SLANTED HALF HEX QUILT WITH JENN!Y

                

When I saw this tutorial I just had to do this quilt.  I have the larger hex template but I thought I would use the smaller one to use up some of my Island Batik Scraps (joke is on me, they keep multiplying).

This is my little container after I cut my half hexies.

Here is my quilt.

I decided not to make it too large because I know my time constraints and I did not want another UFO.

The border Island Batik fabric I ordered at Missouri Star Quilt company...no, I am not affiliated with them in any way just love their fast delivery and awesome prices.

I worked on it off and on all day yesterday in between dishes, cleaning bathrooms, sweeping etc.

I had a hard time figuring out how many hexies I needed for each row.  Since it was on a slant my mind was not able to see it.  To solve this problem I just drew a line down each side as I did a new row.  There is some waste and to be honest, I enjoyed making this quilt but doubt I will make another, too complicated when it came to adding rows and cutting, at least for my small brain.

AMERICAN FLAG FOR VETERANS

My cousin who is a funeral director came over to my house with this huge flag.  She was wondering if I could fold it.

She wanted a flag to drape over the casket of the Veteran, in which she could use over and over.  The cost of buying a folded one is out of this world.

Then at the gravesite another flag will be laid across the top of the casket and then the ceremony of folding it for the family to have.

The trick was having the red and white on the other side of the blue stars.

We spent over 3 hours pinning this puppy, folding and pleating.

We used every pin I had in the house which is ALOT.

We got poked so many time it became maddening.

We got her pinned and the back was all wonky and would not lay flat.

The middle blue was pulling to one side.  We were on each side pinning and folding that I think we were working against each other.

Finally, enough was enough.  She then asked me if I could just make a quilt out of it.

Hummmmm

Three hours later and extremely tired she left.

I sat and thought.

and thought.....

and thought....

It was around eleven when I finally got up and took all the pins out.

I kept telling her the pins were working against us.

I ironed the flag.

Then I stared from the middle to get the center and worked over to one side.  Fixed the red and white....and then worked on from the middle to the other side.  I got my huge ironing pad and put it on my quilting table and ironed as I went.  The only thing I pinned were the top and where it had an opening.

At one in the morning, I had her ironed with the hope that my cousin would like it.

It stayed on my cutting table for a week.

Which...I thought....

and thought....

and thought.

I tried sewing the inside and the machine just pulled and it looked horrible.

so I thought some more.

The problem was, I could not move on to another project because this was in my mind.

so Friday night.

I cut (yes, cut it) and made the binding for the top and a sleeve.  I had to hand sew the back (no big deal)

Then I thought some more.

Tried sewing again....NOPE>>>>

then I decided to just tack it, just to keep the pleats .....

Yea!!!  it worked.

She will hang this in her funeral home and use as needed.

We love our Veterans, I have five in my house and am so grateful for them.

This is just one thing that will make the funeral more special, even tho it will not be the same flag they will get when the funeral is over, it is still special.

LOOKING BACK, VINTAGE QUILTS INSPIRING NEW CREATIONS

This is the challenge for the Month of April.

I went searching though my books and believe it or not, came up with this quilt.

Don't ask me why I chose this one because I could not tell you.

This quilt is from the 1890's.

I do know back then not a scrap was wasted.  My mother told me of my grandmother sewing little bitty scraps onto newspaper to get her squares (my mother's job was to take off the newspaper).  I have heard that sometimes the person would leave the newspaper on.

This is  using Hexagonal units from scraps and the yellow square is the stitch and flip piecing (which I did not do).

This is my version.

Three years worth of Island Batik Fabrics rolled up into one quilt.

This was half of my room, you should have seen my cutting table? (choosing not to be embarrassed)

55" x 55"

I used the hexagonal shape and instead of just randomly choosing scraps and sewing them together, I decided to use strips.    One square consisted of four  3" (or less) x 26" strips sewn together and out of that strip I was able to get four hexagons.  In this quilt I used Aurifil # 5001 and as usual it did not disappoint, I used the thread to machine piece and to quilt it.

I also didn't use  the stitch and flip method for the center squares.  I cheated and just blanket stitched them on using Aurifil thread.  Hey, it works, (he who cast the first stone)...(smiling).

To me this was a fun quilt because I loved seeing all of the wonderful Island Batik fabrics come together.