I don't know how I happened across this formula, but I estimate a queen sized quilt at no less than five yards. Since I am a scrapper, it really doesn't matter how much I have of anything, but it has been consistent with me, no matter the pattern, just to put the quilt on the top of the mattress, no less than five yards. If you want it to hang over, I figure +20" on all four sides ... does that help you at all? <wave

Ok so I got my fabric...here is the story. I told my friend I had a funny feeling my fabric was on the sales floor, so today I went in again and was looking for the positively pineapple ruler and decided on the way out to look quickly to see if I coukld find it...Sure enough there it was...I grabbed it and went to cutting table to tell them the story...they measured it and luckily no one had bought any and so I got to take the whole bolt home with me! Yeah! I will probably not get to start on it until next weekend...Its very pretty fabric..Whew I lucked out!

It's looking great!! It reminds me of an under-sea landscape with coral and sand and starfish and sea urchins. I love it!

As to size, that can be adjusted by how many strip sets you have, and then you can add borders to make it as much bigger as you like.

Good job!

so if I want to make a queen size..about five yards and how many strip sets should I cut then? I know adding borders will make bigger but just approximatley how many strip sets?

that is really pretty and soothing...it does look like sand dollars in some places!

I love the colors on that one...it does really look like sanddollars...very pretty!

Measure what you have and then decide how much bigger you want it. For example: if it took 5 strips (of the layered material) to make what you have right now, and youvdecide you want it twice as big, cut 5 more strips. If you want it about half as much more, cut 2 or 3 more strips. It is entirely up to you.

Julie that is looking fantastic. I'm always amazed at how much better the effect is once eveything is sewn. :-D

Daisey I'm sooo pleased you managed to rescue your fabric! To add to what Gai said, each strip set yields around 18 - 19 hexagons and they finish (if you cut the 3 3/4" standard as stated in the book) at around 6" across (though they're not square)

As this is a 12" repeat, one set of repeats gives 3 sets, ie 57 hex blocks. This would take 2 yards of fabric. If you cut double repeats, you'd get 6 strip sets yielding 114 hex blocks and it would take 4 yards. I would do the latter, then with borders, build it out to queen size. When you cut double repeats though, you're likely to get duplicate hexagon blocks so you might have to play around with the orientation as described on p 29 (of this first book) :-D

This is my finished queen size top. DH couldn't reach any farther so hope you can see it all. Wish I had more of the original fabric for one of the borders but had to improvise once I decided it should be a queen. It was darker than I thought it would be but the gold brightens it up. If and when I ever get it finished, the backing will be brown and I have two more hexagons to applique somewhere.

So you are saying cut about 4yrds of repeats or 6 strip sets? Ok sounds good...I dont care too much if I have repeats,,,who will really notice with 114 hex's...LOl

I like it...its not too dark...its very rich looking to me...the turquoise brightens it up!

Marsha, that one is beautiful! Great job adding the turquoise!

This is awesome! I believe the turquoise fabric brings it out. Cannot wait to see how you are going to quilt it. Again, fabulous job!

Wow! That is beautiful Marcia. And yes it DOES come up darker than you'd think but I like the rich effect. Half my rows are pieced (mine is much smaller - ONLY 57 hexes LOL) buit I've been naughty and started playing with my Block Bender already so it's been pushed to one side! LOL

I have 4 seams left to sew and press to have my original top (pictured) done. Well, the hex part anyway :).

I think I will start cutting the new fabric sometime this week. I'm making this one an octagon quilt. I have the accuquilt go cutter for these blocks. I'm working on one of them right now. I think if I'm very careful in cutting my strips and keeping my layers straight I am going to be able to use the die cutter to do this. My blocks will end up quite a bit bigger than the standard "book" blocks...but that just means I won't need as many :).

Looking forward to starting this one next and blending the blocks with those square centers. It took me a couple of reads to really understand that concept...felt like a "duh" moment when I finally GOT it....hahaha

Ohhhh that is SO pretty!! Yes it is dark but that teal really brightens it up a lot!

Now I'm really excited :). I want to subtley bring out the orange and purple in mine!

I'll be VERY interested to hear how the Accucut handles these Julie, and to see how bigger octagons affect the outcome. :-D

Okay y'all, I brought some fabric to try my at at this but I am confused. What size do I need to cut the fabric to start? I saw 12'' by 2.5 yds and I saw 3.5 yds and I saw 9''. So someone please help me out. I also saw someone cutting it in the corner. That confuses me. If I can start with a pattern from somewhere it would be helpful for me. Thanks a bunch, Sandi

The fabric is beautiful and the blocks are turning out great! Thanks for sharing the pics :)

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-35685-1.htm
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-36954-1.htm
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-36316-1.htm

tip toe through hexagons Cutie style ... cutting, layout, assembly <wave>

The hex top is done! I have to admit though, once I turned it the direction it is supposed to be, I'm not really feeling it anymore :(

I've always pictured the upper left light wandering down to the lower right red. i'm left handed and I guess the left to right just "flows" better for me. I have to get used to this new look :?

