Flower Garden Hexagons

Day 310: "What's next?" That question is often posed by my loyal readers, but not nearly as often as it is heard inside my head. In this case, the decision was made for me when I discovered a pile of cut-out hexagons while looking for fabrics for a different quilt. They'd been hidden so long I'd forgotten all about them, or indeed what my original intent had been with respect to a pattern. I decided to assemble them as a traditional Flower Garden, keeping each grouping more or less to a particular colour scheme rather than making them entirely random. Two "flowers" were already sewn together, so I laid out the rest of the prints to see how many more I could make. In the end, I wound up cutting new fabric for four "flowers," which I then assembled for a total of 39 blocks.

Although the prints had been ready to sew, the white background hexagons still needed to be marked and cut. While precision cutting is not a requirement for this pattern, precision marking is mandatory. If the edges of the hexagons are marked precisely, sewing them together is almost trouble-free. However, each side has to be sewn as a short seam backstitched at both ends, and at the end of each seam, the thread is cut. The sewing wastes a lot of thread, but it's worth it in the final accounting to be able to turn tidy corners. In fact, assembly goes rather quickly if accuracy is maintained. That said, it takes a bit of concentration to place the blocks in the right order. The finished design is laid out for you to see in the inset. The edges of the outer hexagons will be appliqued to a white border, and then the whole project will be hand-quilted.

Hexed

Day 301: Remember those hexagons I mentioned finding in a box not long ago? The ones I said I "might pick away at?" In my copious spare time between other projects, I've managed to piece 18 of them into the "flowers" which will eventually become a Flower Garden quilt. The flowers can be made as large or as small as you desire. I've chosen to limit them to 6-hex print blocks with a solid at the center. They will be joined with white as shown in this demonstration piece laid out on fleece. This will also be a puzzle quilt. During the days of my distant youth, I enjoyed bedding down under a Double Wedding Ring quilt which my great-grandmother had made (I still have it). I would amuse myself by trying to count the number of times a print appeared, taking special delight in those which had no counterpart. My Flower Garden blooms sometimes have a maximum of three hexagons of one print, others have two. Are there any blocks in which all of the prints are different? Are there any which are made using only two prints? You'll have to wait until it's finished to find out! In fact, I'm not even sure myself.