Tuesday 11 August 2015

English paper pieced hexagons


Today I thought I'd share my longest running sewing project; a English paper pieced queen sized bed quilt. This is the most I could get in one picture at a time. This quilt is big.
English paper piecing involves tacking fabric around cardboard shapes, then whip stitching them together. Usually people make flower rosettes. My quilt is completely random.

I began this years ago, sometime between the ages of nine and eleven. (I am 21 now). It began off innocently enough. One afternoon at my grandmother's she taught me how to make these hexagons. I sewed one rosette (which is now the centre of the quilt). I then decided I should turn it into a quilt, all fabrics being different to one another. I was always an ambitious and obsessive child.

The centre rosette. 
The quilt grew, and I decided I would get it finished for when I got married. At that point I assumed I would get married at around 30. When I was 19, and realised I wolud be getting married very soon, I decided to be sensible. I don't know If i will get it finished before I turn 30. I have the general size marked out. Each centre line is marked, and goes to the edge, which means the whole quilt is a wird cross shape at the moment, with large gaps at the corners which need filling

 The fabric is from all over the place; old projects, scrap boxes, and I hae even bought scrap bags on the internet. About a year ago I gave up on the no matching fabrics rule. My obsessiveness is waning slightly! I now just try to keep the matching ones relatively far apart.
There is no pattern to how pieces are placed, but i try and keep the colours mixed up as much as possible. Even randomness needs some plan behind it (especailly when a disproportionate amount of hexagons are blue florals. This combination to the right demonstrates how odd the quilt can get. A baby riding a dolphin sits under my mum's bridesmaid dress fabric.
 The quilt also acts as an I-spy quilt. There are numerous little characters, and animals on it, mainly from country style patchwork fabric. Here we have a novelty chicken. There are also cows, ducks, people, two geisha girls, snails, and rag dolls.
This gives you a bit more of an idea of what it look like overall. A number of years ago i counted 400 hexagons in this quilt. I now think the number is well over a thousand.
 One scrap bag I bought on Etsy had a lot of little Liberty scraps. I love scattering these through the quilt. This group also has a teddy bear, and some Christmas fabric.


There is fabric from all my old sewing projects in here as well. The blue and red floral is from this dress.

My plan is to eventually add a narrow cream border, and then hand quilt it. It's a real labour of love, an sewing tese hexagons together is incredibly addictive. The little papers end up scattered all through our apartment, and I'm constantly having to recollect them together, and assign them to their correct tins. (One for assembled hexagons, one for fabric and papers, one for paper clips).


Have any of you ever done any patchwork? I'm not sure how much overlap there is between patchwork and dressmaking blogs. I don't do much patchwork at the moment, but I am thinking over the next few months I will share all my past quilts on here. I have quite the collection.

11 comments:

  1. Wowsers! Just, wowsers!! It looks amazing! When I looked at the first photo, I thought it was finished. It looks like a good size already, so you can't be too far from finishing the top. Lots of luck with it!

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    1. Thanks! It's actually on a double bed here (no floor space to photograph it), and I'm making it queen size, so it definitely looks more complete than it is

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  2. this is absolutely incredible! it's amazing now, so i can't imagine how brilliant it will look when it's finished! you must have so much patience to have spent so many years on it

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  3. This is amazing! I had the brilliant idea of creating a hexie quilt last week, and so far I have made 5...I think it may be a longer project than I anticipated looking at this beauty! I think having a mix of both dressmaking and quilts is a great idea if that's what you sew!
    My blog is http://scientificsewing.blogspot.co.uk/ and I am just starting out in dressmaking :)

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  4. This is amazing! I had the brilliant idea of creating a hexie quilt last week, and so far I have made 5...I think it may be a longer project than I anticipated looking at this beauty! I think having a mix of both dressmaking and quilts is a great idea if that's what you sew!
    My blog is http://scientificsewing.blogspot.co.uk/ and I am just starting out in dressmaking :)

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    1. Thanks! Just added you to my reader. Enjoy the hexagon sewing. It's time consuming, but it's a great portable project for down times

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  5. I have a tin of hexies but as yet they are not seen together. This is rather inspirational. May have to start joining them. Well done its looking excellent. Good luck with the last leg of the journey.

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    1. You certainly should. I'm already thinking what my next paper piecing project could be. I think something a little smaller!

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  6. This is incredible! I would say I can't even imagine the work that must go into this -- but my mom actually just finished a paper-pieced hexagon quilt that she'd been working on for about the same amount of time. Although hers is lap-sized, rather than bed sized; you must have had hexies in your hands practically 24/7!

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    1. Thanks Kira! It's been in fits and bursts. Movie watching, and last year' long commute helped a lot

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