Loving the octagons!

      I truly love making One Block Wonder Quilts. You never know how they will look which is the hard part and the Eureka part. I hate making jigsaw puzzles because the photo is already on the box, so why am I doing it?
      I have had this fabric for a while. Cutting it up properly is a precision thing and a goof up can hardly be fixed, so that is why it sat. I am always looking for large scale florals to make one and I need eight repeats, so it is difficult. I have not found one in a while. Only certain fabrics work. The ratio of background and print has to be just perfect. This fabric could have used a little less black and more flowers. If anyone knows of any candidates out there for sale, drop me a note. I don't see any right now in my searching.
    I cut the fabric up before that last retreat in November and have been slowly piecing the octagons in pairs as leader and enders. Finally, all octagons sewn! I follow the assembly in the One Block Wonder book for the octagon blocks because they end up being sewn together as square blocks, not weird half blocks like the hexagons.
    At first, I had them in a long rectangle shape, but that did not work out. Once I had them sort of settled in a different configuration, I started adding the "Sensational Squares" as the author calls them. Then things get even more interesting. There are scores of photos of ideas but here are some. Still not decided what layout.

Yenter Kaleidoscope

    I think I have only bought 4 kits in my whole quilting career. I like to make my own choices and tweaks. Two of the kits I remade differently. One I changed from raw edge applique to set in strips. And then I saw this Floragraphix V Jason Yenter border fabric with pattern at the Quilted Twins and bought the fabric. I read the instructions many times until I understood how the borders were cut and layered. I made  kaleidoscope quilts before that were cut from the full fabric (Maxine Rosenthal book), so this was different plus they are much bigger. I bought the orange as in the pattern photo, but I am wondering if a turquoise would be better.

Would turquoise be better than the recommended orange? I only have a scrap of this turquoise, used it for color idea.

The pattern and fabrics cut.

Have to press seams open on this type of block!

Slow Octagons

      Working on an octagon One Block Wonder (OBW). I sew them when I only have a few minutes because the pieces are small and be put aside easily. Sometimes I sew them as leader/enders. I like the octagon ones better than the hexagons because they sew together as whole blocks, not half hexies. More complicated, more repeats needed, but hey, looks terrific when done.

Probably only have half the octagons sewn, but they are so lovely, every one different

Sunflower Delight!

      Finally, after years, I quilted the One block wonder sunflowers quilt. It was a lot of fun to do. This was before the tension woes. Thank you to everyone who left helpful comments including ones that were anonymous ones.

The back, kind of fun.

Octagon OBW

      I have made at least 5 One Block Wonder (OBW) quilts and love them. I have the book and noticed that there is one using octagons instead of hexagons. Wow, you can piece them together as whole blocks instead of half rows, love it. Of course, you need 8 repeats instead of 6. I did make one octagon one a while back, but just quilted it before eye surgery and bound it yesterday (black thread on black binding- needed perfect sight). I want to make a big one! Finding the right fabric is a huge hunt- I need a 24" repeat and eight of them. The background to foreground ratio has to be just right.
    Here is the finished octagon OBW. It is 41 x 53. Quilted with Glide Cleopatra (where do they get these names?). Now to find a wall space for it.

OBW orange top done!

      After a lot of fit and starts trying to figure out the borders, I made a decision and went with it. No second guessing now, it is sewn and don't ask me to rip it apart. I personally liked the turquoise blue relief border and wanted it to do what it does- stop the eye, but not call attention to itself. I had a great suggestion to use the teal/dark blue color found in some of the blocks (thanks, Julie). I debated how wide to make it. I cut it 2". When I put it against the turquoise, I cut off 1/2" off the turquoise, top and bottom. That made it seem a better proportion.

Other color ideas

Print with dark teal strip

The teal 2" strip

     Then I thought about using the print fabric and I had enough that I would not have to seam the lengths. I debated the width and cut it 6", knowing I could trim more off after quilting to square up. All the border sizes were cut using the measurement across the middle of the quilt. I don't like to average it. I add 1/4" to that measurement, pin out from the middle to the ends. It seems to work the best.
     I did not get the best photo I could. I always have a hard time getting the perfect flat shot. The breeze always messes with me outside, and the wall is never lit well or easy to get back far enough.

Inside on wall shot

Outside, hubby holding corners as high as he can

      Done!

OBW Orange you glad it's sewn

     After sewing the rows together, I put painter's tape on the rows and sewed the strips together. I used the fork pins for every seam. I put too much work into a myriad of arrangements to endure sloppy row joins. Who cares it took forever?

        I measured 3/4" from the end points of the hexagons and drew a line. I staystitched 1/8" inside it and stay stitched the top and bottom also. Then I trimmed the line to square up the sides. I auditioned the width of the top and bottome border and went with 3" unfinished. Sewed that on.

      Now I have to figure out what border to end with. I tried this green which is nice, but does not put the focus on the center. I am pulling out some darker green fabric and we will see what happens. Not sure what to use. 

