Hexagon Madness.

Here is where I share my weirdness with you all. I love to take old tops, blocks and cutter quilts and re-make them. Yes it takes more time than making a quilt from new fabric but I love to give these old treasures new life. I bought this 1930s hexagon piece at the IQF in Houston. It had been made into a dresser runner with a lace edge along one long side. The hexagons were nicely made but the white hexagons in the pathways look like they were made by someone else as they are not all hexagon in shape where they are stitched. it looks like the hexagon flowers were made by an experienced stitcher as the stitching is fine and the flowers are all regular in shape. However, where the pathways join the flowers, there are folds and edges which are no longer hexagons.

I too lots of photos so I can re-create it as it was intended. The hexagons were 1 inch in soze so I am re-making them as 3/4 inch hexagons which allows me to avoid the seams where they are worn and also allows me to still use those white pathways which seem to be smaller than the hexagon flowers. Some of the hexagon flowers were cut to make the dresser runner and I will re-join these again using the sewing machine so I can use as many of the pieces as possible.

You can see how the hexagons have been cut and edged with lace along one side. I removed the lace and I'm going to repair as many of the hexagons as possible. A couple of the fabrics used in the hexagons have frayed too much to use so they will be eliminated from the re-purposed piece.

Here is the first hexagon flower I've re-stitched. I find that re-purposing the fabric means that I get the old world charm but I can make it sturdy enough that it will last for more years to come.
 If you are interested I'll check back through my blog for more examples of my rescues. So there you have it- I am weird but I love to rescue old pieces and fix them. It makes me feel connected to quilters from the past. No one starts out to make an ugly quilt and I have seen some "interesting" tops and blocks which look so much better when they have been rescued.
 Yes I have plenty of new projects to work on but rescues make me feel good!
Anyone else feel this way?
Hugs, Jan Mac