I recently inherited a huge tub of fabric from my Great-Grandmother who passed away last fall and was pleasantly surprised to find a partially-completed quilt among all the fabric scraps! I would love to finish the quilt as an homage to my Grandma, but I don't really know where to start. Its a hexagonal flower quilt with several pieces already sewn together. There are some completed flower pieces as well as a large section of already-sewn-together flowers. There is a hexagonal cardboard template in the tub, but I think there may already be enough pieces to complete the quilt without cutting more, since there are so many pre-sewn flowers. There are also several small individual hexagons in the same color that I'm assuming are meant to go between all the flower pieces. It already looks like such a great quilt and I would really like to complete it since my Grandma meant so much to me.

Now...my issues/quandaries: is this fabric too old to use? It seems to be in okay condition and the colors are still bright, even, but my Great-Grandma was 104 when she passed away last year and her shaky hands and poor eyesight made it impossible for her to sew anything for at least as long as I can remember (I'm 20, now) so I'm sure the fabric is at least 25 years old or older.

Also, if the fabric ISN'T too old, can I use a sewing machine to sew the remaining pieces together? (Not the batting and back parts, just the hexagons-- I'll get to the quilt sandwich part when I get to it.) I've looked up several tutorials online regarding hexagon-y quilts and I think I understand the jist of it, but no one mentions hand-quilting vs machine-quilting for this particular type.

Finally....(if you hadn't guessed by now) this is my first experience with quilting EVER, and I know its kind of an ambitious project so I really appreciate any help or advice at all. My mom was never big on sewing and HER mom was more of the bake-you-a-thousand-cookies type of domestic goddess, so I don't really have anyone to ask about this stuff. I know my way around a sewing machine fairly well and I've sewn a few pieces of clothing before at a friend's house with her mom supervising/guiding us, so I'm not ENTIRELY hopeless!

I would set aside this partially finished project along with the pieces and fabric that coordinates. I would make a few simpler quilts just to practice and have fun before tackling a more difficult pattern. Possibly join a guild and quilting group and find people to help? Take a book out regarding this specific type of pattern to truly understand how to do it.

Okay, thank you so much. I was wondering how difficult of a pattern it is, but I really had no idea. There are some other pieces sewn together in a 9-block pattern in the tub as well; would that be an easier beginning quilt? There isn't as much done of this quilt as the other one (which is why I considered the other one first) but it seems like a less ambitious first quilt.

I'll try looking for a guild around my area, because I would benefit from someone with experience to guide me along on my way to Grandma-Quilt-Restoration. Haha

Thanks Again!

From your description it sounds like Grandmother's Flower Garden. Here is a search on the QB to give you an idea of the pattern. http://www.quiltingboard.com/search.jsp?q=GFG&u= I agree that you need to get a feel for this quilt. I am doing one and it is all hand done. Welcome to the board from Louisiana:)

I would start with the 9 patch and finish at least a lap quilt with that before tackling Grandmother's Flower Garden. It seems to me it has to be hand pieced because of the small pieces and shape of the pieces, but I've never done one before. It's a little too difficult for me. But what a treasure to have and I wish you luck in completing whatever you do.

That's exactly what it is! Thank you for that link! I'm very relieved to have an actual name for the pattern so I can learn more about it. Also pretty happy that it has "Grandmother's" in the title, since that's exactly what it is! :P I kinda had a feeling it should be a hand-sewn quilt, since I don't think my Great-Grandmother even owned a sewing machine. She was REAL old-school...like "I got to turn on the electric lights for the first time on my 16th birthday" old-school, so I wanna get good at quilting so I can do her proud. :D

Hi and congratulations on this exciting project! I have only recently discovered that my GGrandmother was a quilter but none of her work survives- I would be super excited if something like this came my way!!!!

I understand you are keen to get going on this one. I am like that too- I like to jump in. Therefore, I am going to suggest another possible approach for you which would be to cut some of your own hexagons from her templates but some other, less precious, fabric, and practice on those. That way, if you dont like how it turns out, you are not beating yourself up over "ruining" her precious work in progress.

My own first project was a hexagon pillow, when I was a teenager.

I had no template, no clue about fabric, and no one to show me how to do it. I just saw a picture of one, read somewhere that sewing the little pieces onto cardboard hexagons would work to get the corners in place, and got going! I certainly made lots and lots of mistakes and heartache for myself. But I am still proud that I just got on with it! If I had been waiting until I knew how to do it right, it would never have been made at all...... I still have that cushion in my sewing room- here it is.....

