Monday, September 12, 2016

Two More Hexathon Blocks!

I hope your week is going well.  We are having some lovely weather and I've been a bit distracted from my stitching by a local birding survey project.  Monday afternoon, I spotted two very exciting birds that I rarely see -- black-billed cuckoo and golden-winged warbler. 
Image result for golden winged warbler
This is a picture of the warbler from allaboutbirds.com  It might have been only the second time I've seen one in 55 years of birding!!  Very exciting!!
 
But I am keeping up with Barbara Brackman's Morris Hexathon!
 
I fiddled with my templates for about 30 minutes trying to decide which ones might work for block #17 which Barbara named "Folly".  My favorite folly in England is the "temple of Apollo" at Stourhead -- if you've seen the version of Pride and Prejudice with Kiera Knightley, it's the location of the big argument between Lizzie and Darcy in the rain. 
 
 
   Finally, I relented and paper pieced them.  In the end, it was the easiest approach.  Since I have been reintroduced to the skill for several of the blocks used for the #smorgasblocks follow along, it worked out well.
 
I copied the pattern onto light weight paper, cut it apart and pieced six of these units. 
The trickiest part was trimming them without cutting off the seam allowances -- there was lots of self-talk for the time it took to do that.
I left the paper in place until the block was completely assembled.
And here's the finished block -- I'm pleased with how crisp it looks!
Block #18, Parquetry was another easy one and I was able to use template G47, a half hexagon.
After I cut the pieces, I auditioned two layouts and decided to replace the brown dot -- the value between the blue and brown was too close and I wanted one of them to be darker so the design of the block was more obvious.
At this point, I had planned to insert a little video of me piecing the units below but either I deleted it in the process of transferring it from the camera to the computer or like so many things, it's hiding somewhere on the hard drive which I haven't discovered quite yet. 
So we'll try it another day.
 
This brown is enough darker in value that I was happier with the results.
It's not as outstanding as the example in Barbara blogpost -- you should look at it as the fussy cuts are impressive!
Since my design wall is currently empty, I experimented with some layouts.
The empty spaces will be filled with large hexagons probably a print or several prints. 
There are still 8 blocks to go and I'm looking forward to translating some of these into large size blocks to include as ideas in my hexagon piecing workshops.
I might even keep them as a loose set for a while to use in workshops for a demonstration tool for designing settings?  What do you think of that idea?
 
Mary
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

5 comments:

  1. Your precision in matching points is incredible - the traditionally pieced block is no less accurate than the paper-pieced one! I love how different your blocks are, and I can't even imagine how to choose a fabric for the empty spaces that ill work with all of them and not overwhelm them, that would be a daunting task!

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  2. I think it is a great idea to keep them as a set to spark new settings. They are all so beautiful.

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  3. I recognised that folly immediately.
    The Morris blocks are a lot like a hexie version of Dear Jane in a way, aren't they? Small and fiddly but looking like a fun challenge.

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  4. I have never paper pieced, but you sure have given me reason to think about starting - ha! I love the precision look of paper piecing, though! You've done beautifully on these blocks!

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  5. I certainly appreciate your expert stitching ideas on these blocks.

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