Machine quilting the border and some hexagons

I've now quilted the border of Good Golly Miss Mollie (my interpretation of the Godstone Grannies coverlet) I decided to quilt straight lines and I used the width of my darning foot on my domestic sewing machine to space the lines. I really like this look and it is so fast and easy! Before I add the binding I want to quilt the half diamonds around the quilt. The reason is that the border is very narrow (about 2" at its widest) and I like to have some fabric to hang onto as I move the quilt under the needle.

I'm allowing the shapes within the hexagon diamonds dictate the quilting. This means each block will be different however I will repeat some of the motifs to give the quilt a more cohesive look. In the picture above you can see I've added very simply quilting to the hexagon rosette at the top ans well as the partial rosettes along the bottom edge. I decided to fill in the lemon yellow background hexagons with a feather. I started by quilting the spine and it followed the curve of the half rosette. I then quilted the other side and this is the result. I think it enhances the block without taking away from the hexagon design. The straight lines on the narrow border really flatten the border so that the quilting on the hexagons can shine! If you look in the upper right corner you can see a little bit of quilting on another one of the diamonds.

Here is another half diamond on the side. I haven't decided how to quilt the rust colour hexagons on the bottom edge or the fussy cut white and grey print round but I had an idea for the solid brown.

This is what I did. They remind me of fiddleheads. The quilt is stabilized and nothing will shift so I can put off quilting the rest of this half diamond until I know what I want to do.

This is a close-up of the fiddleheads. I started on the left and quilted the first fiddlehead and then stitched along the edge of the taupe hexagon until I got to the point of the next so I could quilt the next fiddlehead. I continued in this way until each of them had its own fiddlehead!

Here's another example of how I'm allowing the hexagons to dictate the quilting. I had an idea as to how I would quilt the centre of each of the four hexagon rosettes and the dark brown frames.

Feathers are great for filling hexagons and three plumes per hexagon seems to do the trick! I haven't decided how I'll fill in the rosette or the rusty hexagons but it will come to me!

So there you have it! The quilting is underway and it is making me think about each block and what I should do! Stay tuned for more pictures!

Tomorrow I'll post  another installment in my Value Proposition Hexagon QAL, Side Setting Block 2 and the following Friday will be Block 11. I hope you'll be back for a visit! Until then, happy sewing!
Karen H

Quilting melon wedges in my Good Golly Miss Mollie hexagon quilt

Time to answer reader questions! Thanks to everyone who takes the time to leave a comment and ask questions; I'm always happy to share what I do and how I do it! Skootchover wrote "Can you illustrate your quilting in the path in a future post? I see the pattern that was created but don't really understand what you did in each hexagon". Angie asked  if there is backtracking (sewing on previously quilted lines). There is no backtracking involved!

I am quilting Good Golly Miss Mollie (my version of the Godstone Grannies coverlet) on my domestic sewing machine. The first thing I normally do when I begin to quilt is ditch quilt but that might not be the best approach for a hand stitched hexagon quilt. I decided to stitch melon wedges (little crescents) in the path because I can work continuously from the top of the quilt to the bottom with no stops. When all these little melon wedges are stitched the result is a little star in each path hexagon. You can see the melon wedge stars on the path. The best part of all is that it serves the same function as ditch quilting which is that it stabilizes the quilt so nothing will shift. Once I've ditch quilted I can go back and quilt inside the blocks which are diamonds shapes made up of hexagons.

To quilt the melon wedges on Good Golly Miss Mollie I used a polyester 50wt thread on top in a colour that matches the path fabric. This helps the quilting disappear and all that is left is the texture and image of the little star. In the bobbin I used Superior's The Bottom Line in a neutral colour. My needle is a Superior Titanium Topstich 90/14. The machine that I'm using is a Juki TL2010Q mechanical (not computerized) sewing machine. I begin at the top of the path and quilt a little melon wedge or crescent in the first hexagon. You can see my start point in the red circle. Once I've quilted the wedge I quilt the next one to the right.

