Saturday, February 3, 2018

Progress on the “Forever” Hexie Quilt

My friend (Lora) approached me at the end of last year and asked me if I had finished my hexie quilt. I let her know I had finished the hand stitching on the quilt but didn’t have an idea for finishing. 
I was worried about the spikey red pieces on the center of each side and just wasn’t sure what would work for finishing.

She said she had been thinking of it and thought a mitered ombre border might be interesting. I thought so too, so I went to her house (where she had some ombre fabric), and we auditioned it on the quilt. We both agreed it was a winner, so I got online to find a fabric I thought would work. FINALLY, the fabric arrived, and Lora and I set up a date that we could get together and add the borders to the quilt. (She offered her expertise to teach me to make the weird angled mitered corners I needed for the quilt.) I just got back home from that work date.

Here are the borders on the quilt. (They will be trimmed and evened up at a later date.)
 
What neither of us took into account is how BIG the quilt would be with the borders added. Before any trimming (which will be done AFTER the quilting), the widest part of the quilt measures a whopping 128 inches! (It is SO big that I can’t even come close to photographing the whole quilt. The left and right sides are folded over in this picture and the bottom is resting on the floor. I think you can get the idea, though.) I’m not thrilled about cutting off ALL the black of the ombre fabric (which might happen if we cut it down to 120 inches which is king size). Luckily, I don’t have to worry about that yet. My next “job” is to hand appliqué the hexagon quilt to the borders. (Right now, it is just basted to the borders.) I’ll keep you apprised of the progress I make on this.

Oh and for those of you following my progress on using my Quilter’s Planner...so far, so good. I have written lots of things down, checked a lot of things off,  and have followed through on using it (and doing a daily Instagram planner challenge) for the last month. I pretty proud of myself!    

4 comments:

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Oh my, this is gorgeous. I have always admired this quilt and it just keeps getting better.

Robin said...

Wow!! Beth I love the ombré fabric. I too hope you do not have to cut the black off. It really makes the quilt pop! It is absolutely stunning!!!!

dana said...

I had wondered what happened to the hexie quilt since you hadn't mentioned it in a while. I have got to tell you, Steve and I went to French Lick before Christmas and I KNOW where the hexie quilt inspiration came from! I even showed him! Just proving you are so right, inspirations can come from anything! Love the idea for the edging fabric.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Beth, I had no idea it was THAT big! Most of the quilt frames won't take that much, but you could probably get it on a 12-ft. table, if someone wee willing to, or a 14 ft. table for sure. 12 foot tables are 144 long, of course, but you don't have all that room. Still there would be 8" on a side - a little squeeze. 14 foot would give plenty of access, though, being 168. If you don't want to cut it down, then don't. Just search for someone with a longer quilt table on their machine. It's too beautiful to go cutting it off!