Help me arrange my OBW, please.
 

This is so hard! Are there any hexagons that look out of place? Wish I had more, but I lost 18 to bad cutting (really bad)

Thanks for your help.

I think it looks good! Sorry you lost so many blocks. If you are not sure about the arrangement, take a picture of different arrangements and then decide. I have my fabric and the book but have not started mine yet. Yours is very cheerful!

You know... looking at these colors, I think I would go diagonally white to dark... maybe. I've been buying sale fabric to make practice blocks with and its just not a easy quilt, but one of the most beautiful I think. Let us know what you decide to do!! What ever it is I'm sure it will be gorgeous!

i love your blocks. i might take the circle-y one from the center and trade it with the 'daisy' looking one next to it on the 'southeast' of it. i just think that the obvious circles shouldn't be directly in the center. JMHO

Gees, set it the way you want it, otherwise you will second guess yourself to death and end up throwing it out.. not a quilt I would start without a lot of thinking, that is a very hard pattern.. the only way I see you sewing it together after you sew the triangles together is to hand sew them, they lay so nice but take longer to do... but do it while watching tv or in quite time. LOL.. maybe one day I will get up enough courage to try one.. Yep, I'm a chicken on this one..

The triangles are only sewn in trapezoids right now, pinned in hexagons. But I don't hand sew anything. This will be done in strips, to avoid bothering with the Y seams (though I did try some Y seams this afternoon and they actually aren't that hard.)

I used some of the ones that I "cut poorly" to fill in the zig zag sides instead of cutting off the points.

I used them to practice Y seams. I made a doll quilt for a neighbor. It actually turned out quite nice once it was washed up, which leads me to believe I can't go wrong on the main quilt.


Your OBW looks pretty.

I have to admit, when I looked at the blocks you posted yesterday I thought you would never get a good OBW out of that fabric. Boy, was I wrong! It is working out really well, and I like your arrangement already. This is the type of quilt that draws your eye all over and around, noticing something new each time.

I had the same worry when I cut the first few!

I think the whole idea with a OBW is to have the colors flow from one area to the next. The hex's on the far right with the hot pink in the center and the yellow around the edge should go up higher to connect the pink across the top to the yellow on the right side. I've made many of these and it really just takes some time to arrange and rearrange them before you find a layout you really like. When I first sort my hex's, I put them in piles of similar color on their edges and lay them on a paper plate. Then when I get to lay them out I'll have similar ones all together and don't have to hunt for ones that go together. I too would move the one with all the circles out of the center. Sometimes it works to start with a diagonal line of color and work off of that shape. Take pictures and redo it. Also use those cut wrong half hex's on the edges so you won't have to cut off your points. As someone else mentioned having a vertical design wall is very helpful with this process. If you can have it in a room where you can stand back 10 or more feet to look at the whole thing from further away, really helps. It's amazing how different the prints look when viewed from a distance.

I like it just the way it is. It sure is pretty. I don't know if I would want to tackle one of those. Just not on my to do list, but I admire anyone who does it.

I love your OBW! you know how monitors display different colors, etc., when i opened this - all I could see is 'Wow! How awesome is this! A Smurf-ville quilt!

I did a OBW with fabric that did not have a lot of variation in, I believe the term is, tone. The gradient is not as pronounced. It does make it more difficult to lay out. But you have done a great job. The only thing I'm seeing is a bit of a medium shade in the bottom to the right of the middle. Hard to describe. I also sewed in rows. Make sure you pick up the pieces in the correct order! It isn't easy but it will be beautiful!

What I was told when I took my OBW class was to group the hexies by the predominant color -- white, yellow, pink, blue, then subgroup white/yellow, yellow/pink and pink/blue. Then arrange the hexies so that they flow diagonally starting with in one corner with the darkest (the most blue), blending into the blue/pink, to pink, blending into pink/yellow, to yellow, blending into yellow/white, and ending with the white in the opposite corner. Since I have never finished mine, you can take my advice as untried, but I have seen pictures of several OBWs done by another instructor, and this is what she did. I love your fabrics and colors. I look forward to seeing the finished quilt.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]432379[/ATTACH]

Well I'm not sure if this will work but, I found the picture and made my attempt to upload it. I did this for a Benartex contest. It was selected as a semi-finalist and I sent it to their offices. I didn't win (which I had no thought that I would) but they sent me a really nice bunch of fat quarters! You can see I didn't get my placement entirely right, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

I love it! One day I hope to try this...

This is actually how I did this- if you look closely you can see a dark to light to green along the diagonals.
The problem with this print may be too many colors- it is really difficult to pick a dominant color in many of the blocks, because they are equally two colors.

I decided i didn't really care on this one, moved a few, and am now sewing.

Good for you! It's easy to get stuck on a OBW placement.

I'm with Dunster - didn't think I would like it but it is stunning!!

I did a OBW and where I was in doubt I chose a solid/tonal to go with it and put those in places I thought I needed to add a little more interest and filled in all the edges with the same color.

That is going to be a beautiful quilt. I too like the arrangement that you have.

Beautiful job! It's so different.

I love it the way it is. Good for you to just start sewing.

This sounds very like a very interesting way to solve the problem with some OBW. Do you have a picture you could post? I'd love to see it.

I always try to make a secondary swirly design.
I get the ones that are my favorite and put them on my wall in a wavy pattern and then design from there by adding the blocks that I think match on either side.
Also, usually when you cut poorly on a set, you usually have 3 that are not too bad. I use these to square my quilt so that I have some "extras."
Btw this is nice fabric for a OBW.
My only other hint is to tell you to play with it and when it is right, you will know it.
I hope this makes sense to you.
Good luck.

Looks good with the darkest shades in one corner working down to the lighter. You did well.

I love it just like it is.
Don't drive yourself nuts by over thinking it.

I'm not sure how you can avoid Y seams here. Just remember to stop and start 1/4 of an inch from the ends. :-)

Mine was made using Maxine Rosenthal's OBW method. The pieces are sewn to create rows that are then stitched together. No y seams at all! I love patterns that look harder than they are.

I found your post after posting mine. I like the way you have arranged your blocks. I should have done a smaller quilt first instead of queen-sized. Not so many blocks to play with.

You do it by making rows of trapezoids, rather than thinking about them as hexagons.