The next wedge is stitched in the same hexagon where it touches the next path hexagon.

I move to the next hexagon and quilt a wedge on the other side of the wedge I just quilted and this creates sort of an elliptical shape. Then I'm on to the top side of the same hexagon. I continue quilting in this way until I reach the point where I need to change direction. I stopped at the red circle because I want to continue quilting in a downward direction. The path will be quilted in a zigzag direction.

I continue quilting the melon wedges until I get to the bottom of the path.

Now I want to quilt up the other side of the path that I just quilted.

I continue until I get all the way back to my starting point.

I go back to the top of my quilt and begin to quilt melon wedges (marked in green) in the next part of the path.

I continue all the way to the bottom of the quilt

and then I come back up and quilt melon wedges on the other side of the hexagons.

So there you have it - melon wedges. These little shapes are a great way to stabilize a hexagon quilt path and it is a shape that is easy to manage on a domestic sewing machine. The hexagons in Good Golly Miss Mollie are 3/4" so the wedge is relatively small and easy to quilt. The wedges don't have to be perfect or identical. Similar is good enough because when the quilting is done what you will see is the overall texture. This melon wedge shape also works well in other blocks. When I made my Baskets and Nine Patches quilt I stitched them in the little 3" nine patches. I like a flat quilt and the melon wedges produce that look and feel.

This is the finished quilt Baskets and Nine Patches. You will find a free pattern for this quilt under the tab Patterns by Karen H.

Until I post again, happy quilting on your domestic sewing machine!

Karen H

Quilting Godstone Grannies AKA Good Golly Miss Mollie

The quilting of Good Golly Miss Mollie is well underway. This quilt is my interpretation of the Godstone Grannies quilt which is at the Quilt Museum in York, England. You can see the original and read about it here. The name of my version of the quilt comes from Mollie Simmonds who was the leader of the group that made the original quilt in the early 1960s.

I've made oodles of hexagon quilts and usually have a pretty good idea as to how to quilt them on my domestic sewing machine (a Juki TL2010Q) but this one was a bit of a challenge because there is a variety of blocks and they can be quite different from one another. There are 31 whole diamonds in the quilt one of which is unique (the block in the centre) and the rest are pairs of blocks. There are also 4 pairs of half diamonds on the sides and 5 pairs of partial diamonds at the top and bottom. The colour is not right in this picture - it looks quite grey but in fact it is more buttery and peachy.

Normally I ditch quilt first, then quilt the border, bind the quilt and then go back and quilt the blocks. So what are the challenges? This quilt is entirely hand pieced using the English paper piecing method so ditch quilting isn't my preferred option. The second challenge is that the border is very narrow which means I'll have to quilt the partial blocks all around the quilt before I can bind it.

My solution was to quilt melon wedges in each of the path hexagons. I like this method because it creates a nice little start and there are relatively few starts an stops. This is a little bit of what it looks like. It isn't perfect - far from it but I'm not at all bothered because I know that once the whole thing is quilted the little imperfections will disappear! It also works the same as ditch quilting which stabilizes the quilt so that I can quilt the border and bind the quilt before quilting the diamond blocks.

What to do with the rest of the blocks? I don't like marking so I want to do as little of it as possible. I decided to work with the shapes created within the diamonds and use them as my inspiration for the quilting! Here is the same side block quilted! I quilted the orange rosette and its centre and then the four partial orange rosettes along the bottom edge. Then it was onto the feather swags on the side followed by the small swag below the orange rosette! I'm a happy quilt maker. I'll quilt the second partial block that is the same as this one in the same manner! That's two done and lots more to go!

Now that I have an idea about how to quilt the blocks I will ditch quilt the outside edge of the quilt where the hexagons were appliqued to the border strips and I'll quilt the border. I like close straight lines so I think that's what I'll do! When I've got it done I'll share pictures of the border quilting!

Until I post again happy sewing!
Karen H