GFG-Would you ever quilt one by machine? How would you do it?
 

Long time, no post!

I have a GFG hanging around that I still haven't quilted yet.

I have backing picked out and also binding strips are made.

I bought a hoop frame but just can't face that much hand quilting on such a large project.

Thank you in advance.

I did with a design based upon Geta Grama's tutorial - How to quilt feather on hexagons. If you go through towards the bottom you will see the hexagons drawn out on paper.

https://www.getasquiltingstudio.com/...-hexagons.html

Hope this helps.

I have machine quilted a number of grandmother flower garden quilts. They’re turned out fine. One I quilted 1/4” inside each hexagon, one the customer wanted a large loopy flower over each flower and a meandering leafy vine around / through the paths- that one is by far my favorite- turned out beautiful. I’ve done edge to edge designs. I love hand Piecing and have made quite a few hand pieced quilts- my travel projects, not all English Paper Piecing projects. I machine quilt them all.

I have seen gorgeous GFG's quilted on a longarm with an all over pattern. They don't have to be hand quilted at all.

This is very timely for me. A friend of mine has hand pieced a GFG. She got frustrated with not knowing how she wanted to finish the edges. It has languished in her UFO pile. Since she is no longer able to sew/quilt, she has decided she wants it longarmed. Backing has been selected. The question of the edges still remains. I suggested she just trim off the excess hexies and do a straight edge.

I've spoken with a local longarmer and she passed on some pinterest links for different treatments and quilting ideas. None of those links of are her work but she is highly recommended by our local quilt shop.

I'm trying to help out my friend with this - among other - quilting projects of hers by gathering info and doing legwork. I've not looked closely at this particular top yet. I have what remains of her background and additional flower pieces she had cut out. I'm pretty sure I have her original template as well. I'm not quite sure yet if additional pieces need to be added to get it at least 'almost' to an even edge, or if any, perhaps, excess flower parts should just be chopped off.

Do any of you who have quilted GFG's have any photos - particularly of edge treatments - to share?? TIA.

If the quilt was hand pieced you might want to use a piece of prewashed muslin between the top and batting before machine quilting.
There are lots of things you can quilt in hexagons, flowers, dot to dot, etc.

I am curious about your suggestion of the muslin. This is a tip I have never heard before. What is the reason? I have a Lone Star that I will be finishing sometime this year, it was hand pieced by my great grandmother and I will finish piecing it and quilt it and I need to know if I should treat it this way. (What a run on sentence. Don't tell my English teachers. LOL)

I hand appliquéd my scrappy one to a solid piece of fabric as I didn't want to deal with the edges. I had thought I would "face" it but changed my mind. [ATTACH=CONFIG]607163[/ATTACH]

This was in reply to NJ quilter, but I can't seem to move it to show as a reply to her comment, sorry.

Nothing says you have to quilt it "non-stop". Just do a bit when you feel like it! Go for it!

I did a little table topper on my domestic. https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictur...s-t280296.html

Thanks everyone.

The way I did the edges was I ran it through a serger and lopped off the uneven parts.

Lazy.

:)

Muslin between top and batting?

Could that be to keep batting from leaking out of the top?

I did one (https://www.quiltingboard.com/pictures-f5/grandmothers-flower-garden-quilted-my-cousin-t269450.html ) that had been hand pieced by my aunt. I did a different design in each flower, but stippled around all of them. It was actually quite fun.

Wow that's really nice, Cat on a Mac

Revmuslin: This was something I picked up from classes with Jamie Walden. It is to keep the batting from showing through the seams.

Thank you, I suspect this Lone Star will benefit from this treatment.

Thank you for telling me what a GFG was. I do love that pattern but it looks very time consuming.
Lynda

thanks for this thread--I may be helping a gal with a 1970's GFG that her g-ma did--she says the hexies are 3" across (I haven't seen it yet) and she's wanting it to basically be larger and was wanting me to add in white pieces to fill in the scallops--I said no way--too many Y seams--but putting it on top of a plain top would certainly achieve what she's wanting. Great idea!

I finally found the right zip drive! Attached is my rough draft/doodling of the design I came up with. I'll only be doing the swooping tiny heart design, not the stitching around the hexes. Looks like the picture of the quilt came through and you have to click on the little thing that says "staples scan" for the quilting design. I am not particularly gifted with either my ability to machine quilt (and no hand quilting for me) or my design sense. I'm a piecer and I really need a quilting partner! Anyway, this is within my ability and goes through each hex.

This summer I found a lovely hand stitched GMF at a thrift store with tiny little hexes, each side finishes to 3/4", so the hex is maybe 1.25-ish across. There were some issues with the top -- it is huge and I think maybe the maker just despaired of finishing it. One row was one block too short, couple of minor stitching repairs. Took off the row, did the repairs bought a back and planned the quilting... lol don't know exactly when I will get to the quilting. I was planning on doing it with warm and natural type batting and on a long arm, but I might not have access to the long arm (belongs to a friend).

To prepare the top for the long arm I was going to carefully sew on the top outer hexes onto a backing fabric, those aqua path rows outer hexes won't be quilted with the design, then cut away the back where it would be quilted. The path rows will basically outline the flower going from point to point. Edit: I do like the idea of using a solid piece of white between the top and the batting and that would help load it as well! Always get good ideas from this board.

When I bind the quilt I'll be using white bias binding and I am going to keep the larger block scallop, but cut off the tiny points into the binding. The outer edges are all the aqua pathways and it will be essentially the same as the quilting design, just missing those tiny little points. I'm still not looking forward on learning how to turn the binding, but I'll figure it out!

I found this free site to print a grid the size I wanted:
https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/

Absolutely it is OK to machine quilt a GFG. And it doesn't have to be custom with lots of quilting in each block - an edge to edge design would be fine.

Ultimately, as long as YOU are happy that is all that matters!

Thanks so much for this thread. I'm about to complete a scrappy hexie quilt top and have been wondering how to quilt it. I hadn't heard to the muslin backing, but that sounds like a good idea. I may have to pick some up this Sat.

Love this thread. I'm working on a GFG right now and even though it will be a while before it's ready for quilting I enjoyed reading all the comments here.

Lovely GFG top, and I really like the design you came up with to quilt it! It's just enough quilting to nail down each piece and not quilt it "to death". And it's continuous! Win, win!

YOUR quilt... YOUR choice. Do what you feel is best to "Get'er Done.