Batik hexagon quilt on the longarm

Jackie – of Canton Village Quilt Works sent me these photos last week. She finished the quilting on Wednesday and the quilt is winging it’s way to Panama – via our freight forwarder/courier in Miami. Can’t wait to get it in my hot little hands – I am dying to know what she did with the cream hexes and the border. Jackie said it looks terrific and I am sure it does!

Jackie quilted my applique Angel quilt last year and I was thrilled with how it turned out.

I have never seen a hexagon quilt quilted this way – they are usually quilted by hand – since they are made by hand. I hand piece but I do NOT hand quilt – I wanted something modern for my modern version of a Grandmother’s Flower Garden.

Border on three sides!

Only one more side to go and it will be finished – finally!!

I have been working all day on this – a full 8 hours! The piano keys border fits PERFECTLY and I am absolutely thrilled. It wasn’t easy. I did a lot of stitching and ripping and re-stitching to adjust the length.

The border is 2.5 inches wider than it is going to be. When it comes back from my long arm quilter (Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works) I am going to trim off the last strip on each end of the top – and of course the same measurement on the other three sides. At this width (7.75″) I think it overwhelms the hexagons. I blocked off the extra 2.5 inches with strips of white fabric to see how the smaller width looked and I like it much better. The finished width will be about 5 inches.

 

Inklingo

Linda the inventor of Inklingo asked that all of us “Inklingoists” with blogs mention her new “How to Sew a Grandmother’s Flower Garden with Inklingo” video on her You Tube channel. I have sewn hundreds of hexagon flowers the Inklingo way and I am here to tell you I’d sooner give up my rotary cutter and cutting mat before I’d give up Inklingo !

See my “Inklingo vs English Paper Piecing” blog post here.

Linda also has a new “Hexagon Quilt Design Book” absolutely free! I wish I’d had this fabulous resource available when I started my hexagon quilt. I had no idea what I was doing – I figured it out as I went along – this booklet would have made the journey a lot easier.

Batik hexagon quilt top – done!

Except for the bits on the 4 corners. I have misplaced the background batik – so I’ll do that when I find it. I will find it – I am not going to panic yet.

Three more seams

I am now going to join the bottom two strips. It’s going very smoothly – I am enjoying it almost as much as the individual flowers.

Thirteen rows joined

Five more seams and it will be a quilt top – yeah!!

Eight rows joined

Moving along…

13 rows

Done! Now to join them together – that is not going to go as quickly – and it will no longer be portable – I’ve got to start another project ASAP.

10 rows down 3 to go

Joined 8 rows

Five more to go and then the big job of joining the strips begins.