World's Biggest Hexagon Quilt

The Cutting of the Quilt

2010-08-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

The Quilt is finished, the results recorded and judged. The quilt is accepted as a world record and will be in the Guiness World Book of Records.

So now what happens?

Hold a chop up Party!!

Gail took great pleasure in making the first cut. She called it a Yahoo!! moment. All the hard work, planning and wonderful contributions from quilters all around the world had resulted in a world record and a very large and heavy quilt. The plan had always been to cut it up and distribute it to charities and nursing homes and that task is underway now.

The quilt has been cut into 115 smaller quilts of various sizes. A wonderful group of ladies is current adding the bindings to the quilts and a morning tea is planned to present the quilts to the various organisations.

I will post more photos as the work progresses.

Cheers

Christine

Queensland Quilters Picnic

2010-05-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

Well the quilt is almost finished and is displayed along a fence for the Queensland Quilter's Annual Picnic. This is at the Gatton Historical Village on Tuesday May 11 2010.

At this stage the quilt is still in a couple of sections and has to be stitched together prior to the official judging to see if it sets a world record.

The quilt is now being hung in the Gatton Town Hall as part of the quilt display for the Inagural Gatton Quilt Show.

Can you see your hexagons?

The quilt is finished and judged.

2010-05-17T23:51:00.000-07:00

Some facts about the quilt:

The completed quilt ended up being 108.8 metres long or 357 feet for those on the other side of the pond.

It contains 152 636 hexagons.

Weighs 146.7 kilograms or 321 pounds.

The machine quilting used 17 358 metres of Bottomline Thread and 26 240 metres of So Fine thread from Superior Threads. They “sponsored” this hence the plug.

It took approximately 160 hours to quilt and bind.

Lyn started quilting the first section on 5th January and quilted 20 sections in total, the largest was 7.5metres or 24.6 feet long.

The last section was pieced to the quilt 4 hours before judging.

Hopefully I will have some photos of the completed quilt to post in the next few days.

Craftexpo Brisbane

2010-03-25T13:48:00.000-07:00

The quilt is currently on display at the Craftexpo which is being held in Brisbane until Sunday.

It is now so big that it is now longer possible to get it all in one photo if you any to see any detail.

Wrapped in Hexagons

2010-03-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

Online magazine atricle

2010-03-03T14:55:00.000-08:00

And of course, I'm busy putting hexagons together for the World's Biggest Hexagon Quilt. It will be launched in May, and I will keep you posted about that. Here's the link to the latest update about the Hexagon

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art4580.asp

Gail in Gatton

MAN HELPS CREATE HEXAGON QUILT !!

2010-03-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

This message was received from one of the army of volunteers helping in this marathid challenge. It was just too much fun not to share:

Judy Crosswell here. I was one of the Beenleigh Quilting members who spent a day at Gatton on Jan 27 to take part in the Giant Hexagon Quilt Working Bee.

As you know, our member Faye Bowman, has encouraged us to continue the Working Bee back home so a group of us have been making hexagons, sewing them together into rosettes, sewing these then into rows and sewing the rows together. Then comes the fiddly part - removing the papers!!

I have found a novel way to do this - enlist my husband Gordon's help! The attached photo shows this; he has even been heard to comment that it is quite addictive. And I have heard him curse some of the tiny stitches holding the papers in!

As this is mainly a "girls"effort I thought you should know that the men are with us all the way!!

What a trooper. Good on ya Gordon!

February, Next Section.

2010-02-03T23:43:00.000-08:00

The sections continue to grow. This is another 8 metre section ready to be sent to Lyn for machine quilting. Groups of quilters have been gathering in Gatton to assist with the joining of hexagon rows. There is always room for groups who would like to help. Just contact Gail to arrange a time.

First Airing of the Quilt

2010-01-27T12:01:00.000-08:00

The first large section of the Hexagon Quilt has been aired in North Street, Gatton. An article will appear in the local Gatton Star newspaper.

Lyn Crump, who is machine quilting the Hexagon Quilt in 6 metre sections watched by Jenny and some of the Beenleigh Quilters.

