I think I jinxed myself when I talked about all of the steady progress I was making.  It’s been a busy week.  Well, I did manage to get the background on one flower from the third row.

And the back:

Not much, but better than nothing.

Seeing the back remind me that I like a slightly bigger than 1/4″ seam allowance, which I think will make buying a die cutter (and die, obviously) difficult.  None of them (that I’ve seen) are going to give me the 3/8″ seam allowance I’m more comfortable with.

If you know of a die cutter with suitable dies, please let me know in the comments!  Thanks in advance.

No exclamation point this week, but I have the second row sewn together.

And the first and second rows as they nest together:

Sorry about the shadows.  I definitely need better lighting.

This project is still very portable (remember that these hexagons measure 1/2″ on a side).  I didn’t attach the single hexagon green “leaves” because I have them all oriented a certain way and it would be a pain to mark them and bring green thread.  I’ll do them all at the end.  And I haven’t decided about that green gingham one yet.

I’m making slow and steady progress, which is great.  I’m not looking forward to doing the applique to the borders, though.

Over the past couple of weekends, we spent a lot of time in the car.  I didn’t have to drive, so I spent the time sewing background hexagons to flowers and joining the first row of Tiny Flower Garden (sans green “leaf” hexagons, hence the “almost” in the post title).  I’m so excited!

It’s actually starting to come together and the more time I spend with it, the more I like it.  I wonder if that’s because of the work I’m putting into it–or maybe it’s just that I didn’t expect much from this project, but I’m learning a lot.

I actually got halfway on joining the second row, but I’ll save photos of that until it’s done.  Soon, I hope.

To facilitate the “sewing while traveling” thing, I got a thread cutter pendant like I’d made fun of in the past.  I’m officially an old lady!  Joking aside, it worked really well.  I’m not used to wearing necklaces (and I had to wear a necklace of braided threads since I forgot to order a metal chain), but it was much less of a pain to wear it and use it than to unsheathe my tiny sharp scissors every time I needed them.  Because I was sewing instead of basting, I didn’t need them too often.

Picture up front today!

I chose and cut fabrics for all of the scrappy green leaves and got them basted onto their hexagons.  I was originally going to just use the green flowers fabric but I realized it’s the same design as the yellow flower center in the upper left.  That would have been weird.  Scrappy’s the way to go for this little wall-hanging anyway, I think, but I’m not so sure about that green and white gingham on the left.  It’s a little too pale.  I’ll leave it for now and let it sit in my brain.

I also finalized the scrappy yellow flower centers.  You’ll note that there’s one repeated fabric.  It looked best with those flowers and I decided not to sweat it.  It’s supposed to be eclectic and scrappy.  I’m using what I have.

You’ll see that I basted a dozen or so of the tan crosshatch background and I hate it.  It’s too dark and too rigid and formal.  Back to the fabric store, I guess.  I’m sure I can use it for something else, but if I’m putting all of this time into the hand sewing, I want to LOVE the final product, even if it’s not totally my thing.

You’ll also note that I’ve already sewn some of the flowers together and hit with the iron. Progress!  The older EPP guru lady at the fabric store said to use heavy starch, so I’ll need to get some at the grocery store.

The colors aren’t showing true in this photo.  I think that the beige background crosshatch fabric might be a little too dark and a little too boring.  You can click through for a full-sized picture.  I’m trying not to stress too much about it since it’s a practice project (and my first EPP project), and it’s for Prim and he’ll like it no matter how it turns out.

I guess I have to go back to the fabric store.  <sigh>  I thought that since the 1/2″ hexes were so small I’d be buying a lot less fabric.  Things have not turned out that way so far.  It’s not terrible, since I’m a new sewer and have very little in my stash to begin with–and I am still pursuing some machine-pieced projects.  I’m just infatuated with the hexagons lately.  I need a permanent place for my sewing machine.  Dragging it out every time is getting old, which is why I think I’m favoring the hand sewing.  It’s much easier to get my little container of supplies and get set up to hand sew.

