oh munner

I'm thinking about making a grandmother's flower quilt for our king size bed, but I have a couple of concerns I need to address first and was hoping you'd be able to help me. First of all, as a trial run, I've made a whole flower, three rows of 1-1/4" hexies. My problem was, that no matter how accurate I was in my cutting and basting, even with heavy starching, not all of my sides measured up. Some were smaller, or larger, depending on how you looked at it, than others. Am I doing something wrong, or is this just the nature of the beast since there are so many bias sides? Second, my hands are very arthritic so after awhile, basting those tiny pieces became rather painful. Is there another way of preparing the hexagons besides having to baste all of them before sewing? And last of all, since this is for a king size bed, any suggestions on the size hexagon I should use?
Thanks to all of you for your help.
Mun

burchquilts

A week or so ago I saw a neat method on "Sewing With Nancy". It was faux hexagons & I think would be really neat as a large quilt (like one for your kind-sized bed), Just a thought...

ckcowl

what are you using for templates? the paper pieces made from card stock generally work fairly well to get consistant size- i use the ones from Brandy's--Brandy's patties- they are mylar and very rigid- work great- but are on the expensive side---good thing though (and to me worth the price) they dont wear out like the paper ones.
i've made flowers in every size from 1/4" up to 3"... i would think a good size for a king sized quilt would be the 2"...the 3" are a bit large for that- i used my 3" ones for a border (in rows-not flowers) around a large quilt-
but 2" are nice for flowers. brandysquiltpatterns.com

NDQuilts

Checkout Inklingo. http://lindafranz.com/productGroup.php?groupId=5. This allows for handpiecing without all the basting. Or use it hybrid as demonstrated here to cut down on hand strain. http://tildesquilts.blogspot.com/201...-hexagons.html

As for size, I like the 1" hexagons, but it is available in sizes up to 3".

GemState

I cut my templates from freezer paper......then lay the non-shiny side of the freezer paper on the WRONG SIDE of the fabric hexagon (which has 1/4" seam allowances all around). Fold the seam allowance over the edge of the shiny side of freezer paper and press down on all six sides with a hot iron. This works like a charm, the paper comes out easily when you are ready to take it out......and you can use the same FP template several times.

oh munner

Great ideas ladies.... thanks a lot for all of your suggestions. I may just try them all before I begin my new project.

gramarraine

I have been working a GFG for about 5 years now. Hope to get it to the quilting stage this year. It is 8 rows by 8 rows and I am hoping it will fit my king size bed. One of my DGD has expressed her desire to have this quilt when I am done. She is 15 now so if I get it done by the time she gets married it might be her wedding quilt.

oh munner

What size hexagons are you using? I'm still trying to figure that one out.

gailinva

This is the method I used for a queen size.