Aack..me and my half baked ideas, your thoughts?
 

So I've fallen in love with bright solids and I love to make hexegon paper pieced flowers, but I hate to attach the flowers to each other because it gets too unwieldly. I came up with the idea to make a whole bunch of bright solid flowers and applique them on a solid piece of soft gray. Modern, quirky, bright. My niece has layed dibs to this one. I have a few options on how to do the final assembly and one consideration is it needs to be portable and granddaughter mess aroundable with. I also made different sized flowers using different sized hexegons.

Option 1: My original plan was to piece 44" wide fabric into a whole cloth and then applique the flowers all over.
Option 2: Just thought of this one, maybe cut huge squares like 30x30 and then have my niece arrange the flowers on each square to please her? This keeps the project portable longer, but does result in more seams.
Option 3: 12" blocks with one flower on each and then sash between? More time at the machine and more pieces, but still more portable than option 1.

I need to balance the portable piece with I want something that looks awesome when done. What are your thoughts?

Option 1 sounds like a lot of work, Option 2 sounds like a good time with your niece to be had between the two of you. Option 3 sounds like it would be between Ops 2+3.

I like option 2.... it gets the niece connected to the project.

Having taught sewing for many years, I always found that when the student picked the project, the outcome was always better. They wanted to do the project and were happy when it was done and they could use it.

Getting kids hooked into sewing is a good thing..... way better than some of the things kids get hooked into these days. We old home-ec teachers must have done a pretty good job cause look at all the sewers today....... increasing numbers..... yeah!!

If you applique the flowers onto a background make sure it has a firm foundation.other wise the shapes look puckered and it doesn't work. I found starch a good idea .
I would do single blocks and no sashing . You can then put smaller hexagon flowers on the intersections.if you leave room. This will. Look as if you have just worked as a whole.
I have just had an idea for option 4. Make a bargello background of green and blues for grass and sky. Then put lowers on and you could o stems?....

Great idea to let your niece help with the layout and design. All dependent on her age, perhaps she could get involved in the applique?

A thought re the square sizes ... consider what size you want your finished quilt to be, so it will work out when it comes to assembly, and borders. Also, how it would lay on the bed. A 30" block, would likely mean you would have the joining seam down the centre of the bed. Optically, it would likely be less noticeable, if the seam were not centred on the bed. 30" would leave a lot of leftover material, from the standard WOF, unless you could get a wideback in your colour choice. 1/2 WOF while smaller, would still give you a large space to work with, yet maximize the fabric usage of standard WOF. And in the end three squares would give you about the same width as two of the 30". Please don't see this as me telling you how to do or not do it ... just some food for thought to help you think thru before you get too far into the project. (and yes, I might even end up at the 30" if it were myself though would have wanted to have considered all the possible pros/cons before cutting and sewing)

Good Luck ... will be fun to see this one evolve.

Option 4: use a quilt backing fabric from your LQS and no seams. Your could still place the flowers as she likes and it give you more room for decorative complimentary quilting.

QuiltE - great feedback. I hadn't considered how a center seam might look on the bed. This will be a queen size so doing a WOF in the middle and 1/2 on each side might work. How the seams look is one of my concerns. I like it to look purposeful, not oops.

Your feedback is one of the reasons I came to this group. We all have different views and perspectives and often others think of things I didn't.

I agree with QuiltE about the seam lines, and think that Option 2 is probably the easiest way to go, just resize the blocks. I just did a QAYG and my biggest mistake was making the blocks 9 x 9...WAY too many seams to sew!

Thanks! I was hesitant to give my thoughts, though I figured you could just do the big ignore, if it didn't fit!!!!;):D:) ....... Will you be handquilting? or machine quilting after? I find that with good pressing, seams seams can almost disappear with machine quilting, particularly if a stipple ... it could be a lot of work, yet a great way to help the hexies strut their stuff.

OK... so another thought ... you mentioned all solids. What about some hexies in Kaffe Fassett fabrics that coordinate? The large prints would not be so noticeable as prints, but give a little motion and depth contrast to the solids. Again just some more Food for Thought .... and IGNORE if you wish! :D

I'm leaning towards machine quilting the background and then hand quilting inside the Hexi's. I like the idea of Quilt as you Go. Might work for this one. It sure would make the machine quilting easier and if I do the 30x30 which will be 3 blocks by 3 blocks with a top and bottom border, the size would be nice for the quilting part and there wouldn't be a lot of joining.

A queen mattress is 60x80, so it would be 30" each side from the middle to the edge, if you have any concerns re where the seams are on the sides. Did you get through the storm OK? Got lots of info from friends on the western side if the Cities that had tree damage or in Mpls that had no powe for days.

I was thinking more about this, this aftn, and yes, 3 across, would give you 90 and then a reasonable border. Check out "Muv" and take a look at her Diamond Jubilee quilt .... totally her design, all machine quilted, QAYG ..... and totally done on a treadle. An amazing piece of work!!! It might give you some ideas for the assembly.

One of my first few quilts was a 12-inch square, with the hexies in the shape of a flower (with 3 rounds), then appliqued onto the square, and separated by 3-inch sashing. Back then it was because I didn't know any better, and it was more to get the right size than anything else, but it turned out nicely, and I still have it. Did the same thing with a Dresden plate pattern, and still have it, too. :)

We made it through the storm without too much damage, mostly because we have recently had to take down several of our large trees. Our power was out for 5 days though, never so happy as when that came back on. Lucky for us the other side of the street had power so we ran a power cord across the street to keep our sump pump and deep freeze going.

I was thinking if I do 3 30" squares across that will allow for across the top of the bed and drape so no center seam.

I say use Marci Baker's strip method for her Not Your Grandma's Flower Garden. Looks like hexagons and pretty fabulous. She has a site called aliciasattic.com where you can buy the book.

Just a thought on helping you handle the unwieldy hexies when trying to put together....use a small paper clip, the kind that are spring loaded clippy type....to hold the opposite sides together evenly while you whip stitch its other end.

I am confused. Do you want flowers scattered over the quilt or a "bunch of flowers" on the quilt. either way you could applique each flower ( or more ) in blocks and then add connecting stems/leaves after blocks are assembled. and maybe flowers over the seams lines to fill in any holes. having you neice help lay out the flowers in the blocks and then sewing would make project portible. You could make 10" blocks making 6x10" x 8 x10" plus borders. making top of quilt 60x80. Of course show us the finished picture!

I would probably do a whole cloth and I would probably opt for bright colored balloons with strings floating in the breeze using the larger 2" size for closeup balloons ranging backward to smaller and smaller balloons indicating they were at a distance. You could then quilt it with any design that gave the balloons movement.

I've learned so much reading these ideas and recommendations. I REALLY want you too do a picture of this quilt when ou are finished. I am having a hard time visualizing but it sounds interesting and stunning. Can't wait.

Option 2 seems the best for me.

Update - thanks for all your input. I sat down with my niece (she graduated from highschool in June) and we came up with a plan. The large flowers are appliqued onto 15" squares, the medium flowers are applicqued onto 10" squares to which I will add wonky borders until they are 15". I'll alternate the large and medium flower 15" blocks to make the quilt. Should be pretty funky looking. The left over flowers will be appliqued in a couple of rows onto a solid piece of gray to make a twin size quilt for her college dorm. So she'll have a queen size forever quilt and a twin size to use at college.