One-Block Wonders
 

I'm making a quilt using octogens from Maxine Rosenthal's book, One-Block Wonders. Was I suppose to sew the "sensational squares" together as I cut them? Looking at the illustration in the book, it appears I should, but if so, I don't know how to put them together making the squares. Help!

Sorry I have not made one of these quilts. Somebody should be able to help.

I don't have the book in front of me, but as I recall those pieces are used to turn the octagon into a square. You keep the pieces together until you put your pieces on the design wall, then decide where they should go. Look through the book some more; I'm sure it's covered in there.

Wow, do I have some "unsewing" to do. You are right, you use the triangles to finish out the square, but just looking at the illustration in the book, I surely did think it indicated that I was to sew the pieces together to make that "sensational" square. I'm determined to finish this one, but I won't do another.
Thanks,

This one is not on my "bucket list", I'm sure your's will be beautiful.

I've only made OBW's with the hexagons, partly because I didn't want to deal with the corners. The hexagons are a lot easier!

I failed to finish mine...my fabric really didn't work in this project and I hated dealing with those long triangles (bias). Good luck!

Hi! I also have that book and while I haven't made a quilt with them yet, I have made many many potholders. Anyway, as I understand it, you sew three triangles together for each side, but do not sew the center seam. Pin the two halves together so you don't lose the other, and put them on your design board. When you have the blocks arranged as you'd like, sew them into strips. That means you're sewing one half of a hexagon to the half that's directly above it. The seam will be diagonal to the row. Once you've sewn all the half hexagons together into strips, start sewing the strips together until you have one large quilt top.

Doing it this way, while you have to be careful to line up the centers of the hexagon halves when sewing the strips together, you never have to sew a y-seam and it's easy to keep the quilt square.

Hope that helped!

Oh dear, I misread your post. You're doing the octagons! I do believe you're supposed to sew the squares together, but leave the corners until last. Start by putting the completed octagons on your design wall, then fill in the corners.

They should have 8 triangles, so sew 4 pairs of triangles together, then sew those pairs together to make two halves, then sew the halves together. I believe she has dimensions for the corner triangles you have in the corner, but I wouldn't sew them on (unless you're using the same fabric everywhere) until you've arranged the octagons on your design board. I'd prefer if all the triangles at one corner were the same, but it'll be hard to keep track if you sew the corners on before the design wall (again, unless they're all the same anyway).

There are some excellent tutorials here on the board for One Block Wonders. Just click tutorials and search for the OBWs. You will find all the help you need there. Smiles, hugs and good luck.

I have wanted to do this!

If I may tag along to ask a question:
If I see a beautiful fabric suitable for OBW, how many yards should I buy - for lap quilt, twin and queen size?

Thanks:)

Right...after arranging the 4little triangles, and putting them in Place on your design wall, sew each triangle to the corner the octagon ....completing a square....tedious, but then sew the rows together is easy....I have made a dozen or so obw...both hexagon and octogenarian....it's my most favorite of all because of the surprises

It depends on the repeat length. For hexagons, you need 6 repeats minimum, and for octagons you need 8. If it's a short repeat length, you need to buy multiple sets of repeats because you won't end up with enough blocks.

The book does lay out how much you need for each quilt size. Six repeats of an 8"-repeat fabric (1 1/3 yards) will make you enough blocks to make a lap sized quilt if you add a few borders. The book suggests, for more variety, to find a fabric with a longer repeat so that you have more blocks and many different blocks.