Welcome from Michigan! With a little experience under your belt, you'll make gr-grandma so proud!

Maybe I will try the hexagon pillow idea. I would really like to finish this blanket because its SO pretty. I'll spread it out and take a picture of it in a moment, because its hard for me to tell how much is actually done, since I don't know much about it. It seems like it would take less than 10 of the big flower patches to finish the top of it, and there are 4 or 5 of the flowers already sewn (the hexagons are sewn into flowers in these ones, they're just not attached to the rest of the blanket) so it seems like its really close to being finished. However, I know very little of quilting and I don't know how big of a hassle it is to put the components of the actual blanket (not just the patchwork) together, so it might only be 25% done!

I've also found about 20 pre-sewn block-shaped patches composed of little triangles that are sewn together to make basket-looking things. These are pretty big pieces (prob 8x8" to 1'x1', i'm not sure) and they seem like they would be easier to sew together than the hexagons, but I laid them all out on the floor and they're all different sizes! They're all roughly the same size but they don't fit together easily. Its hard to tell if they're just like this because my Grandma was so old and didn't care too much about precision or if they're actually different sizes for a reason. Can I make them all fit together correctly with clever seam work?

I'll take some pictures of these pieces and the original GFG that's partially done.

Here are the pictures of the GFG so far and one of the big awkward basket pieces. The basket piece is next to my size 8 women's moccasin slipper and the GFG is spread out over my (messy) queen-sized bed. It doesn't hang over the edges much at all so it probably needs at least 1 more flower row added to each side and some to the top and bottom, but there's just soooo much done already!

Welcome to the board from Southern California!!!!

Hi and welcome to the board from Victoria,Australia.

I saw the pix. You have a couple of choices. You could keep it as is and make it a lap quilt or make it bigger. It is beautiful. I am not saying you should shy away from it. I just think you should do some practice on other pieces before you tackle the GFG. If you are not to "into" the baskets, you could make that into a pillow. You could also make it a center piece or part of a sampler quilt. I might make it the first block in a sampler quilt.

I love that quilt! I hope someone can advise you on borders etc- I am not too good on that stuff, but it looks close enough to finished to me!

Hi from Ohio! As for the age of the material, If it hasn't been in the sun or been overly cold, it should be ok. I had an old quilt from my grandmothers that I finished and yes I did hand sew the blocks because I think that is what she had done. It was blocks with lots of points and at that time I didn't know a thing about sewing pointy pieces. I did use the sewing machine to putnthem in rows and then quilt it. I am happy to say that my mother got to see it before she died. She was thrilled, so I can only hope that my grandmother would have been.

Welcome from Michigan.:)

welcome!

Hello, and another Michigan welcome!

Hello and Welcome to the board :D:D:D
Many only hand sew the Grandmothers Flower Garden blocks, but our head Mod PatriceJ put together a wonderful class/tutorial on how to machine sew them. This is in the tutorial section of the board.

I might try to make the basket pieces into a small throw quilt for my mom since I'm not wild about the pattern. I know she'd love it (regardless of the pattern) since it was something her Grandma started. One of my friends mentioned that Michael's might have quilting classes, so I think I might take a few of those so I can get the feel of things before I attempt the GFG.

I'm really excited to start on these projects. Rarely does one quilt span the gap of four generations! My Grandpa passed away last January just a few months after my Great Grandma (his mom) so I think I'll get some fabric that reminds me of him and my Great Grandma for some of the pieces. I have a feeling that when I finally DO complete the GFG it will be my favorite blanket of all time. :D

Hello and welcome from Minnesota!
Thanks for sharing your GGMs quilt! You are so fortunate to have such a treasure. Take your time with it and find a mentor to help you. There are many on this board who know this pattern and would be willing to tutor you. As mentioned above, take some classes to get the "feel" of what you need to do and practice on some inexpensive fabric till you get comfortable with making the pieces! You'll be a pro before you know it! Your Mother and Grandmother will praise you for what you do with GGMs quilt! What a precious heirloom!
Please show us whenever you get it finished! Lots of luck to you!

Hello from Western Mountain Maryland !! :-D

Welcome from Minnesota and happy quilting.

That is really beautiful! I saw a tutorial on this board that you might take a look at. I agree that you might want to try some in other fabrics before you tackle gr-grandma's, but I'm sure you'll be able to do it!