Despite having to scrap my participation in the Boston Modern Quilt Guild exhibit, I finally did finish the mini quilt that I made as a part of the guild’s challenge for the show. The directions said to work with the colors of the Modern Quilt Guild’s Quilt Con block contest. I brought my paper-pieced hexagons on vacation, and this was my hand-sewing all summer.
They’re 1.5″ hexagons, meaning I started with 3.5″ scrap squares. It’s all hand-pieced – an absolute first for me. While I don’t see myself going full-on into hand sewing (oh, the muscle fatigue!), it certainly is fun to be able to take a small project along when traveling. The finished mini quilt is about 18″ across from one flat side to another, or 24″ from the widest points – each of the six sides is about 11″ long. (Discussing the measurements of hexagons is a lot more confusing than squares and rectangles, dammit.)
To be perfectly honest, I am not thrilled with the quilting. I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do, and then the other night I decided to just GET IT DONE. The quilt itself had no destination or deadline, so it was just lingering, unfinished, on my to-do list. I ended up doing little arcs around each round of hexagons in different colors of thread depending on the fabrics I was sewing. For one thing, I wish I had done the arcs on every side of every hexagon, I think it would have looked better. (But I was so tired and cranky, I couldn’t be bothered to go back and fill in the stuff I hadn’t done. Lame, me.) For another, I need a LOT more practice to get nice, even arc shapes. Ugh. Not so pretty.
But, hey, sometimes it’s better to be done than to be perfect. So there it is, done and off my list! Lessons learned.
