Katje's Millefiore with Marti Michell templates

Last week, I shared how I used Marti Michell's Set G templates to cut the pieces I needed for the center block of the 6th rosette for Katje's amazing Millefiore quilt. 

Over the weekend, I worked on cutting and piecing the other three blocks needed to complete the rosette. I'm not quite there -- stuck on a fabric decision -- but thought my Marti Michell template followers might be interested to see the adapted cutting that is possible with the templates. 

The diagrams for each block in Katje's book, The New Hexagon, are exact finished size (1/4 seams need to be added).  

To decided which templates can be used, I lay the templates from Sets G and H on top of the diagram in the book.  Template 52 from Set H was a perfect match for this hexagon.  That means that the small diamond template (#53) will also fit.

 

Katje modifies some of the blocks in the book for the Millefiore quilt and in this block, she eliminated the two small diamonds in this section making it into an elongated hexagon.

There's no elongated hexagon template in Set H but thanks to the holes drilled in the templates for transferring the "stop/start" dots, an elongated hexagon can be cut with the template.

 

I started with the correct size strip and trimmed the left end of the fabric according to the template.

I marked two dots, one where the pencil is and the second directly below it (just out of the photo). 

Then I slide the template to the right until the holes at the upper left and lower left corners matched the dots on the fabric.  This step is necessary to eliminate the unneeded seam allowance. 

Now I cut the two right hand edges, marked the rest of the dots that I'll need for the stitching, and continued down the strip until I had the six elongated hexagons needed for the blocks. 

I also needed two half hexagons (the gold) and two parallelograms (the green) for each block.

I'm going to use the same template -- here it is laying on top of the diagram from the book -- the dashed lines on the template are the stitching lines and they line up perfectly with Katje's diagram.  So I know that #52e is the size needed for the gold half hexagons.

The parallelograms require another adaptive cut.  I also need rights and lefts, so I layered two strips wrong sides together.

 I trimmed the right end against the template and nipped off the corner.  The solid purple lines indicate the two edges of the half-hexagon on this multi-shape template.

I rotate the template counter-clockwise (without lifting it) and realign the upper right corner of the shape I'm using to the first cut as shown below. 

Now I can cut the left end and trim off the point.  I have a right and left pair for one block.  For the rest of the cuts, slide the template to the left matching it to the corner of the previous cut as in the upper diagram until there are the required number of pairs cut. 

Ready to stitch!!  First the half hexagons to the each long side of the elongated hexagon.

Then add the parallelograms one at a time using your favorite set-in seam technique (I hope that's the one I teach in my workshops and DVD!!). 

This is another of the blocks for the rosette -- none of Marti's templates worked so I had to make my own using the patterns in the book.  The blocks went together well and there were no set-in seams on this one.

I have this group of blocks to finish -- I was able to use Set H adaptively to cut the pieces and the piecing is all straight seams, but I'm stuck on the last fabric.  

I'm almost there, just a matter of pulling more fabric off the shelves until I find the best option?!?

And there is less and less of the hexagon mosaic reproduction on the work wall (look at it HERE) and more and more of it is connected together -- making progress 1" at a time!!

 

Keep on piecing!!

 

Mary Huey

 

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