I’ve managed to put my mind at ease about the whole “some stitches show on the front” issue. I’ve come to rest at “good, because it’s handmade–people aren’t machines”. And that’s an okay place for me, I think.

I am regretting being lazy for one of the light flowers and not changing out to a lighter thread.  Maybe I’ll take photos of it and pretend I did it on purpose to show my process.  Ha!

Since “Tiny Flower Garden” is a practice project, I’ve decided not to agonize over it (anymore).  I decided on a layout.  Also, I think twelve flowers is about my maximum.  It’s going to be a wall-hanging.  For an idea of scale, this layout mostly fills two sheets of letter-sized paper.

You can see that I decided on scrappy centers.  The bright yellow, while a fun fabric that I’m glad is in my stash, just didn’t look right with the other fabrics.  I’ve kept one center in that fabric, though, since I need some movement and interest.  I don’t want to have all of the centers (or the flowers, for that matter) in the same value range.

I was trying to figure out what to do with it when it’s done, when Prim walked by it as I was taking the picture and said, “Ooh!  It’s so pretty!”  I asked him if he wanted it to hang on his wall when it was finished, he enthusiastically agreed, so now it has a home.  Also, even though I don’t love the Grandmother’s Flower Garden Pattern, I find that I like working on it more now that it’s for him and not just an exercise or technique practice.

I really like the green flowers for the dots.  They’ll blend in well.  I also like the light beige crosshatch background hex a lot more, which is great, since I have a yard of that fabric.  I won’t need anywhere near that much for this project, but it’s a great neutral. I was just worried that it wouldn’t look right.

I’ve been impatient about actually sewing things together, so I’ll baste the rest of the green “leaves” and background pieces later.  Next up, joining flowers!

I don’t love traditional Grandmother’s Flower Garden layouts, with large flowers and green paths, but what I especially don’t like is the very uneven edges.  I don’t want to do half-flowers, either.  I already have twelve flowers done and don’t want this project to become a huge deal.  I also don’t like GFGs when there’s no path and just a jumble of flowers (though I see how that could be pretty–argh!  No sidetracking!).

This is how I’m thinking of finishing my “Tiny Flower Garden”:

Pretend that the hexes touch.  The flower colors in the mockup don’t correspond to reality. I’ll applique the finished garden onto more of the same background fabric (right now, I’m planning on that being a beige crosshatch, but I’m not sure the color’s right) and then quilt (by hand? dunno) and bind the straight edges normally, probably in green.  I have a green fabric in mind for the single “leaf” hexes.

I need to get the leaf hexes basted, then I’ll lay it all out and snap a picture.

Remember how I said I wasn’t going to make a Grandmother’s Flower Garden?

Well, I was wrong.

I realized that before I got too far into making diamonds, I should figure out if I like finishing (appliqueing to borders and quilting and binding) hexagon quilt-type things. (I’d still have to do those steps to a pillow.)

But I also didn’t want to use up fabrics I like. I’m probably not going to use these flowery fabrics for anything, so they became petals.  The extra petal hexagon in the photos is for my general 1/2″ hexagon pile.  The ones that are predominantly one color are destined to be incorporated into diamonds.  The ones that aren’t will end up in a very scrappy hexagon thing, yet to be determined.

I’m auditioning centers.  I bought the solid-looking yellow that you see in the first photo to make the centers, and the lady at the quilt store (a different one than the scrap class teacher, but luckily also one who’s into EPP big-time) said it was “old-timey” and appropriate, but I don’t like how it looks.  I think it’s too bright.  The stack of yellows and yellow-ishes on the right are all options for centers. I don’t mind repeating fabrics, so I maybe need to decide on only six or four. I dunno.

I’m also not sure yet if I like the fussy-cut roses on the dark grey or the tiny buds from the same fabric or a mixture of the two.

I have a lot of thinking (and sewing!) to do.