Birds fly.
Over the Rainbow, why then, oh why can’t I?
If happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can’t I?
—Over the Rainbow, Lyric by E.Y. Harburg, Music by Harold Arlen
One of my goals for 2015 was to finish my yellow hexagon applique quilt. The yellow hexagons led me to thinking about The Wizard of Oz musical which I saw last summer and the song, Over the Rainbow. I took the words and used hexagons as musical notes.
I hand appliqued the “notes” and added green and orange hexagons to my rainbow. I machine stitched them using the method I saw on Modern Handcraft.
I added orange for the binding and it looked fabulous.
- Then I washed it!
I noticed that sides of the appliques were not stitched down and were coming out. This was caused by the way I folded the hexies. See in this photo the way the fabric was folded straight down. The stitching across the point of the hexagon did not catch the fabric. Some of the fabric caught and some didn’t.
I fixed some of them. But, man, what a chore.
I’m looking at it and wondering, “why can’t I just embrace this?”
I took off all the hexies which weren’t nailed down — 303 hexies to be exact.
And, I loved the outcome:
I would not have placed these hexies in this configuration, but it feels better than the pre-washed quilt. That’s Random Perfection.
Finding home in the random,
Wanda
Wanda's Life Sampler 
Wanda, I wouldn’t have known otherwise if you had just shown your final result. It’s fantastic! I would love to know the proper way to fold the hexies. I have been admiring the work of Modern Handcraft.
Love your new theme too.
LikeLike
When folding them you have to make sure the last fold isn’t folded perfectly straight down. That last fabric fold has to come across where the stitching is going to come across the fabric. I was too perfect because I made that last fold like I was making a mitered corner. The edge of the fold came down just to the left of the stitch line. When I stitched across the point of each hexagon, some of that fabric didn’t get stitched down. Some did because there was just enough fabric in the stitch line. And, even some of the ones I didn’t do so perfectly came out because I wasn’t exact in stitching across those points, and some of the hexies weren’t glued down exactly the correct space from the other hexagons. That made hitting the points more difficult as well.
LikeLike
great… as you said: random perfection.
LikeLike
beautiful!
LikeLike
Thanks for compliments.
LikeLike
This beautiful outcome could only be created by thinking outside the box. This is such an inspiration. I love it!
LikeLike
Thanks, Jennifer. It’s a huge relief that it turned out this way.
LikeLike
Nice save! I would have been tempted to curse…
LikeLike
I love the final Random Perfection way more than the original – which is odd cause usually I prefer order…the extra white space just speaks to me. Excellent choice to remove rather than reapir all those hexies!
LikeLike
I’ve been working on my design skills and the outcome here makes me think I should relax more and let some serendipity into my designs. It’s hard because I too prefer order.
LikeLike