OBW queen size?
 

How much fabric would I "appx" need to make a queen size OBW (with borders)?

What does the average OBW quilt end up being?

A whole bolt?? Considering the amount of waste with that pattern, you'd probably need that much.

Jane

There is a lot of waste? I used a yard of ten yr old fabric to actually see if I could find the repeat and cut the fabric and get the strips like they say....and I barely had ANY waste. The waste was less than a handful of fabric. Just the ends of each strip from where you start the triangles? Or did I do it wrong?

I'm finishing up the last batch of hexagons now. It currently measures 26 1/2" square prior to sewing.

Unless there are a lot of hexies that don't have enough contrast or something, there should be no waste other than the stopping and starting with the little pieces at the end. BTW the quilt quiltingnd posted is beautiful.

wow, looks great so far... seems like it should measure larger. you must have used narrow strips?

WHAT???????? ..... there is very little wastage in making a OBW!


QuiltingND ... I believe the Bethany Reynolds book about making OBWs has some yardage approximations listed. It's really hard to estimate the quantity required, as the size of the pattern, the pattern repeat and the cut size of the triangles will have an effect. Also, consider whether you are doing the whole quilt as one big OBW? adding borders? using some of the virgin fabric in the borders (or elsewhere).

I did. Since I only had about a yard of fabric, I only cut the strips to 2" lengths.

As others said, there's very little fabric wasted with a OBW, but there can be a lot of fabric in the seam allowances. In the first OBW book, Maxine Rosenthal says to allow 9 yards for a "queen size or larger" quilt using hexagon blocks, 11.5 yards for octagon blocks. I wouldn't trust that estimate, since it doesn't define what size the hexagons are or what size the quilt will be, but it is a place to start.

Thank you !

What do you mean" a lot of fabric in the seam allowances".........never did one...have book but have not read it yet....does she use wider than 1/4". Or do you mean just that 1/4" is what is wasted? Just wondering...still pondering whether to tackle this or not........

There are a lot of seams, so there's a lot of fabric used up in the seams. It's the same for any quilt with lots of pieces.
It's a very easy process to make one!

I have made several OBW quilts. There are so many variables it is really hard to say how much fabric you would need. It depends on the size of triangles you cut, the pattern repeat etc. If it was me I would probably buy enough fabric to make 2 sets. 12 repeats of the design. Unless the repeat is pretty short. The repeat on the last one I made was 18 inches. Then you can adjust your quilt size by adding borders. (does this make sense?) Good luck. I look forward to seeing it. I have one on my design wall right now. I just can't decide on my layout for it. I have changed it 4 times so far. I am usually not this indecisive.

Would love to see the one on your wall.

Your pattern repeat will have some bearing on yardage. You need six lengths of the repeat for hexagon and eight for octagon blocks. I have not made a queen size but would guess it would take at least two sets of repeats. There is little waste. There was black in my fabric. We used black to fill in rows that were not complete and added a black border. If possible you might check your local library for one of the books. One Block Wonder and One Block Wonder Encore are two. There are others. Happy planning.

I agree with meanmom. There are so many variables - length of repeat, the width you cut your strips ( the wider the strips, the fewer you'll be able to cut per width of fabric). It takes some math to figure out how much yardage you need. Decide what width strip to cut and twice that will be the width of your hexagons, minus seam allowances. How many hex's wide do you need, plus the width of any borders. I'd use a wider strip, myself for a quilt that size, so you'll want a larger print in the first place. Good Luck!

I've seen a couple queen size OBW's and they are always awesome!

I usually buy 8-10 yards, depending on what the repeat looks like in the fabric, and what I want to do with borders. I like to border and back mine in the original fabric, it gives a great frame of reference for the hexies.

What is an OBW, please?

OBW = One Block Wonder

I must have missed something in the instructions for the one I am going to do, the way the instructions are written, I would not have much waste....aren't OBW and some Kaliedoscopes cut the same way? What am I missing?

My OBW will be 8 sided (45 degree triangle cuts) so how would that work with your example above? I am a math dunce and need your help with this please?

I agree..... it's really hard to determine the exact amount of fabric to use. On the OBW that I made I just bought 6 times the repeat. My repeat was 24", I think. And my hexis were about 6" across. With 1/4" off each edge, it does add up. Here is a picture of my quilt. I added a wide border to make it big enough for my full size bed. But if your repeat is a good size, I would think that getting 12 times the repeat would be enough. And just a suggestion for those of you that haven't purchased fabric yet, I really think that a lot of variation in color makes the best OBWs. My fabric's pattern was too much of the same color.... I won't make that mistake again. I'll buy the ugliest print I can find with lots of color.

OOps. That's a picture of my OBW before I stitched down the applique and quilted it. But, you get the idea, right? The skinny border outside the pink border is the original fabric. You can tell, it's too much of the same colors.