Well, really I think it's a coverlet, as it has no wadding, just the top layer and backing. It was made by my grandmother in the 1950s, entirely from hand-stitched English paper pieced hexagons. The fabrics are a mixture of furnishing fabrics and dress fabrics, with a yellow chintz back. Between the hexagon-flowers, there are pale yellow and blue background hexagons.
Each of the 132 flowers in the patchwork is made of seven hexagons, joined to its neighbours and the other rows with two of the background (yellow or blue) hexagons. So, not counting all the bits at the edges, that's at least 132 x 9 = 1,1188 hexagons. All cut from paper and fabric by hand. WOW!!
This coverlet is big enough for a double bed. It's very well preserved, with only a few frayed patches, so I'm not sure it was ever used very much.
Hexagons are my favourite shape of all time! They remind my of bees, and how industrious they are.
I have a hexagon quilt in progress, and another hexagon project in mind - but I'm afraid I don't have the patience to hand-stitch mine together! My quilt hexagons are made from half-hexagons joined into strips and then the strips stitched together. One day I might persuade myself to make a small piece of paper-pieced hexagon patchwork with Liberty scraps, but likely not this year!
