I made some once before and they were adorable at 3/4" finished but these are so much more fun when made big!  These particular ones are 4-1/2" made using Moda charm square packs.  I took out the solid squares and designed redwork to go on those since I do love handwork.  The big question was to randomly assemble or put into flower shapes and applique onto squares for a wall hang???  I am leaning toward flowers, I think:)

I linked up at Freshly Pieced...come enjoy the Show and Tell.