Grandmother's Flower Garden
 

I have inherited a beautiful Grandmother's Flower Garden flimsy. It is totally made by hand and a work of time and talent. I would love to finish it but I'm not into the idea of binding all those hexies when the time comes. What I'd like to do is find a good way to straighten out that edge and put a border or 2 on it and let it be. Has anyone done this and at what point do I begin evening that out to a straight line? I do not have any fabric used for the flimsy. What is between the flowers is white but the piece is old enough that bringing in another white will probably be noticeable.
I've entertained the idea of creating a simple scalloped edge instead of adding borders but that didn't excite me a whole lot either.
I could use some suggestions from someone who might have done this, please.

If you don't want to cut a straight edge onto the quilt, try pressing a straight edge by folding the hexie under and then attaching your border. As for color matches, audition lots of options. You may find a light gray that works great against the other colors in the quilt, for instance.

How exciting that you are going to finish this quilt!!

If I were you, I would find a complimentary solid color that is found in the hexies. Don't try to match exactly. In the end, what you want is a simple frame of color to draw in the eyes of the viewer to show off the work that was given to you. You might even try, audition, a simple cream strip that is narrow and then a wider color that compliments the flowers.

Take your time and choose what feels good and right for this special piece of hand made quilt construction.

I've seen more than one Grandmother's Flower Garden flimsy at the thrift stores, and adopted one myself. I think it is the finishing decisions that throw most people off, or the goal was to use up fabric and not necessarily end up with a completed quilt... My top was HUGE and still is even with taking out a number of blocks. What I've decided is that I will keep the borders scalloped with the big hexies coming in and out, but that I will trim the small hexies to straight lines.

One idea I rather liked for finishing this sort of project is to sort of applique the hexies to a straight band on the edges. Then if you do want to make your top larger, it is easy to add a border, and if not is a nice straight edge for binding.

I have seen the edges appliqued onto a solid strip to make a border. The end result looks like a solid large hexi flower shape around the edges. The idea of using a solid in another color instead of white is a good one. Pick your favorite color in the quilt and go with that.

Click he Quiltingboard Forums - QB-Quilt-Gallery's Album: Grandmother's Flower Garden for more ideas of finished quilts using Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks.

First of all, congratulations for wanting to finish your inherited GFG.
Would love to see a photo of the flimsy, now before you start working on it.
I'm sure others would too!

Like others, my thoughts would be to stitch/applique your hexie edges onto a border.
I'd keep it simple, and to just the one fabric, so as not to compete with the star of the show, your GFG!

As for what border fabric to use, I'd look for a tonal or blender that reads solid.
The tonal variations in those, usually work better with the old fabrics,
than a true solid does.
Sometimes using the back of a fabric as the front works well, when putting old fabrics and new ones together.

The secret .... audition! audition! audition!
Take your time to find the "right" fabric ... rather than saying "this will do", and having regrets!

Good Luck!!

I did exactly what you described with a hand-pieced GFG top. I cut the edges off the outer row and added borders. A picture of mine is in the gallery: click here to see mine

Beautifully done, CatOnAMac!!

cat-on-a-mac -- that is a beautiful quilt finish! The illustration cleared up a bunch of questions I had in my head about cutting into the blocks.