Heathermom2opmc

Hello everyone, So I "rescued" (it was being sold at an estate auction) a Grandmothers flower garden quilt top that is in various stages of assembly. It is all hand pieced but NOT paper pieced. The sections are all hand cut out but not paper pieced. The sections are in varying degrees of assembly: just flowers, flowers with 3 white pieces attached, large sections, what I think is a side piece etc. However, I am getting very overwhelmed and my brain cannot seem to see how this is meant to go together. None of the sections are labeled. I was hoping to have this as my winter sit on the couch and hand stitch project, but at this point I cannot even begin to see how to start. If anyone that has done one could lend some ideas or suggestions as to how to attempt to put together this puzzle I would greatly appreciate it.

sewingpup

I wonder if more than one person was working on this as from what I can tell from the photos is that there are several larger sections put together? It looks like the basic plan was to place the colored flowers with one row of white between except on the border. You can see that fill in white hexies were added along the border and it looks like in the lower left edge of the photo, that the maker was trimming the bottoms off the hexies to make a straight edge along the border. I think I would try and lay out the completed flowers in the pattern you can see in the larger put together pieces to see how big a quilt this might make and then just start adding in the hexies. I think this is going to take a while. Now I have actually never done handpiecing hexies. Bonnie Hunter and other quilters have videos on how to piece hexies if you have not done them before. Hopefully, others will have ideas.

juliasb

This is one of those projects that has been piece without looking at where it started. It could be a project that a number of people were working on too.
You may find to get things going in a single direction that you have to undo some pieces then reassemble. It could be that one or another piece goes up and down while the other large pieces goes from side to side. I love GMFG quilts. The one in my Avatar was not EPP either and all hand pieced. It is also a King size quilt.
Don't be afraid to take a few pieces apart and reassemble to make the pieces work right for you. You are now the quilter and this should be a labor of love.

ptquilts

I have dealt with older GFG tops before. Depending on how many "rings" are in the flower, there are different ways to set them together. Some can be done with all hexagons, others need diamond-shape pieces. You really can go nuts trying to figure it out. It's no wonder so many are UFO's.
I had to hand quilt on one were I was quilting over "pleats" because the pieces weren't set together the right way. Good luck is all I can say.
ETA - yours looks pretty straightforward though. I think you can do it.

Tartan

Try sewing the flowers in rows (with the white between) and then sew the rows together. Good luck, that’s going to be quite a job!

FoggyButFocused

I agree. I would also like to add that it is possible that the person (or people) who were doing this quilt top did not have a clear vision of it either, which is why it was abandoned. I think everyone follows a different process to assemble a GMFG. Figuring out their logic will be the tough part. For example, when my mother did one, she did it in "rows", I put the hexies together to form larger hexies and then put them together. If you lay out the larger pieces, I think you will be able to figure out the rest. You may need to do some disassemble and then reassemble, though. You can do it!!

Fabric Galore

I love the colors in this quilt. I agree that you are now the quilter, and you can decide how you want to arrange the "flowers". It will be a lovely quilt when it is finished. I'm so glad you rescued it. Some people don't value old quilts, but I rescued a top from a store in St. Augustine that was hand pieced from flour sacks. It was a log cabin quilt, and each log was made up of small scraps. It had been on a bed with coil springs and it had torn places and rust on some parts. I carefully removed each damaged piece and now I can't remember which pieces I replaced. I added keyboard borders in scrappy fabric and my family loves it. It certainly is cheerful on a cold, gloomy day.

NJ Quilter

A friend of mine was working on one for years. She tended to get a bit lost in the quilt construction as well. Sadly, she passed away prior to completion. Her daughter now has the remaining bits.

I wonder if you can lay out the completed row/s and then take the pile of flowers and see what, if any of those, fit into the empty spots in the rows to get you started. It appears like many of the 'flowers' were completed and the quilt was starting to be built with those flowers. You may have to twist/turn some of the flowers to see where/if they fit into the partially completed rows.

Rhonda K

Separate the top area (see green triangle) that has a few hexis sewn together. Work on the quilt in smaller sections so it's easier to see what needs to be done next.

It looks like the 3 white hexis were sewn into the wrong position on that block. (See the 2 green triangles). It is hard to tell from the picture but if they are brought over to the block on the side, that will put 2 white hexi together. Again hard to tell from the original picture.

Next, starch the back of the blocks and press gently so they lay flat. I would also stay stitch any sections that have been trimmed to avoid distorting the fabric.

Good luck!

SuzSLO

It might help to print out some hexagon graph paper from the internet and use colored pencils to draw the design. Then you can see what fits, what needs to be removed and used elsewhere and what is still missing. The yellow flower in the corner looks like it is out of place and will need to moved.