Dodecagon Plans and Auditioning

It's fall here in Northeast Ohio and the riot of color we all look forward to is building to a climax.

It's the maples and the sassafras and the black gum trees that give us all the reds and oranges.

It's hard for me to stay indoors and stitch when there's all this fleeting beauty!

So it was good that I already had a plan in mind for today's post because when the text came this morning from one of my birding buddies that a nearby woods was "dripping" with migrating birds, my daughter and I were off to enjoy an amazing sight!

Hundreds of birds -- ruby-crowned and golden-crowned kinglets, brown creepers, winter wrens, song sparrows, white-crowned sparrows, white-throated sparrows, a few thrushes, and a blue-headed vireo made for a great morning!!

I came home inspired to fiddle around in the studio because I wanted to begin the on-the-design-wall auditioning of my paper plan for the Dodecagon quilt I'm piecing.  I have to make a decision about which of two large scale print motifs I'll use.

This one has a very light background and three different motifs.

The second one (on the left) has just one motif and a darker more traditional background.

I pinned the two of them to the design wall and then began to position some of the finished dodecagon blocks. 

I've been basting hexagons for 74 days (#100hexies100days2017) and have quite a stash.

The black ones have all been portioned out with dodecagons. 

The central dodecagon will be surrounded with yellow hexies.

I like the results. 

The floral motifs need to be appliqued inside a large diamond of black hexies.

Then green hexies will border (I think) the next round of dodecagons.

In the picture below I plugged a few yellow hexies in at the top of the white background motif because of the stem bits that will show.  I'm not sure I like this idea but time will tell. 

Here's a full look at the draft so far -- a couple days of coming and going from the studio should help me decide on the floral motif I'll use -- they both are beautiful pieces of fabric but each will have a very different impact on the overall quilt. 

Once I decide, my plan is to add green and yellow hexies to the black diamond so I can remove the papers from the black hexies and do the applique stitching more easily.

That makes sense right now. 

Any suggestions?

Edit September, 2019 -- Marge Sampson-George now has the Dodecagon pattern, templates, and papers available via this Etsy shop -- click HERE.

Here's a close-up of that same section of woods in the first picture.

As I was clicking the shutter, my mind was saying -- cool color scheme and those dry grass stems!!!

Hope you are able to enjoy the change of seasons in your part of the world this weekend!!

Mary