I made this hexagon quilt to become comfortable with Y seams. I saw a version of it in a book by Malka Dubrawsky, an American quilter whose aesthetic is fun, funky and bright. She even uses bleach and every day objects to “dye” fabrics and create her own playful designs.
In her book, Fresh Quilting: Fearless Color, Design and Inspiration, she has a hexagon quilt in greys and yellows that is quite stunning. I didn’t have those colors on hand so I used what I had plenty of (pinks, greens, and blues) and got to work cutting out large hexagons with a cardboard template. Then I set to sewing them together. To my surprise the dreaded Y seams were easier than I’d imagined and I was pleased with the result, in a technical way. But the quilt didn’t do anything for me so I put it in the closet with my other ho-hum creations and moved on to something more visually and emotionally satisfying. A few years passed.
Since I’ve been in a Finishing mode for the past several months I got out the hexagon quilt, intending to put it on my longarm, just to get some practice and thinking I’d give the quilt to charity. But I was working with a scrap piece of batting which really wasn’t large enough all the way around for a proper quilt sandwich to manage well on the longarm. So I ended up quilting it on my sewing machine, using the same design Malka did hers with: an elongated zigzag. My Bernina did a beautiful job, as usual, and when I was done, without stressing too much, I found the yard of aqua and grey diagonal stripe I’d bought to use for a binding “someday”, but which I’d forgotten about, as happens more frequently than I’d like to admit. It worked well enough. And voila, the little quilt was done.
But I still wasn’t excited about it. And I even regretted “wasting” some of the Kaffe Fassett prints (large florals) I’d used in the quilt. Oh well. Chalk it up to a learning experience, but don’t spend time or effort writing about it, I said to myself.
However … sometimes life does have its fun little surprises. I had the quilt on the table when the family came over for tea on Sunday and my daughter-in-law exclaimed how much she loved the quilt. Really?! In fact she admitted it was her favorite of all the quilts I’d ever made! Wow!
Obviously it had to go home with her.
It is lovely when a quilt finds the right home to live in. Even lovelier when it’s one the quiltmaker was tempted to put on the reject pile. Who knew?!
Photo credits are my daughter-in-law’s, as I neglected to get photos of it before I sent it home with her.
Sings the Raven 
My oh my, what a difference time makes! Leaving things alone and then revisiting them is a breath of fresh air. Every quilt has a home. That home just must be found.
Keep up the excellent work!
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