3. Grandmother's Flower Garden
Grandmother's Flower Garden is just one "pattern" that can be made by this process, but it's a great starter project for beginners.
Working with uniform hexigon shapes allowed me to play with colors and call upon my own creativity.
If I'd found this process soooner I might have started a GFG long before I retired. This is fun!
It's also a great ice-breaker to meet new people. I carry a small bag inside my purse that holds a few QuiltPatis, precut fabric pieces, needle, long straight-pin, and thread. If I have to wait a while at the doctor's office, the car wash, a restaurant, or just about anywhere, I bring out my little bag and put a few units together to pass the time. There is almost always at least one person who wants to know what I'm making.
Designing a pattern is easy using the "hex graph" paper included in every package of QuiltPatis. I made several copies of the clean hex-graph paper so I could experiment with different designs before I started sewing. Also because I know I'll use the same package of QuiltPati forms on more than one project after I finish the first one (which Sue designed just to get me started).
Calculating size (the number of grid-cells to use) comes from measuring the shape in two directions.
I have "1-inch per side" forms. Because they are "hex" shaped, not one-inch squares, they are actually 2-inches in one direction and 1-1/2 inches in the other. When they're sewn together the "average" is about 2-inches per cell.
Armed with that estimate, I decided on a grid of 25 x 25 units (some people call them "cells"). Then we started playing with designs.
In the end we expanded the grid to 25 x 30 to keep from chopping off the side of my last flower on the page. Sue used highlight markers to fill in the colors enough so the "design pattern" would be easier to follow.
So we SHOULD always start with an estimated size desired, but also to be flexible -- allowing changes when the artist of the soul needs more (or less) room to make the canvas fit the picture.
Design A Pattern on Grid Paper Sue's Pattern to get me started First, I made a few extra pattern pieces from paper to use in cutting fabric scraps to the correct shape.
Then I drew out half a dozen pattern pieces on a sheet of paper knowing I would occassionally misplace them, or wear them out. I don't like to stop in the middle of the cutting process to make another pattern piece just because I trashed the first one.
New cutting patterns are made by tracing around the outside of the QuiltPati, then place another line 1/4" outside fhe first (I make it 3/8" for easier handling).
The new line is the "cutting" line.
