Wildyard, I'm not Karen, but the way to get the corners for the octagons is to take your strips you cut your pieces for the octagon, cut it in squares, then take a stack of 4 so you have 2 stacks of the same design (you layered your fabric to get the repeats for the octagons, so you have it for your squares as well). Then take the 2 stacks of 4 layers,(make sure the fabric is facing the same way or you may get the same triangles, and you want them to be different) and cut one from top left to bottom right and the other from top right to bottom left. This way you will get 4 sets of triangles, and they will all be different, and you can place them on your design wall between the blocks where they look the best. When you sew them together, take one octagon, and the 4 triangles around it (they will not all be from the same "stack") sew it into your block, put it back on your design wall and take the next one down. Once you get all your triangles sewn to your octagons you can start sewing your rows together.

I admit, I'm addicted to S&W! I probably have about 12 fabrics stacked up and waiting to me to stack and whack! I will also admit that the addiction waned a bit after making over 20 S&W's. It's been several months since I made one, but I can feel it creeping up on me again...another addiction has also grabbed me - and that is needle-turn applique by back-basting! I have done several blocks (enough for 3 or 4 quilts) and been to the "Baltimore on the Prairie" conferences for the past two years - that's a 3-4 day conference taking classes with one teacher on different aspects of Baltimore applique. Can't wait for next year's - it takes place in Nebraska.

Here are the "pillow panels" I started with.

Wildyard, I am Karen (hehehehe) and I don't take the time to worry that I have two sets of corner triangles the same .... in a big quilt, i just don't care ... I don't want to lose my lined up fabric, so i just cut them the same ... personal preference I think. Also, you probably actually did a hexagon quilt (6 repeats instead of an octagon having 8 repeats). The hexagons don't have corners, they fit together themselves in lines. YOu add the corner triangles to the octagons to make them squares, but someone already said that... sorry!. They are awesome!

Oh, a new addiction! Love it. I actually had to help my son with all his senior year stuff last year and didn't quilt as much as I would have liked, so was ready to start another quilt but my mom wanted a purple one and I ended up wit another quilt I like making that's pretty easy ... the X-Blocks. Very fun and I think I love it!! Next one I'm making though is another octagon OBW! Have to admit that I love, love, love them.... here's just one more I've made (can't help posting ... I like looking at them!!!)

Here is a pic of the one I did, still not quite finished, LOL, the quilting got the best of me.

Ah, wildyard ... yours is actually a S&W not a OBW .... that is your confusion with the corners! The OBW triangles are a little different and the octagons are such that you use corners to make actual squares.... Yours is very nice and I get the differences between the SW and OBW now!! Thanks for the pic!

Ah, when I learned it, the pattern was only called "kaleidascope". So I have to learn how to cut for the OBW now so as to be able to make corners. LOL... ok, I'm up for that, soon as I get to that number on my list!!
Hugsssss and smilesssss...

:thumbup:

Thank you for the explanation, along with the visuals...I am a visual person.
Have to admit that the Pillow Panels were not what I had in mind. I go back eons (or so it seems) and I used to make pillow cases with fabric that was solid (for the most part) with a strip of clowers or whatever running along the salvage. All we had to do was sew around two sides then hem it. I was in the 9th grade and must have made dozens. My mother still had a couple sets left when she passed two years ago!