Welcome to the second month of the Esther block Sew-along!
We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and beauty of all the blocks for September! This started as a little sew-along,mostly because our friends thought it would be fun, and now we are over 300 members! We are humbled and thrilled that the Esther block has inspired so many of you.
Now down to the nuts and bolts! One of the harder aspects of the block is unifying the outer border of the block (the diamonds and large half hexi's that make up the last "round").
At the beginning, when we were first creating our blocks, we would sew a super cool inner section (the jewels) . From there, we would figure out the next round of small half hexi's and whole hexis, but then pause and think, "what in the world am I going to do for the last row? ... and wow, that half hexi is SO big! "
As we got to know the block better we have both found some tricks to help unify that last row, so the next few months we will focus on techniques to help with this.
October's prompt is to use a strong design element in the large half hexagon in the outer border.
By this we mean: fussy cutting a geometric shape, or part of a geometric shape within the large half hexi. Shaking your head in confusion? Here are some examples of what we mean:
In this block Laura chose to use half of a circle fussy cut into the large half hexi. As you can see it really give this block a dynamic look.
Sara chose to use a stripe in the large half hexi of this block. Ahe cut it on an angle that makes the block "spin" a bit. Imaging how different it would be if she had cut it so the stripes radiated straight out from the center, or if they were parellel to the longest side of the hexi. So many possibilities!
Here is a wonderful example of this idea from Lori Mann for her September block. Look at how effective those triangles look within the large half hexi. It totally changes the appearance of the block. Well done Lori!
We hope these examples inspire you to think about new ways of both approaching the block and cutting your fabric. We are so looking forward to see what you all create!
Please share your work with the tags:
@carve_stitch_repeat
@gatesmountainquilter
Happy stitching!