Hexagon Dreams and Reality

Center of a medallion from the Missouri Historical Society

You may recall I recently began piecing hexagons over paper to see what I could make with a Charm pack of my Morris Workshop collection.

I began dreaming of medallions of fussy cut pattern.

Detail from about 1875 from the collection of Terry Thompson

About 1935 by Albert Small

But reality struck.

You can't get too far on a Charm pack if you are piecing concentric rings and worrying about shading. The numbers increase at a Malthusian rate as you go out from the center. (Don't ask me what a Malthusian rate is.)

So does the lumpiness, but that will quilt out (I always assure myself.)
I realized I would have to square up the edges and call it a mini quilt.

That wasn't as easy as I dreamed either. Resolving the edges on these things can be challenging. A lot of people advised me to just applique it down onto another piece of fabric.
(In the center of another piece of fabric!)

Hexagon from about 1840 from Copake Auctions

I could have just given up on the concentric rings and gone for random as I ran out of fabric.

The pattern used to be called Job's Troubles and now you know why.

There are a lot of unfinished hexagon projects out there.

And a lot with some interesting solutions to the problem of turning a hexagon into a rectangle.

From about 1960 from Donna Stickovich's collection

About 1910 from Keepsake Cottage

About 1940 from Larry Schwarm's collection.

Apparently she just couldn't stop adding pieces.

Marcena McNabb, Oklahoma, about 1940.

Collection of Mary Ann Anders.

Right now I will be happy with my mini.

And thanks for all the suggestions about printing my own hexagons on freezer paper, on fabric or on the cards that fall out of magazines. However, I feel that one should never advise an obsessive that he or she should be saving the cards that fall out of magazines.

Albert Small after being advised to save cards that fall out of magazines.

The quilt behind him is the one pictured above.

I still like paying somebody to measure and cut the templates for me but if I ever have another hexagon dream I'll consider the suggestions.

Here's a pattern of sorts. The numbers are the number of hexagons you need for each ring. I guess you add 6 as you go out. For the corners I did you need 24 full hexagons and for the edges ten each of hexagons cut across one way and the other. Mine measures 15-1/4 x 17-1/2" with a 2-1/2" border.