Thursday, March 16, 2017

Dodecagon Progress

Early in February I shared the start of a new project -- Marge Sampson-George's lovely Dodecagon pattern which is now available in this Etsy shop -- pattern, templates, and papers!  Click HERE.

  I didn't make as much progress on it while vacationing in Florida (all the birding and fresh air left me pretty tired at the end of the day), but I've been chipping away at it since my return and a more concrete plan for my version has begun to evolve.

I started with a set of Andover reproduction style fabrics purchased at Mary Koval's shop in Bedford, PA.  The one on the left is from Di Ford and I think the one on the right is one of Mary's lines.
I've added lots more pieces to the assortment from my stash -- the number of yellows has grown as I love the pop that color brings to the individual blocks.
Isn't this one great?
I started with quite a few greens and . . .
 reds but have been adding to the assortment whenever I come across another piece that will add some texture or an unexpected element.
I've added more grays and blacks to enrich the palette.
Plus a few interesting browns. 
The first audition together felt a little blah -- especially when one looks at the versions of this quilt on Instagram coming out of Marge's workshops in Australia.
One of the lasting lessons I learned from Mary Ellen Hopkins was black always fixes "blahs".  So I put together a ring of black hexies for one of the setting necklaces and have been auditioning it with some large prints I want to incorporate to replace four or five of the dodecagons.
I took photos of all three so I can study them side by side to decide whether to just use one or two of them or all three. 
At this point, it's a real toss-up.  They all look great to me!
More staring and contemplation are required. 
Here's more close-ups of the individual units I've assembled so far.
I've decided against doing any really tightly managed fussy cutting but am controlling the directional prints to they don't distract the eye. 
So far this is the most somber one -- I'll have to be sure to make one or two more that are similar so it doesn't stand out. 
I'm finding the little binding clips helpful to hold pieces together once I get them aligned.
I can get one basted in an evening and the next evening, I stitch it together.
I'm making it smaller than Marge's suggested plan -- there are too many other EPP projects waiting for me out there so cutting the size down helps me hurry towards those faster!

Last weekend of winter here in Northeast Ohio! 
Hope you are having lots of stitching time this weekend!
Mary










6 comments:

  1. These are really beautiful, Mary! Love how you highlighted the beauty of the individual prints.

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  2. I have not seen that EPP design it is so different then some I see - I like it

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  3. Oh Mary, I LOVE the fabrics you are using in this quilt. It whisks me into another day and time.

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  4. Right in my wheelhouse! Love the larger florals and prints for the centers. I say use them all so you can enjoy them all in this quilt. Good lesson on adding black. I never heard that before. It worked wonderfully.

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  5. Absolutely beautiful! I love seeing your blocks and how you're using the colors. Such a lot of inspiration!

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  6. I really like the black as a design element!

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