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Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt

Posted on January 18, 2009February 17, 2009 by Martha

This quilt was started in 2002 when I acquired an old Christmas card box filled with vintage hexagons. As usual, some of the pieces were dingy and most were not cut accurately. After soaking, pressing, drawing with a fresh template and re-cutting, they were good as new. I sorted them into color groups and decided to make single flowers in straight rows using yellow hexagons for centers and as the fill-in pieces. This set is slightly easier to arrange since it has two straight sides. After putting the top together, I decided to add the yellow hexagon border. It took me 5 years to complete this quilt because I worked on it sporadically. It’s entirely hand pieced and hand quilted inside each hexagon. I love working with hexagons, but I don’t enjoy the paper piecing method. Just a regular running stitch which is easy to do (with a little flip when you’re at a corner) and doesn’t require all that basting and the little papers. I use my tiny iron and a pressing board I made (a thin piece of wood covered with linen) to press the seams as I go.

One mistake I made on this quilt (and one other) was accidentally using two different muslins — one very white and one slightly off-white. Since I was piecing this quilt for a long time and switching back and forth between projects, I got my whites mixed up. It actually doesn’t bother me, but I’m more careful now to mark the muslin (or vintage sheet) I’m using for a particular quilt.

The quilt is an odd shape (wider than longer) because I added an extra row to the side after I bought a new mattress set that was huge. I don’t know why these new mattresses and box springs are so gigantic — my husband rigged up a way to lower the old brass bed because it was way too high with the new mattress. Anyway, I should have added a row to the bottom as well, but I didn’t and now I regret it because the quilt is a little short.

Grandmother’s Flower Garden
Martha Dellasega Gray, 2007
hand pieced, hand quilted
86″ x 77″

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flowergarden2

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13 thoughts on “Grandmother’s Flower Garden Quilt”

  1. Coralie Johnson says:
    January 23, 2009 at 3:55 am

    Beautiful! I could picture you cleaning, pressing and recutting the hexagons to a new correct shape. Oh, so much work. But so worth it! Your hand quilting is just wonderful!

    Reply
  2. Misty says:
    August 26, 2009 at 9:01 am

    Hi Martha,

    I am looking for a picture of a Grandmothers Flower Garden Quilt to post on my Flower Garden site. Yours is quite beautiful. I would like to get permission to publish the picture with a link to your blog. If it is okay with you, please contact me by email or through my site.

    Reply
  3. Montse says:
    April 5, 2010 at 3:07 am

    It’s beautiful !!

    Montse

    Reply
  4. debbie jungling says:
    August 14, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    Pretty! and an inspiration for the one I’m working on!

    Reply
  5. annie valentine says:
    January 14, 2011 at 2:36 pm

    Martha! Thanks for this post, I just started pressing and basting my hexagons and I want to poke my eyes out. This is my first hand pieced quilt, I have a few questions about the running stitch method that would save me the basting step. Do you not press them at all? Did you put them together one flower at a time? I really don’t know what I’m doing here, any tips or websites you know of would be great to know. Thank you!!

    Reply
  6. Carla Langendoen says:
    August 27, 2012 at 10:04 pm

    This is incredible! I love those yellow hexagons and the borders.

    Reply
  7. helen benge says:
    December 27, 2012 at 5:17 am

    thank you so much for this i started a quilt with hexagons with each patch different and decided to do grandmothers garden. then i saw most of the quilts were pieced with the ‘flowers’ only two colours. then i found yours – inspirational – i will carry on as started and put the plain around each one thank you

    Reply
  8. Patricia says:
    March 19, 2014 at 7:02 pm

    I love, absolutely love your Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt! You have no idea how much I love it! I’m a new quilter (less than a year), and enjoy making hexies and yo yos. I’ve started a scrappy GFG quilt, but at this point, my flower petals are all the same. The yellow centers are also scrappy, but “read” as a solid yellow. The petals are all the same, but will probably have to be similar to yours as I go on. My white background will be “white on white” (patterned white), but may be scrappy as well. I hope it works out.

    I’ve read your blog about this quilt and actually studied your quilt several times. It’s so cheerful it makes me smile just to see it!

    Thank you for posting such a beautifully inspiring work of art and sharing your talent! You have made a great positive impact on my quilting! Thank you so much!

    Reply
  9. Jan says:
    July 9, 2014 at 1:00 am

    Love this layout. What size Hexies did you use? Your quilt is an inspiration!

    Reply
  10. janice says:
    March 23, 2015 at 8:16 pm

    Wondering how this could be 86×77 when I counted 11 rows by 11 rows….doesn’ t that equal a square? What size hexagon did you use? It’ s a lovely quilt!

    Reply
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  13. Maureen Harris says:
    November 18, 2016 at 10:12 pm

    This quilt is beautiful and reminds me of one I have.

    I have a quilt my great grandmother made. My great grandfather cut out all of the hexagons and great grandma hand sewed and quilted every stitch. I estimated that it is 100+ years old. It is a work of art. The top and bottom are straight, but the sides are not due to the hexagonal shapes. It does not have a border like yours does. I would like to hang it, but I am not sure how it will hang. I know I can hang it from a rod, but I am concerned about the sides. Do you have any suggestions?

    Reply

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