How to Make a Grandmother's Garden Quilt

A Grandmother's Garden quilt is a work of art and a precious and treasured possession. These quilts are quite rare because of the time and hand sewing it takes to create them.I am not including finishing instructions; if you're taking on this project, you already know how to finish a quilt.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fabric scraps of all patterns and colors
• Several yards of background fabric
• Hand-sewing thread
• Thimble
• Hexagon template
• Poster board

Hexagons by the millions!

1. 
   Basic hexagon pattern (not to scale)

   Your hexagon pattern must be perfect, or the pieces won't fit together right. They can be any size; the quilt shown above has 1" hexagons, although larger squares will sew up much faster.Once you have the hexagon, trace it onto poster board and make hundreds of them. You will be able to reuse some of them, but they will eventually lose their ability to hold up. Plain paper does not work, nor does card stock, and you can't use plastic because the needle won't penetrate it. Punch a hole in the center of each hex with a paper punch to make it easy to remove.

2. 
   Assembling a flower block

   For each block, you will need one center hex, six hexagons of one color, 12 of another color and 18 of whatever your background color will be. Cut scraps of fabric so that they are at least 1/3" larger than your hex pattern.Place the pattern hex on the backside of the fabric and fold one side of the fabric over as shown. Put the needle and thread down through the fabric, cardboard and fabric and bring the stitch back up and through. Fold over the next edge and stitch the same way; repeat, folding all edges and stitching them. Make one final stitch at the end, just to hold it tight, and snip the thread.

3. 
   An almost-completed flower block

   It's easier to stitch the fabric hexes together by placing them face-to-face, but you will find that the stitches show. If you hold them side-by-side, it will take a bit longer, but no stitches will be noticeable, which makes for a much nicer quilt. Sew the flower together by sewing the hexes on in a clockwise fashion. Make sure you remember every seam!Once you have the first six "petals" on, you can cut the stitches on the center piece and pop out the cardboard hex for reuse. This also makes the pieces fit together better for sewing. After you sew on the outer petals, you can cut the stitches on the first six petals and pop out the cardboard on them. NEVER cut the stitches on the outside petals until you have sewn on the background hexes.

4. 
   Finished!

   Sew on the background hexes.After you have determined how large you want your quilt to be, make all the necessary flowers, complete with background, and sew them together. Eventually, you will be able to remove some of the cardboard hexes as you sew in the pieces that surround them; the only remaining ones will be at the edge. You will need to hand-stitch these seams when you finish the quilt. Press the quilt top from the top.Press with an iron from the front

Tips & Warnings

• There are many different ways to create a Grandmother's Garden quilt--for example, you could make daisies with yellow centers, pale yellow inner petals and white outer petals on a blue or green background.
• This kind of quilt takes a very long time and a great deal of patience to complete, but it's a great carry-along project.