I Have A FINISH!
 

I tend to like larger, more complicated quilts. Combine this with a husband that has to travel alot for work and and eight year old son and a five year old daughter and I don't get all that many finishes.

BUT! When I do, they sure are a doozy! And, at least to me, this one sure is.

In April of 2011 I watched a YouTube video of how to EPP by hand. After that I did up a "map" of this GFG with hexie graph paper and pencil crayons. From there I did the counting and math to figure out fabric requirements. I bought the fabric, brought it home and washed and ironed it and then cut it all into 2.5" squares. Then I printed off hexie templates onto card stock and cut them out. On May 23, 2011 I basted the first piece of fabric onto one of those hexies.

From then on, these flowers went to preschool waits, Tae Kwon Do, swimming lessons, Jamaica and probably other places I can't think of. They saw any number of evening shows and numerous winter storms (we get that alot this far north. I'm in north-central Alberta, Canada - think halfway up Hudson's Bay). But, I finished.

I am calling this one "Not Your Grandmother's Flower Garden" because I broke so many of the "rules" of a GFG but I love it. There are almost 5,000 1" hexies. Final measurement 126" x 102" and it was sent to the long armer because there was no way I was going to be able to quilt that sucker on my machine. It has Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting and a black with white polka dot minke back. I wasn't considering binding either that long ago so it ended up with a black with small white dots binding. It was machine sewn to the back and hand stitched to the front. The final stitch went into the label on May 29, 2013.

Now I am at loose ends as to where to go from here!

Tara

That is beautiful. A gorgeous job well done. Congratulations.

impressive.

Your quilt is spectacular!

That is stunning!!!

Absolutely gorgeous, gorgeous color choices too. Wonderful work on this. Whatever you decide to do next will be just as great.

Beautiful, and the story of how it was made is amazing. I could never have accomplished so much when my children were young.

OMG - how wonderful - so beautiful colors !!
I am deeply impressed - just started with hexies last week and your project
is so inspiring to me.

Beautiful quilt! You should be very proud!

Wow, that is gorgeous!!! Great job.

The sky is the limit, you could tackle anything. If you like hand sewing projects maybe have a look at Jinny Beyer's book, Quilt Making by Hand, or what about somethink like a tumbling block quilt? I hand pieced a mariners compass, which was fun.

Well done. You've created a beautiful quilt.

Respect! Nice quilt

I agree that is a doosy very nice

Absolutely stunning. That's a lot of hand piecing. Can you tell us how much fabric
is needed? Does it make a heavy quilt?

That is beautiful! I just did a little 81-hexigon table runner and was feeling pretty proud of that! haha

Absolutely beautiful! Very impressive.

Just beautiful! Sometimes I want to try this but have a long list already!

Oh My! Your quilt is soooo beautiful! Congrats on a job well done. I love it!!

Well, you go outside and pick that beautiful quilt up off the ground and bring it inside and put it on your bed! LOL It is just gorgeous. I love it. What a lot of work!

I happened to have the "details" stapled to my map. I started with:

1755 Black hexies - 275"
538 Bright Yellow - 85"
264 Light yellow - 42.5"
538 Bright Blue - 85"
264 Light Blue - 42.5"
536 Bright Pink - 85"
264 Light Pink - 42.5"
538 Bright Green - 85"
264 Light Green - 42.5"

I almost always buy a little bit extra to allow for shrinkage, mistakes, etc. When I was about 75% done, I realized that I had to sew an extra row of hexies on the top and bottom because I wanted the binding to finish right on a seam and I hadn't sewn a hexie above that seam to fill the binding and have enough to really attach to so these numbers are slightly off but this is what I purchased. This does not account for binding, backing or batting.

Also, it does indeed make a VERY heavy quilt. I haven't gotten around to weighing it but have been thinking I should. It is heavy enough that while my mother-in-law is pushing me to enter it SOMEWHERE before I give it to my brother for Christmas, I don't have alot of faith in the sleeve supporting the weight of it without damaging the minke back.

When I originally started this, I thought it would be done in time to give for Christmas 2011. I was a long way off on my timing but just kept plugging away at it. Much of the time I worked on it I either didn't want to be in front of my machine or simply couldn't be. We also bought a house near the end of January last year and so had to list the house we were in. We were bursting at the seams and keeping a house "ShowHome Ready" with a seven year old, five year old and, once again, a husband out of town meant that I simply could not get out the mess of machine piecing while this could be taken out and put away in moments. Or sitting pool side in Jamaica, enjoying the sun - we escaped -40 for most of that trip. Or just shy of two hours twice a week for Tae Kwon Do, or, or, or. I've been working on a queen sized storm at sea for 18 months when I could get to the machine.

Anyway, I'll answer any other questions if I can but thank you all so much for your comments. No one else I know around here quilts so I don't have anyone else to share with. I read many of all of your posts even if I don't often have alot of time to respond. I have learned so much here and love the quilting community that I only get here.

Another thing for anyone considering doing a GFG themselves. Another thing I loved about this was that I could take it anywhere and even if I only had five or ten minutes then I could easily accomplish at least a little with very little tools. Those little five - ten minute quilting breaks plus "watching" Grey's or whatever else all added together made this quilt.

Tara

Edited to add: I had to go outside and do the pictures where and how I did because I didn't have anywhere else big enough where I could also get far enough away to get the whole quilt in one shot. I am standing on a chair on my upper deck to get the shot of the whole quilt so the camera is about 15 feet above the quilt and back about six to eight feet. I'm not even keeping this quilt. It is a Christmas gift for my brother and his wife and they don't have a clue.

very nice. I love it..I love the color.

Absolutely stunning!!! I hope you can enter it somewhere...people should see it! Congratulations on a job well done!

Absolutely beautiful and so impressive that you just kept at that hand sewing during your waits, etc. And you are giving it as a present, wow. How very special.

Beautiful! What an accomplishment!

Wow, it's lovely. Great job after many hours of work. Enjoy!

Nice - amazing how much you got done 'while doing other things'

I also like your fabric choices.

That is so stunning...Love the color choices....some day I will finish mine too....It won't be that big tho!

Try here http://www.paperpieces.com/ they will give you plenty of ideas!

Congratulations on a very big finish! You must be so pleased - that it is beautiful and that it is done!! And with the minkee backing it should keep you toasty during those winter storms (half way up Hudson's Bay? brrrrr...il fait froid!)

Alison-Who-Has-Only-Visited-The-North-Shore-Of-Superior-(In-Summer)-And-That-Was-Cold-Enough

Thanks for the information. I will save this in my files for future reference.
I hope your brother and SIL will appreciate your beautiful work.

Your quilt is fabulous! I can't imagine how much more beautiful it is in person and not just a photo. wow and more wow.

Absolutely georgous quilt. I am sure you can do anything your heart says "yes" to when deciding on what to do next.

Very beautiful............

One beautiful quilt.

Absolutely beautiful!

An absolutely beautiful quilt!!! Congratulations on finishing.

I have inherited an unfinished GFG from my DMIL so if you have nothing to do I could give you one to finish. Where in Alberta do you live. I could even deliver it. LOL. Please please please say yes.

Amazing! You have used your time wisely!

rules???? there are rules in quilting????? Your quilt turned out lovely not following rules.... I do feel quilters should do more of what appeals to them and not worry so much about rules. You have truly shown us that rules are made to be broken.

WOW!!! That is absolutely gorgeous. Great job. Thanks for showing it.