     I have to say I chose this fabric because I knew it would work for an OBW, I loved the flowers, I loved the designer, but boy, do I hate orange. Even though the orange is not dominant, I can barely look at this without getting a bit nauseous over that fever hot orange. I think time away from it will help me deal with it.

When it is good that it is broken

     For a whole week, I had a fever. My days and nights were a blur. My husband brought home a gift from his Grand Canyon rafting trip- a flu or respiratory bug. He came home June 21st. He was sick the next day. I held out until the 24th when I went from incredibly healthy to a feverball complete with wheezing, hacking cough. How fast it turns. This was my view until this past Monday.

When my temp finally came down to close to normal.
The thermometer was my constant companion,

     Went to the doctor, swabbed for the normal flu bugs, negative, chest x-ray, negative. Given steroid dose pack, face blew up red and swollen, stopped them and dealt with steroid withdrawal and fever. Yikes. All in summer. I lost a whole week of June.
     I kept moving around the OBW for distraction, and decided on this.

     I had to audition what colors would look good on the sides. I did not want to lop off the ends of the rows. I had put too much work into sewing and arranging them to throw parts out.

     Then I decided to be smart and sew the ending triangles on before I sewed the rows. Unlike last OBW when I had to sew sewt in trianles on the sides. When I cut the triangle as normal and sewed it, I found that I would have no seam allowance on the outside edge and the outside points of the hexagons would get cut off. I drew a pattern with the template adding a 1/2" line bigger parallel to the side of the triangle to give some seam allowance. 

First triangle (ripped out) not enough seam allowance. Second triangle has it added.

See how I have a good seam allowance so the outside  point of the hexagon is not cut off?

     I sewed all the end triangles on before I started sewing the rows. I sewed two rows at a time as leader and enders so I could keep chain sewing. Due to the fever, this went slowly.

Rows all sewn

Finishes come slowly

     There is too much to do in so little time. I am sorting scraps and  cleaning out the backlog of them in my garage. Grand kid sitting, cardio rehab, and non-sewing duties quickly diminish available time. I have 4 baby quilts to do for Jack's Basket by next Sunday. Two are quilted, two are on the longarm. The Diagonal Variation quilt sat on the longarm for over a month and finally was done. All have striped bindings, done. The OBW octagons finally got a border, but needs quilting. My floral colorwash is still being tweaked on the design wall. I am not a good multi-tasker, so it goes slowly.

The sewing machine is a phony- it is a planter. I finally brought it back outside after winter.
It has a succulent planted in the tray.

Back

With border fabric, black on black octagons, couldn't resist

Octagons Delight!

     OBW Octagons continued: After arranging/rearranging the triangle squares in the spaces between the octagons, I had to figure a way to get them off the wall and sew them. 

 

      In the book, she recommends taking two off the wall at a time. I did not want that kind of torture and knew I would not get those triangles in the right spots, so I pulled out my old friend, freezer paper.

 

      I already had cut squares that I had place another project on before, so that was easy. I numbered the rows and letter the columns- like A1, A2, etc with painters tape. Then I placed each block with the triangles on the paper and ironed it down. I made columns A through E piles. 
     I chose to chain piece three squares at a time. I put a colored flower pin in each octagon oriented flower to the top, the same color  pin and the same orientation on the freezer paper, and started on each octagon in the same corner and chain pieced. Even if I came back after a phone call or interruption, I knew exactly what piece went where. The only mistakes I made were on the first six blocks when I had not figured out the system yet.

Pin placement to keep orientation piecing correct.

Blocks sewn and trimmed to 8 1/2"

      Every block had to be trimmed to 8 1/2" and I tried to keep the centers consistent but it was almost impossible to keep the connecting blocks having precisely matched up seams. In the book, she says don't worry about it. I couldn't help it.
     I did the webbing technique, sewing two columns blocks together keeping the rows connected by threads. Then I sewed all the rows. All seams in this quilt were pressed open due to the bulk and the bias. I don't usually, but this quilt needs it. 
     I have to say, sewing this quilt together was like little jolts of electricity- I was so enthralled to see what was happening and when I sewed it all- I was awestruck. I just can't believe what this fabric did. I love it. I am not sure how to finish it. I want it to look like it is in a gallery frame with not a lot of attention to the frame. Puzzling the finishing through while basking in the beauty.

Ta- da!!

Octagons marching along

     After the retreat and the first of the octagon OBW blocks made, I was able to sew all of them together and also the connecting squares cut into triangles. The book was marginally helpful. Some of the steps were left out and I did not agree with her sewing advice. 
    So, I started with this fabric cut into eight repeats (repeat was 12").

      Then, all the pieces were cut and sewn into octagons. I arranged on the design wall.

     Twenty six photos and tries later, I had this.

     Then, I had piles of 8 squares. They went into two piles of 4. They were cut opposite each other. These pile of 4 triangles were arranged into a square, and I used painters tape on the back to hold them together to prevent a matching nightmare. These taped squares were auditioned in the spaces left between octagons. I got real excited at this point.

Groups of triangle squares for filling in. Pretty cool, huh?