Two Hexagon Quilts

Today I have two finishes to show you. These are both spectacular examples of old quilt tops. They are both made from hundreds of tiny hexagons (probably well over 1000 each) and are both hand pieced! Before we go any further, I need to give credit where credit is due. I did not piece these quilt tops. All I did was finish them. I haven’t pieced a quilt top by hand since I was 17, and YIKES, that was 25 years ago! I loved that quilt I made when I was 17 and was SEW proud of myself for making it. BUT, it DID NOT have hundreds of tiny hexies like the ones I’m going to show you in this post. It was also not nearly as skillfully done as these.

I finished these two lovely hexagon quilts for a local friend who I’d made a previous custom order for. She brought me some old quilt tops that were pieced by her Great Grandmother. I thought it would be appropriate to tell you a little bit about the lady who pieced these super cool quilt tops. Sometimes quilters finish old quilt tops but have no idea who made them. So, it’s nice when you really are able to know a little bit about the person who spent so much time making the quilt even if you never got to meet her. Just FYI, I do have permission from her Great Granddaughter to share this information and use her photograph.

Nina Snyder

I never got to meet Mrs. Snyder, but I feel like I would have liked her. She was a quilter, and we quilters are an awesome bunch.

She lived in New Market, Alabama all her life and was married to Albert Snyder. She loved quilting, and it shows in her work! You’ll see what I mean by that as you scroll down and see these two lovely quilt tops. Judging froms some of the fabrics in one of the quilts I’m going to show you, I think she probably made quilts for some of the kids in her family. What a treasure to have! She had a teacup Chihuahua that she loved. She had a waist apron that she made and wore it all the time except for when she went to church. I am truly hononered to get to finish some of her quilt tops!

The Grandmas Flower Garden quilt

I have a lot of pictures of this one because it’s wonderfully scrappy! So, I wanted to take a few close shots to show some of the super cool fabric I found. This is a great example of how our quilting grandmothers and great grandmothers used the fabrics they had on hand. Most of these fabrics looked like they were quilting cotton from a fabric store, but there were a few pieces in there that were probably from old clothes. You can’t tell from that picture, but even the white hexagons were made from two different fabrics. I only noticed this while quilting it due to the slightly different textures and maybe a subtle shade difference.

For all the scrappiness, it still has a nice cohesive look. I didn’t notice this at first but all of the flower centers are the same solid red, and all of the coral hexies in between the flowers are the same fabric. It’s a super cute kid friendly print. Check out that little dinosaur showing his cute little face in that picture below. I sort of wondered if this was an intentional fussy cut or just a happy accident. I also spotted some stars and rockets here in there in that coral fabric. This is one of the fabrics that I found that makes me suspect that Mrs. Snyder made a lot of quilts for the kids in her family.

Based on one print in particular, I think this quilt top was probably pieced in the late 80’s/early 90’s. I say this because I found a Ninja Turtles print in this top. This print was pretty nostalgic for me. I remember watching Ninja Turtles with my cousins after school at my grandmother’s house and playing the Nintendo game. That cartoon didn’t come on until 1987, but I am not a vintage fabric expert. So, I don’t know how old the other fabrics were or how long she’d had the Ninja Turtles fabric before she decided to put it in the quilt.

The next few pictures show some of the other cool kid friendly prints that I found in this quilt.

You can also see some florals, polkadots, stripes… all kinds of prints for a truly scrappy and super cool old quilt. I chose to use that Glass Beads print in Fucshia by Wilmington Prints for backing and binding because it has a lot of fun colors just like the quilt top.

The Hexagon Diamond Quilt

There are a lot of things I like about this fabulous hexagon quilt. I suspect that it was made mostly from dress shirts and maybe part of an old dress too. This goes back to our quilting grandmothers using what they had. Why throw out a whole shirt or dress when you have the capability of turning it into something as cool as this! I use old clothes to make quilts all the time when I make T-shirt quilts, so I can definitely appreciate a quilt like this one.

I decided to use Denim Jacket in Trelis Blue by Wilmington prints for the backing and binding on this one. I thought the plaid look went well with all the plaids in the quilt top and the denim look was nice to coordinate with the use of old clothes.

Some issues with finishing old quilt tops

I talked a little bit about some of the issues you might run into in this post about finishing a quilt top that was made by one of my grandmothers. These quilt tops were very nicely done so that I didn’t run into many issues with them. The thing that I stress over the most is wondering if the original maker would like the way I finished her quilt. Did Mrs. Snyder have something specific in mind for backing? Would she have liked the fabrics I chose? Did she picture both of these hand quilted instead of the free motion quilting I did? I hope she would have liked the way they turned out.

I felt the same way about finishing my Grandmother’s quilt. This is something I always have to make myself get over. Finishing these old quilt tops makes them usable. They survived being machine washed and dried and can now be enjoyed by future generations instead of stored away and forgotten. It’s definitely appropriate to consider quilts art, but quilts are meant to be used and loved.

Quilt Along Reminder

Don’t forget that my next quilt along starts Monday (October 23, 2023). We’ll be using my Sound Waves Baby Quilt pattern. It’s quick and easy. One of the main reasons I chose this one is becuase the top goes together so quickly. This will give me a little more time to devote some posts to helping you finish your quilt. You can sign up for this quilt along here. I’d love to have you join me in this one too!

That’s all I’ve got for today

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog!

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Happy quilting!