Small progress....

 Actually, this isn't a SMALL progress.  It took quite a bit of following my own steps and carefully ironing down the entire section...section by section at a time!  WHEW!  But glad that's over with!  

Yes, that box on the left is all the cardboard hex pieces removed! 

I started to hand sew the center 'star' area.  Boy, that wasn't easy...it's not like you're appliqueing a piece of a design to your background fabric. I'm actually appliqueing to the entire quilted background.  It's hard to pick up the piece and be so careful to secure.  Really awkward! 

But moving on.....

I couldn't imagine securing each triangle section to the background - per AI!  HA   Then I thought maybe I should just FMQ the entire hex piece to secure.  

So I took two leftover triangles and did some free motion and just straight stitching the edges.  

I honestly don't think I like this look of matching stitching.

 I looked back at Erin's original quilt design and they had each triangle attached via free motion quilting vs fusing.   Good move!

Also, Erin & her hex group, elected to not attach each triangle via their points.  

My great mind thought....secure each point to give more definition to the diamond areas in between.  Oh what a good idea.  NOT.  HA 

So now I'm thinking.....which is trouble...that I'll continue to stitch each 'star' section by hand..then, because the entire piece is fused down with MistyFuse, I'll hand stitch the entire perimeter.  That may keep the piece stable enough that I can actually bend, twist, etc. to stitch inner area(s) of the triangles.

Well,  this has been a fun piece to work on!  Actually, yes, it is/was!  I love hand stitching so the hex pieces were the most fun.  Removing the cardboard wasn't fun but...just part of the process.  

Next up after all the stitching...trimming the background and bind..which I am thinking of just using the same background fabric.  Not sure I want a colored border but we'll see!!!