My Accidental Summer Project

Grab yourself a cuppa  ... I'm making up for being a little quiet lately.

Last week I invited you to tell me about your summer sewing project as the "entry fee" for a giveaway I'm hosting.  (Update:  Entries closed.)

While I was reading about all your wonderful projects (holy cow are you guys ever busy!) it occurred to me that maybe you'd like to see what I'm working on.

Remember my oops last month? 

Well, they've multiplied into 17 little diamond hexagon blocks.

I have to laugh at myself, though.  A few months ago I had absolutely no desire/thought/intention of starting a quilt with 1/2" hexagons.  I thought my craving to do a little English Paper Piecing was satisfied when I made my wallet ... and then subsequent EPP tutorial ... and then subsequent pincushion.

But I still had a few partly started flowers and didn't want them to go to "waste". 

So I turned them into diamonds.  Why diamonds?  The first quilt book I ever bought was Quilts, Quilts, Quilts by Diana McClum and Laura Nownes.

I've used it so much over the years some of the pages are falling out.

The first time I flipped through this book I saw the most wonderfully captivating antique quilt made entirely of hexagons. 

It is by far my favourite quilt in the book ... and for sure in my top 10 of all-time favourite quilts.  I love the hexagons, the diamonds, the rainbow colours, the white background, the angled edges ... I love everything about it.

Since then I've wanted to make a diamond hexagon quilt for myself, but always ended up with flowers instead.  I don't know why.  So when I looked at my little handful of partial flowers from my hexagon tutorial, I recalled this beauty and decided that now was as good a time as any to fulfill my nearly 30 year old dream.

Because I'm using really small templates, I've chosen the tiniest floral prints I can find. 

I'm thinking about adding some checks too.

And maybe even a few really tiny stripes if I can find some. 

My background fabric is Kona White.  Why? 

For no other reason than because I've had a few jelly rolls and charm packs of it in my stash for a while now (impulse buy at Quilt Market).  Normally I'm not a huge fan of precuts.  The pinked edges stress me out ... I'm never sure where my 1/4" seam should be.  So I figured I'd use up a bit ... like maybe a charm pack's worth ... on a few hexie diamonds.

Shoulda known better.

I needed to start a hexagon project like ... like I needed more fabric in my stash.  (Ok, maybe that's not quite the right analogy, but you get my point.)  See, I already have a hexie WIP that I started about ... mmm ... maybe 8 years ago?

I have 40 of these smokey blue/gray flowers, (you'll find one in my blog header)

which I was planning to make into a tablecloth, inspired by this picture in one of my Japanese quilt books. 

I just lost interest. 

Speaking of motivation as it pertains to English Paper Piecing and hexagons ... based on both personal experience and my frequent hours spent enjoying quilt blogs and Pinterest, there are waaaaaay more hexagon quilts started than there are finished.  And I'm pretty sure I know why. 

The look of a hexagon quilt is hard to resist.  It is such a classic, traditional and timeless design.  EPP could not be simpler.  Only the most basic tools are required.  And you can work on it almost anywhere ... you're not chained to a sewing machine.

The first several flowers go together fairly quickly.  It's a lot of fun to see such rapid progress - even making a stack of your basted templates is rewarding. 

But it's so easy to get led down the Flower Garden path (pun intended) when you start a hexie quilt.  Quilters who are bitten by the overwhelming desire to make one for themselves soon realize that the amount of time needed to finish a quilt is far more than they ever imagined. 

Eventually you begin to understand that sewing your nice stack of flowers together is going to take a loooong time.  And then you run out of steam, get tired of the project, lose motivation, shove your work into a box or a bag and stuff yet another WIP into the closet or cupboard to join the others. 

It's very easy to get bored with the tedious repetition of cutting out hexagons, basting and whipstitching a seemingly endless number of seams together.

I know what I'm talking about because the first 5 quilts I made were EPP hexagons.  And they were all twin size or larger.

That said, having a hand project on the go is very convenient.  I love having something to work on for when I find myself sitting &/or waiting ... at the doctor's office, at my daughters' extra curricular activities, in the evening when I keep my husband company on the sofa watching tv, during the occasional marathon phone call with far-away family & friends (... not mentioning any names, Allison! ;).  Or especially for my monthly get-together with my sewing group.  We only do hand work.  And for the past few months I've been working on these diamonds.  I can get a LOT done in 4 hours!

Oh dear, now I think I'm rambling.  Let me get back to my point.  I'm sure I started out with one in mind.

Right.  The "finishability" of an EPP quilt.

A few weeks ago as my collection of diamonds was growing and the cold hard reality of just how much work was ahead started to sink in (and I still have no idea how big it will be when it's done ... I'm just goin' with the flow here!), I started thinking of ways to simplify this now incredibly ambitious 1/2" hexagon quilt. 

For a short time I contemplated appliqueing each diamond onto a rectangle of matching fabric and then sewing all the rectangle blocks together. 

But then I joined a few diamonds together.

Game over.  I knew I wouldn't be happy with anything other than a pure hexagon quilt.

Sigh.

So here I am. 

With an accidental summer project.

Which could very well turn into a Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, (repeat as necessary) project.

I'll keep you posted on my progress ... I might need some moral support every once in a while. 

PS:  I just read what I wrote and I hope I didn't scare anyone away from trying EPP!  At the end of the day, EPP really is fun.  And I do find it quite relaxing & therapeutic.  Besides, there is just nothing like a hexagon quilt.  If you've never made one, I do hope you put it on your bucket list!

Comments

[Annette]

I have just happened on your site and I notice you were making a grandmothers garden wit hexies. I have made one too and separated each diamond with a pale green diamond in between the white hexies. Looking really good and almost on the home stretch putting everything together. I imagine you have completed yours by now and am wondering how you decided to do the handquilting on to the top....had thought to do FMQ BUT since I took the time to do it all by hand it would be nice to finish as I started....by hand...Am just having a hard time trying to decide the final stage...hopefully you may have a suggestion?
Thanks
Annette

[CarolK]

I'm going to start my first Hexigon quilt and currently cutting the pieces right now with Marti Michell's template which I have had for a few years. My plan is to sew them by hand in the car without paper as I've put dots on them per Marti's template. Are there any other tools I'll need besides thread, scissors and my marked hexigons? I've only been quilting for 3 years but addicted.

[Laura Hines]

I found your post on Pinterest. I was just gifted a quilt just like this that my great great grandmother made. The quilt is not finished, so I will have to finish it. It looks just like the one in the book. It’s an amazing beautiful quilt. I need insite on how to finish this quilt as is. I’ve never done a hexagon quilt before.