Hi everyone,
I am writing from Surrey in England and am pretty new to quilting. I would really like some advice - about 30 years ago my mum started making a patchwork quilt out of handpieced hexagons that she never finished. She recently gave it to me and I would love to finish it but she put it together in a pretty random fashion and I am not sure how to go about it. What I'd really like to do is unpick bits of it and reorganise it - is this a bad idea? It's about 6 ft by 5 ft at the moment.
Thanks, Nicky

Hi Nicky, & welcome to the board.

I'm sure if you are able to post a pic of the current WIP, you will receive many great ideas from the members here.

I would say the choice is up to you. If you do not like the look of it, & you have the kind of time it will take to re-do it, that is an option. If it were me, I would leave it as it is for sentimental reasons. If I didn't like the look of it, I would pick out a color in the top and continue with that in a "border" of coordinating fabric to give it a more organized look, using the same hexagon shapes. You could add a couple of these borders if you feel you would like to further organize the randomness.

I inherited 2 such tops when my G-Grandmother passed away. 1 of them I trimmed the edges into a scalop border before completing, and the other I trimmed the edges off straight and floated with a coordinating solid color straight border. Both methods calmed the chaos a bit.

I'm sure you will get many, better ideas; I chose these methods because I didn't have time to do the hexagons, but wanted the tops completed . (I then gave 1 to my Mother and 1 to her Brother.)

Good luck!!

Wow! Well the process of unsewing will take a little time. If your mother doesn't have a specific pattern she wishes you to adhere to, then let her know what you would like to do. If there is no problem there then go for it! She gave it to you to finish...if finishing requires redesign...by all means reorganise the blocks. Who knows ? It may be the reason she just never quite got it complete. We quilters are like that sometimes. Keep us up to date on your progress. We love to see new works and recreations. :D

I think you should post a pic if possible to let everyone see what you've got.


Before picking it apart I would definitely ask your Mom if she cares or not.

If not, I would do what I wanted.

Good luck,

Marybeth

Hi Carla,

It's taken me some time to come back to the forum but I've made some progress with the quilt and I found your advice really helpful. I've cut the edges off straight and started attaching a solid colour border which is already beginning to bring it all together a bit. How did you go about quilting yours?

Thanks,

Nicky

very pretty your doing a good job with it. I would not do a real fancy quilt stich I thing a meandering pattern would look good on this

I have recently (actually just today) started getting into these forums. I've somehow missed seeing them before, but when I saw the picture of your mum's quilt - I just had to comment on them. The colors are just beautiful.

I would like to share a story with you about a quilt that I finished for someone else.

My Grandmother on my dad's side made all of her grandchildren quilts at some time or another. I have a sister that is 16 years younger than me, and when my grandma was working on her quilt she got sick and ended up having to go into a nursing home (she lived in Tennessee-my family lived in Michigan) Well I had recently gotten married when all of this happened and at the time I was living in California with my husband where he was stationed. My grandma gave my mom the quilt for someone to finish for my sister. I never heard anything about that. In the meantime, (after the birth of my first child- a girl)I started doing a lot of sewing for my daughter making little clothes and such. Well after 3 more children and a lot more experience (we were back in Michigan by this time) my sister was getting ready to graduate from college. My dad had passed away and my mothers house had caught fire when struck by lightning. I was helping my mom sort of some of her stuff that had survived the fire and was in the garage when she came across the quilt blocks They were kittens in baskets. She told me that my grandma had given it to her to have finished for my sister many years ago. By this time my sister was almost ready to graduate from college. I took the quilt home and finished it as a surprise for her graduation present. She cried when she opened it-she had thought it had burned up in the house fire before it was even finished. Quilts have always held a special place in the hearts of my family. This all happened several years ago-as I now live in Georgia (for 7 years) and have 3 granddaughters as well as 4 children.

Thank you again for sharing your story, and I'd like to see a picture of the quilt when you finish it.

Linda

Those hexagons remind me of the Grandmothers Garden quilt. What a treasure. If you get the chance look at a Grandmothers Garden quilt and you'll see that the only difference is the solid colors between the flowers. There are 7 hexagons sewn to a cntr hexagon to create the flower. Just a thought ,,,,,,That I thought I passed on.

SORRY,,,that was 6 hexagons sewn to a solid color hexagon.

Nicky it's beautiful! Aren't you glad you inherited it? I sure would be. You've a good challenge there.

Sharon

I, too, am working on a hexagon quilt called Grandmother's Flower Garden. It pretty much has to be hand sewn, but I really enjoy it. I think yours is beautiful.

Nicky,

I am so sorry I am just now responding to your question; I am away from the board quite a lot these days. I do my quilting by machine, but wanted the hand-quilted look, so I put monofilament thread in the top & cotton in the bobbin. I adjusted the tension so the bobbin thread would pull through to the top and give the appearance of hand stitching. I then quilted 1/4" inside of each seam within each hexagon. If you do not want to take this much time quilting the top, Ceannastahr's idea of an all over meandor would be ideal; fancy quilting will not be seen. It is a beautiful quilt, & I hope we get to see it when you're done. :D

Carla P