Hexagon Top Prepped for FMQ

Yesterday, I was crawling around on my family room floor spray basting the hexagon quilt. I usually procrastinate when I get to this stage because it hurts my knees, tires me out, and makes me all sweaty. Correction – men sweat, but women glisten. Believe me, it was as if someone had sprinkled me with glitter I was glistening so much. Yes, if I were younger and in better shape I would not have these issues. But quilting should not be a cardio exercise. After laying down the backing, wrong side up, I taped down the four corners and the middle of all four edges. I then layered the batting on the backing and the pieced top on the batting. I surrounded the sandwich with folded pillowcases so no overspray got on the hardwood floor. The Odif 505 temporary adhesive for fabric is water soluble and wipes up, but still I avoid getting this film on the floor. I used to use newspapers and discard them but they tore and occasionally left black smudges; so now instead I use pillowcases. They pick up easily and go through a quick wash.

I taped diagonally across the corners directly onto the floor. The batting is 2 inches larger than the quilt top in both dimensions so it extends out an inch beyond the edges if I get it centered. Since I have a HQ Sweet Sixteen sit-down mid-arm, I do not need an excess of batting or backing along the edges for "loading". Still, I was cutting it pretty close here. The top measures about ~ 88" by 92" so it is easy to put the batting on incorrectly rotated 90°. Whew! I got it right. I especially love the backing fabric that is visible peeking out all around.

I knew which fabric I was going to use for the back. I had 8 yards of it! I had purchased it at a quilt show in Brentwood in 2017 and I blogged about it in my post for 8/21/17. I will repeat part of the story here:

The blue fabric below has a bit of a story. It was packaged in a zip lock bag to be cleared out, marked with the reduced price of $16 for 8 yards and a note with the sales pitch that it would make a great backing. The blue color has such depth and I was drawn to something about it - yes, other than the price! I was fingering it and murmured, "This is different." A member of my guild standing near my side overheard me and quipped, "Yeah, it is butt ugly." As I continued to finger and fondle it I replied, "But you know how something can be so ugly, it is cute? I do not know if this is peach pits or avocados or a reverse image of a hard boiled egg half, but it kind of calls to me." ... Like that unforgettable, scruffy, begging mutt at the dog pound that you just have to take home, I picked up the fabric and walked over to pay for it. The vendor, who was closing out her shop reminded me, "You know the artist who did this is blind." 

 

  

George Mendoza the artist, is also an athlete, and a motivational speaker. George Mendoza was a 1980 Olympian in track who has suffered since his teen years from a form of juvenile macular degeneration. He has no central, detailed vision but paints the peripheral colors he sees and interprets. Printed on the selvage, along with the artist’s name is the fabric title, Pebbles. That revelation solves the “peach pit”, “avocado”, “egg yolk” debate. I felt the scattered round shapes echo the medallion feel of the hexagons. This “butt ugly” fabric was perfect. The royal blue background was a feature color at my daughter's wedding in 2011. She even had blue flowers in her bridal bouquet.

 

In the last half yard of the fabric there was a tiny slit in the fabric, near the central fold. The backing took three lengths of fabric but the third length was a small enough width that I was able to avoid the flaw. My cut along the length of the ruler was within the slit location. Murphy’s Law did not prevail for once.

How many pieces are in this quilt? I have counted multiple times and gotten different answers! This time both my husband and I counted and we arrived at the same answer so I am calling it official. Actually, I had to piece one of the orange equilateral triangles, so that may add one piece. But really that orange triangle is two halves which still sums to one triangle. And then we couldn't find where that was; so, other than in this blog post, it shall remain uncounted.

170 six-triangle piece hexagons = 6*170 = 1020
3 non-pieced whole hexagons = 3 *1 = 3
11 two-piece "bowties" in each of eight twelve-hexagon columns = 8*2*11 =176
12 two-piece "bowties" in each of seven eleven-hexagon columns = 7*2*12 =168
7 triangular inserts along each of two edges = 2*7 = 14

TOTAL: 1020 + 3 + 176 + 168+ 14 = 1381 pieces

After the spray basting, exhausted and sweaty, I picked up the quilt sandwich and carried it over to the dining room where I spread it out to preview and decide the FMQ pattern. While I was doing that, my husband took the pieces of masking tape that I'd removed and made me a flower on the wall. Aw! Wasn't that sweet? He still likes me, glisten and all.