Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt
 

After months and months working on my grandmothers flower garden quilt, I am getting close to finishing piecing the top.

Each flower is a different color. My row placement start with 9 flowers top to bottom, the next row is 8 flowers top to bottom, etc. Finished it will be a queen size.

I have noticed that when I place the quilt top on my queen size bed that the top and bottom of the quilt look the same but that the sides that hang off the bed because of the variation of 9 flowers on one row to 8 flowers on the next row give a large gap in hexagons. I am wondering if I should add one one row of solid white between the 9 flowers and 8 flower rows to make it look more uniform.

This has been a major undertaking. My plan is to take my quilt to a fellow quilter with a long arm machine. She is going to machine baste it every 5 inches. My choice for batting is washable wool. I plan on hand quilting the top and hopefully will have it ready to enter in our West Houston quilt show in 2013.

Any other ideas on how to finish the sides of my quilt?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I am making my second GFG. On the first one I put a border and did some applique in it. The one I am working on now will be filled in to make the sides even, then I think I will face it. There was a tutorial on this board showing that.

Not sure if you want to do this or not, but I have seen them use half flowers to fill in the gaps on the sides. I have not done one of these quilts but have helped my mom work with the colors of flowers and I believe she will be "filling" in the gaps with half flowers. Just an idea.

If I am understanding your problem correctly, it sounds like you need to make another row of 9 flowers.
Row 1 9 flowers
Row 2 8 " "
Row 3 9 " " Etc. The last row having 9 flowers.

To finish it off evenly, you would need the last row to correspond with the 1st row. Hope I made myself clear. Or, like I said, maybe I am misunderstanding the question. Good luck with your GFG quilt. I am in the process of quilting my 2nd GFG. I need to get a rush on it because it is a wedding gift for my DGS and his bride. The wedding is the 28th of July. The 1st one I did is for another DGS and his bride.....wedding July 7. That will be 2 down and 5 to go!!

I used the "half flower" solution, making sure that they matched on each side. Then I filled in with white all the way around. Next I am going to do a row of mixed prints (mine was an 'organized' scrappy; and I have alot of hexagons left, so I thought that would make a nice edge, then fill in with white to end it. Ive been working on mine for a year now -- of course there have been others worked in along. I want to hand quilt it, and use the washable wool batting.

I have two GFG in progress. On one I am filling in the gap with 1/2 flowers and a consistent row of hexigons in the background color to end up with a fairly even edge. On the other I did solid rows of 9 flowers each and made a little cluster to fill in the 4 patch gap that created.

On both I filled in the side edges with the background color until I got to an even edging. I plan to cut the extra little 1/2 hexi's off after I quilt it and before I bind both.

I too am working on a grandmothers flower garden quilt, my first. As easy as they look, there's a bit of a learning curve that goes along with making the "flowers". I wonder if all of you wouldn't mind posting pictures so we can see how your progress. Also, where do you find the little triangles that some put in between the garden paths to break up all of the white? I've searched everywhere and can't find a pattern to use with a 1-1/4" hexagon.

I'm only using full Hexagons so I haven't needed the smaller pieces. But you could easily cut a hexi to create the little triangles. Here is the small GFG I am making for my granddaughters crib. Only a few white backgrounds to go.

That is SOOO pretty. What size hex's did you use, and am I right, that you've left your paper pieces in?

These are 1" hex's and yes I have the paper in all of them. I had read once that someone had issues with wonkiness when they pulled out their papers as they went. So I've been leary of removing them until the top is finished. This one is actually the left over scraps from the larger Queen size I am making for myself.