Moving the quilt, even in sections, is now becoming a team effort!

Preparing for the first airing, watched by a curious local.

What a stunning piece of quilt. And there is a lot more where that came from.

The Quilting Begins

2010-01-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

Even though the deadline for hexagons to arrive was 1 December, parcels continue to arrive. The have been a number of stitching days where groups of ladies have gathered to stitch sections of hexagons together. These are fun days with lunch being provided by Sew Creative to sustain these enthusiastic "joiners of the hexagons!"

The first sections have been sent to Lyn Crump, the brave long arm quilter, who has offered to quilt the Hexagon Quilts.

The quilt will be machine quilted in 2 metre sections has then these sections will be joined together.

As you can see, the green hexagons are really unifying all the different colours used in the blocks.

At this point it is estimated that the quilt will be over 100 metres long!! Way beyond the original plans and expectations. I will keep you posted on the continuing progress.

Christine

Some interesting statistics

2009-12-19T13:32:00.000-08:00

So far almost 11 000 rosettes have been received. That is almost 66 000 hexagons!!

The youngest contributers are two 8 year old girls (one of them is my gorgeous granddaughter, Isabella). The oldest stitcher is a 92 year old lady who lives in a nursing home.

The person who has contributed the most is Karena Webb who has completed a staggering 350+ rosettes

The hexagons have come from Cyprus, China, Chile, Canada, Hong Kong, The Nederlands, England, many states within the US, Belgium, Finland, New Zealand, Argentina and of course from all states in Australia.

One group of ladies, who recently lost a friend who loved hexagons, made rosettes in her memory. They are marked "In memory of Eva Fortune"

A significant number of people who have contributed to the project are making hexagons for the first time.

A group of breast cancer survivors known as the Dragon Boat Quilters, have made a significant number of rosettes. Their hexagons will be stitched together and, following the judging, their section of the quilt will be returned to them. It will then be raffled to raise funds for Breast Cancer research.

The photos are from the contributors in Cyprus.

The hexagons are currently being stitched together in sections. I will give you more updates soon.

Christine

Progress so far.

2009-10-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to the first post for the attempt to establish the World's Biggest Hexagon Quilt.

About 6 months ago Gail Chalker of Gatton, Queensland, Australia decided to see if she could organise an attempt to make the World's Biggest Hexagon Quilt. Gail is a partner in a Quilt Shop the small country town of Gatton, which is about 1 hour and 15 minutes west of Brisbane, Queensland's capital city. Using her network of friends, students and customers and her links to several yahoo quilt groups, Gail started to spread the word about her interest in attempting to set a world record for Hexagon Quilts. She researched the Guinness Book of Records requirements and decided that this was something which was worth trying to achieve.

So the attempt was on! Word quickly spread across the internet networks and the hexagons started to arrive. The goal was to make a quilt, entirely pieced by hand, that would be 2.5 metres wide and at least 15 metres long. It did not take long to realise that this was achievable. Hexagons started to arrive from all around the world. From Australia, New Zealand, China, Finland, England, Chile, South Africa, Canada and America.

Local quilt groups started to issue challenges to other local groups to see who could make the most hexagons. Individual quilters sent just a couple of rosettes. The numbers started to grow and the 15 metre goal was starting to look like a much longer quilt.

Sue, Coral and Gail piecing hexagon strips at the Queensland Quilter's Annual Show.

To date over 4 500 rosettes have been received. The quilt is being pieced in long strips which are then pieced together. A section of the quilt is on display at the Queensland Quilters show at the Brisbane Convention Centre until Sunday, October 25. Hexagons will be accepted until December 1, 2009.

Strips in progress.

Progress will be updated regularly on this blog along with photos as the quilt grows. The completed quilt will be displayed at the Gatton Quilt Show, which will be held in conjunction with the inaugural Australian School of Appliqué. The Quilt Show will be on from 11-16 May 2010.

Check in regularly for updates on progress with the Quilt.

Happy stitching

Christine MB