I did the final shape twice, once using a clipping mask, other time using the crop tool in pathfinder. They both seem to work out as editable faux patterns within their shapes. I did a different pattern in one hexagon each. Is there any differences in how I can use them, or problems I need to watch out for?

I realize I can't make a pattern with either of mine as they have pattern fills.

After my first question I tested out both methods (clipping mask and crop) with only gradients to decorate instead of patterns. Those resulting shapes could be made into patterns, but only the pattern from the cropped one was still editable within the shape, (though since I had not made the faux pattern into a seamless repeatable shape it did not look good at all). But I did learn that faux patterns with gradients, can apparently be used to make other patterns.