La Passacaglia Progress

When last we left, I practiced making the center hexagon for La Passacaglia, rosette 8.  That is rosette that the Facebook group is starting on.  It turns out that there are lots of new members, so I could have started at one without a problem, but one is a big rosette, and I wanted to start with one of the less noticeable rosettes.

I found out during the practice that my hexagon was too small.  I remade that hexagon to the proper size.  In this one, I turned the stripes inward to form a circle.

Then, I started choosing fabric for the next round of hexagons.  I really like the look that fussy cutting gives a block. The problem is that most of my stash consists of fat quarters, since I like making small quilts and scrap quilts.  This means that I don't have enough pattern repeat to make a good fussy cut.  I realized that I need more fabric. I considered going to Joann's, which is where I get most of my fabric, but first I had to have that debate about using quilt shop fabric for a quilt that s going to take so much of my time.

I caved and went to the quilt store. It helps that the quilt store is closer than the Joann's.  Much, much closer.  Right now, it is actually walking distance, although they are planning on closing this shop.  I found some pretty fabrics in their clearance section.  That print on the bottom is big enough to be able to get lots of fussy cuts out of it, and it has small motifs in lots of colors, so it should work on a lot of the blocks.  I was hoping for a more springy lime / turquoise / pink / purple colorway, but I think I will be able to brighten this up without too much problem.

All of these fabrics were in the clearance section, but apparently you only get the discount price if you buy at least one yard.  I guess I should have know this rule, since the LQS is so close, and I have shopped there before, but I had forgotten and she did not remind me, so I paid full price ($11.95 a yard!) for the two smaller pieces. If I had known that I wouldn't be getting the discount, I would have looked around more for other fabric I liked better, or let's face it, not bought it at all.

I came home and made my next round of hexagons. After all the debate, I decided that I would be using my stash, and if I wanted to buy any more fabric, it would come from Joann's. I like the store, the prices, and their fabric is good quality.  I wanted something more vibrant, and was happy to find this striped fabric in my stash.  I didn't fussy cut it either, except for making sure that green was in the center, but I did fussy cut the owls. I didn't use the same owl, I used four different colors to keep it interesting. The owls looked good too, but they were really close in size and I had to chop off their ears and wings. If I had to do it over again, which I won't, I would use a different fabric above the owls.

I can now choose different layouts for this round.

 Which one do you like better?

What I have learned? I am capable of making these hexagons!  And it is fun, although it is scary not knowing if I will make a beautiful block or ruin it!

I like this round better than the first one, since has better contrast.  I like the light colors that serve as a background, and the dark stripe which is a interesting fabric that draws the eye to where you want it to go.  I have decided that each block should have a light, a dark, and an accent fabric.  I also like that I used fabric in the first round into the second round. It makes the whole rosette  more cohesive and keeps the quilt from looking like it is made of hexagons.  The owl and the stripe seem to compete, so I need to be careful about how many accent fabrics I use, or at least where I use them.

I have a really hard time envisioning how something is going to look before it is actually put together.  I know that there were very few rosettes I did not like on the Facebook page, and I know that the ones I don't like is when someone played it too safe, matched too perfectly, and didn't have enough contrast on their blocks.




I am also wondering if that center hexagon is interesting enough to work as a center.  I could make more, and move it to an outside round. I don't really like the block pattern for the next round, so I am considering other hexagons for it. I could use it for the center and the outside, but then it might not look like a center anymore.