Grandmother's Flower Garden Class

Years ago, one of the first quilts I made was a Grandmother's Flower Garden.
Since then, I have taught many classes the wonderful method of English paper piecing, where each hexagon is sewn by hand.

This may not look like a quilt a beginner could make, but trust me on this one.
Time consuming yes! But easy enough to construct that even a 10 year old can master.

I taught a class last night at Quilted Works here in St. George, Utah, and had everyone wave hello. I had a few new quilters in the group and they agreed that this is a really easy and fun quilt to make. In fact, as they finished their first flowers, many said "This could be addictive!"

My pattern came from the book Grandma's Quiting Bee, which can still be found on Amazon. (for as little as .84 cents)

Grandmother's Flower Garden was the most popular pattern of 1925. Many women who never made another quilt finished a GFG.
(One lady laughed and said it was probably because this quilt took a life time to complete!)

Hexagon templates have been found from as early as 1770, and considered to be one of the oldest quilt patterns.
The original roots of GFG came from 18th Century England, brought to the United States by immigrants as early as 1807.
Grandmother's Flower Garden is also thought to be the first published quilt pattern in America.

So fun to see the enthusiasm as students finish their first flowers.

Some were well organized before they even came to class.

Dare I mention that there are 2,277 hexagons in the queen sized quilt I made?
Not wanting to chase everyone out of the room, I did show the class many alternative hexagon projects that do not require as much time and effort.