Hexathon - block 1 of a series

I'm not exactly committing to doing all of them.  Most quilters have hand piecing skills and use English Paper Piecing for hexagon quilt designs, but I'm stubbornly attached to using a sewing machine for everything I can. (I tend to move easily into hand and wrist issues with hand sewing, so I save my hands for knitting).

This is a Barbara Brackman block of the week program for 26 weeks.  She's going to be talking about the William Morris designs and influences and the models will be made with William Morris reproduction fabrics.  But plenty of people will be using those. I chose instead to try this as a quilt for a future family baby - Joyce gave me stacks of bright colorful batiks and hand-dyes from Vicki Welsh for Christmas last year - Vicki has a brand new website called Colorways by Vicki Welsh where she sells her hand dyed fabrics, glass pieces, and hand made soap - check it out! http://www.colorwaysbyvicki.com/ 

The block is pretty flat which is an accomplishment - and must be pretty accurate a hexagon, since I started with a photo of the hexagon with two flat sides top and bottom- then I rotated it 60 degrees and cropped, then turned it 60 degrees and cropped again to get it surrounded in black with most of the points showing. I wanted to crop it so the odd pointy corners and fraying yellow fabric are not distracting.

The solid fabric I used for a background is a solid yellow sateen and it does fray. If I make some number of these - probably not all 26, I might or might not use it to tie the blocks together.  The designs will not all have a background area.