Well, here it is my first finish for 2014. Its been about 4 years in the making. It's been waiting for me to grow my skills and decide how I wanted to communicate.
About 4 years ago I started Hexing.The woman who taught me, her work looked terrible so I needed to figure it out. I didn't want the stitches to show in the front and I wanted to be able to take the papers out, but leave the basting in for more shape while in the "being made" stage. I got a hole punch and punched all my papers, then I basted on the back side only. In the "Joining" stage I ladder stitched with the WRONG sides together. When I open them up, the stitches are covered and I've sewn the back edges together not the front edges.
I opted to make "Lumps". When I think about my Grandmother, I don't think of a silver haired Granny, baking cookies and wearing an apron. In the 30's, she was a pants wearing, art school attending, super athletic dynamo. She was so cool! She traveled everywhere, she was in Cuba in 1969. She had a bright red floating fireplace in her living room. She made jewelery. She worked at a job, with her own office. I used to look thru her phone book when I was young, looking to see who was in there. I'm not sure why, but one day I discovered the home number of Bob Hope.
So when I look at Grandmother Flower Garden quilts, with their sweet wholesome girlish charm, I don't see my Maxine. I mean, how cool a name is that? After I made a bunch of lumps, I kinda knew I wanted to make a quilt that spoke to those GMFG quilts. Something about my own Grandmother.
It's always been sitting back in my mind. "Maxine's Quilt" Maxine's Quilt"
This last summer I figured it out. I made a hex top. A low volume, whole and pieced , hex by machine top.
Then I just machine appliqued the lumps on the top before quilting the background.
Above you can see I used a kind of flower pattern that also looks very topographical. You can also see that I've sewn around the edge of the lump but not in the middle around each hex. Are you thinking this is a problem? I am and I don't have a solve for it at this point in the process. So....
After it comes off the quilter, I really have to come to grips with the the fact that this won't wash well.
I don't like the puff of the hexes, its uneven and where the lumps are 3 rows thick, I don't think it will wear well.
Having a Bernina is kinda awesome. I have a 440QE and I love it. I have a Binder that I bind all my quilts with and a ruffler for making clothes. Nothing - but NOTHING- buttonholes like a Bernina. There is a sweet foot that will hold a button and then a stitch that sews a button to the garment. Below you can see the "in progress" shot.
I put 1, 2, or 3 button stitches in each hex. I really like how it turned out. I feel like it will wash well, I like the "cracker" quality to the hexes that the tacking provides and the tactile quality to the different quilting treatments meets my goal. The back is a solid pale yellow flannel I had in my stash. the very last piece. It may have taken 4 years but I'm in no hurry. It's a WIP off my list and a finish worthy of being this years first.
Quilters Rock!
