Maybe you could make a smaller seam allowance on this project to maximize the amount of the background fabric, like you said it is a small wall quilt so I am sure that an accurate 1/8" seam allowance would work..........that is what I would do so the rest of you can call me insane...............again!

Dee in TX (DBRADFOR3) said:

Nope, I do not feel up to repressing all those circles

that's right, Dee .... STOP THE REPRESSION OF CIRCLES!  FREE THE CIRCLES!!  

You go, girl!   You're such a radical ... you tell those rectangles where they can go!   :-)

hahah

I may repress a lot of things, but circles ain't on the list!

You might remember the 3D Hollow Cube Forever Project that I had been working on.   This is the last picture I had posted.

That beige background is the flat sheet that I use as my design wall.  The hexagon cubes have been sewn together but were just pinned to the "design wall".  

As it sat there, mocking me, I was thinking what to use for the background fabric .... I had already decided that I would applique this whole big mass of hexagons onto a background fabric but needed to decide what color, etc.  As I was going through my stash, I rediscovered a big piece of 108" wide backing fabric in a beige tone-on-tone paisley kinda print.  Bingo ... that was it.

I wanted the final quilt to be bed sized, probably twin .. at about 65"x95".   At 108" wide, I could use the width of the fabric as the length of the quilt and just cut off enough to make it the appropriate width.   Sounds simple enough, right?   yeah.

Well, you might notice that the hexagon part isn't rectangular.  Using the highest/lowest points for the top/bottom and the widest points for the width, I folded it into quarters for easier handling.   Without cutting the fabric, I marked off (what I thought was) the appropriate width and folded that section into quarters also.  Matching up the center marks of the hexagons and the background fabric, I pinned them securely together.

I'm thinking ahead to how this is going to get loaded onto the longarm without the hexagons bubbling all over the place.  It seemed to me that with a piece this large, I really needed to securely attach the hexagons to the background fabric so it would move around.  To me, that meant that I need to baste the hexagons down before they got appliqued.  So, working from the center out, I hand basted along the long continuous seam lines and then basted around the perimeter.  That took me the better part of a 2 hour movie, but that's what movies are for. :-)

I hung the background fabric up on my "design wall" ... and oh no.   Somehow, I've definitely managed to skew the hexagons.  Ugh.   They sure look as though they aren't perfectly vertical and horizontal with respect to the background fabric.  Ugh.   And it's all been basted down.  LOTS of basting.  ugh.

One solution, of course, is to remove all the basting and attempt to re-do it.  But I don't have a big flat surface to properly place the hexagons onto the background fabric so I don't see where I'm going to have any better luck if I re-do it.

Fortunately, there is LOTS of extra fabric top/bottom and the sides.  What I'm seriously considering doing is rather heretical.  I'm thinking of squaring the background fabric with respect to the hexagons.  That *does* mean that since the hexagons are skewed, the edges of the background fabric are not going to be on-grain.   Yes, that does offend my sensibilities.  But it's not like the hexagons are BADLY skewed ... just enough to be noticeable to me.   So, I'm thinking ... just how badly will the off-grain edges be?  Right now, I don't know.   

And once it's quilted, will that really be an issue?  I don't know.

Here's the current status: the hexagons are basted onto the background fabric.  The red arrow is the 108" direction of the fabric and is the lengthwise direction of the quilt.   Unfortunately, I couldn't stand far enough back from the quilt to show the sides of the background fabric .. there's quite a bit of fabric there on both sides.  And since 108" is longer than the height of my design wall, it puddles on the floor.  

So why can't you load and quilt it without trimming. Trim after quilting?

I think Ami's suggestion makes the most sense.  I'm just worried if you trim before you quilt it will cause problems when you load it as it will be slightly on the bias.  Of course you may have issues depending on how you plan to quilt, if there are going to be straight lines that you need running lengthwise.  that's a tough one.  Could you fold your background to get a straight of grain crease and use that as registration marks - if it were me (and I'm only slightly crazier than you) I would probably rebaste, worried that more problems are down the road if you don't.  Flip a coin?

I thought you were gonna say you blasted those down your long arm....lol.

if it is off grain and you want to trim it, could you add a border to stabilize it?  It wasn’t in the plan, but just a potential thought.

Why not applique the hexi piece on the 108" fabric lengthwise (i.e., with the selvedges on the sides), instead of turning it 90 degrees?  Then once the applique is done, quilt as desired.  I don't get why that wouldn't work.  Just wondering.  What am I missing?   

I love your "Ah Ha"  moments.  They always result in something really nice.  I love your placemats.  They look great on your table.

Dee in TX (DBRADFOR3) said:

"True colors" mini quilt

This will be a real cute wall hanging.  Remember, if you move, that your will need wall spaces for all the beautiful art you are making.