I was wondering what is the best fabrics to use for a One Block Wonder? I really like all of the ones I have seen here on QB but when I go to shop for fabric I can't seem to make a decision. Do they turn out better if they have background showing or not? Also how much do I need to buy?
Thanks in advance for all the help I am sure I will get!!

Hi Peg...I also have the same problem with choosing fabric. I'm working on my first ever OBW now and I'm not too sure about what I've picked...lol. The amount you need to buy will depend on the repeat and how big a quilt you want to make. But you do need to buy enough fabric to have 6 repeats of the pattern. If the repeat is quite close and you want to make a fairly big quilt, I guess you would have to buy double (12 repeats). Whatever you buy, it will need to be 6 or a multiple of 6 repeats. Have you looked at Cutebuns tutorials on this board? That's what I followed and they're great.

Hi Peg,

When I'm looking for OBW fabric I look for something with two or three main colours, and a nice background. I tend not to like animals (don't like to see their faces cut up), but have seen lots that are very effective.

Medium to large scale designs work well, as you'll get different parts throughout the blocks and the blocks won't look all the same.

One of the fabrics I have in my pile of projects is the Kona Bay teal that's in the photo. I have some of the teal and pink to do borders and cubes.

If you search the board here, quite of few of the OBW quilts have a swatch of the original fabric in the quilt - really helpful to see how the OBW transforms the design!

On the other hand, there are also lots of fabulous OBW's that started with fabric that the quilter thought was just too ugly to anything else with LOL! As in, if you cut it small enough, it gets prettier.

For my eyes, the most spectacular ones have a small number of main colours - it helps my brain find some sort of order in the array of swirling patterns and colour.

Hope this helps!

I just bought some cheapy fabric to practice cutting (didnt wanna ruin expensive fab) so i bought 2 1/2 yds and my material had a 9in repeat so i got 18 total for 3 stacks of 6. and sub cut into 3in and cut into triangles.
well I ended up with like 102 hexagons!!!
So I dont know the general oponion but a little bigger repeat might be better cutebuns tute had alot of 12-24in that turned out very pretty. something with mixed colors too makes a nice variation I think.
now I know.
this is my altime favorite one i have seen
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-92479-1.htm
good luck.