Hexagon bonus-block # 1

To satisfy the hex-lovers out there, I've decided to put in a few bonus-blocks that finish as hexagons. I will strive to make them so that they get 3" finished sides, and thus should be able to fit together in the end. BUT, as is the case with the square blocks, I make no promises.

You can see more interpretations of this block right here.

And Linda from NY is making hexagon blocks with me, her version of this block is to the right.

The first hexagon bonus-block is a flower ; the basic flower that you use for Grandmother's Flower Garden.

Cathi Godwin has a tutorial on how to do this flower the old-fashioned way, by hand-piecing, so I thought I would use this space to show my way of hybrid-piecing of this block.

As you can see, this block does not only sport the flower, there are some "leaves" around it to make it into a regular shaped hexagon.
If you make it by hand-piecing only, make the flower first, and then join the leaves in the "holes"

Fabric 1 (background / leaves)
3.5 x 6" (printed landscape)

Fabric 2 (focus A, flower petals)
6 x 8.5"

Fabric 3 (focus B, center)
1 charm / scrap the size of your printer's minimum size. Mine is 3.5 x 5"

From p. 22 of collection 1, pick the ink-colour that works best for your petal-fabric. Cut a piece of fabric 6 x 8.5" and freezer-paper the same size.
Print

From p. 55 of collection 1, pick the ink-colour that works best with your leaf-fabric. Cut a piece of fabric 3.5 x 6" and freezer-paper the same size.
Print, and remember to print in landscape.

From p. 22 of collection 1, pick the ink-colour that works best for your center-fabric. Cut a piece of fabric the smallest size your printer will accept, and freezer-paper the same size.
Print.
... or use one of your printed petal-pieces as a template to cut the centre hexagon from a small scrap. 2.5" square should do the trick.

You can make this block the same way you would any hexagon flower block, and then add the diamonds to "fill in" the edges of the block and make it a straight-sided hexagon with 3" sides.
You could also make it by hybrid-piecing. The below is one way of doing that. There are more, but this is the one that works best for me.

Machine-sewing :

Join 3 petal hexagons to the central hexagon (picture left)

Join 2 diamonds to each side of the 3 remaining hexagons (picture right)




Hand-sewing :
Join the leaves+petal units to the centre-unit.
If you click on the picture, you can see some green arrows, showing you what seams to join.

There are lots of inset seams here, so hand-piecing is the logical option ... unless you are extremely good freinds with your sewing-machine ... in which case, you probably would not join the flower as I have here.

Answer to Leslie's Comment :
Yes, I go from cross-hair to cross-hair when I machine-piece hexagons or other seams that needs to be opened (diamonds, both 60- and 45-degree ones come to mind). If you don't want to do that, leave a short end of thread before and after each seam, and then unpick the stitches that are in the seam-allowance. The slightly longer thread-end is, so that the seam will not unravel on you, the unpicking so that you can fully open the seam when pressing.