Anyway, I'm still proud and happy that I finished it finally!! :thumbup:

I am left-handed and I followed the flow of the darks! It looks wonderul to me!

I think it came out great.

I really think the colors are unusual...So I love it!

Hi Sandi, we're working from the technique described in the books by Maxine Rosenthal. The first book One Block Wonders tells how to select, layer and cut your fabrics and how to cut and assemble either the hexagons or octagon blocks. The second two books One Block Wonders Encore and One Block Wonders Cubed concentrate on the hexagons and introduce the 3D cubes. They also give more ideas for borders, settings, using more than one fabric etc. In my opinion, you need at least one of these books not only for the cutting and piecing instructions but also for all the tips on getting the design layout right - this is where I think most ppl come unstuck. :-D If you can't find them locally they're available on Amazon.com. :-D

Julie I love it, I think it flows really well. Now anxious to see what you come up with for the borders. :-D :-D :-D

Glad you like it. i've heard rumors that you are the Queen of OBW so your opinion means a lot to me :wink:

My border will probably just be strips. I love red and that is why I chose this fabric to begin with. To me, when I turned the top "I" lost the red POP that I was feeling before...sooooo...I think I will put a skinny cream border, then a little bit wider red (to match) border, then finish to size with black. I have the coordinating black fabric with little gold 'twigs' on it that I'm going to use for binding and I have a black that has a very faint circle design in it that I feel would work awesome for the back. Although I've been thinking of switching the back to a khaki/tan color that would match the front.

I'm probably going to let it rest for a few days. I've worked a bunch on it lately and I need a rest from it :lol:

I'm ready to start cutting the floral fabric! Did you cut your strips WOF? I notice it has a staggered repeat on the WOF and didnt know if that would make a difference.

I think I'm going to give it another shot of starch tonight then cut some strips. I'm going to try one strip in the accuquilt cutter. I keep forgetting I am doing EIGHT layers and that may not come out good in the cutter. Might be too thick. We'll see.

I guess this thread has been going a long time (24 pages of comments!), but I've just found it... I am in awe. This fabric is the prettiest OBW I've ever seen. Just beautiful!

I have to apologize for interfering on this thread.
The very first post says that the book being referenced is
One Block Wonder books by Maxine Rosenthal

This woman has done a lot of work making sense of this technique and has earned the right to sell her books.

Anyway, for those who don't know, a One Block Wonder or OBW is a kind of kaleidcoscope quilt similar to stack n whack. There is a Topic List here on the board and a brief description about them with details of the books here

http://www.quiltingboard.com/virtual_section_list.jsp


The above section was in the very first post of this thread, and I am so sorry that I posted some other threads that detracted from the stated purpose of this particular thread. If the administrator would remove my links comments, I would appreciate it, and again I apologize.
It also was not my place to tell anyone where to get additional information ... I should have deferred to the author of this thread. <wave>

I agree by reading book it really helps.

Don't know if I'm Queen of anything BTW - that's ol' big mouth Gaigai spreading THAT rumour! :lol:) Anyway I DO love these and have made a few and am happy to share what I've learned along the way. :-D

Re your borders - yup that's what I do - pick the colour I like best in the focus fabric and pull that out with the border. On Orchidacious I liked the dark purple in the original fabric and found the finished OBW sections a bit wishy washy so I used dark purple fro the border and I think it brought that out more in the background.

Yes I cut strips WOF - if you're not lucky enough to have a big mat, you can spilt it up the fold and treat each half separately. You lose one set per stack this way but it does save hassle. :-D And staggered repeat on the WOF is good - it reduces the number of duplicates. If it's a parallel repeat you have to look out for that - especially when doing octagons as you can't change the look of those by turning the triangles like you can with the hexes. I have no experience of Accuquilt so can't help you there but what I will say is if rotary cutting, get a new blade! I find 8 quite a bit heavier going than 6. :-D If the Accuquilt works that would be VERY interesting info indeed! :-D

That is quite pretty. You used the same fabric as I used. Next one I make will not have anything as geometrical as the bamboo. This is the link to mine http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-99523-1.htm
I wasn't really happy with those hexagons that had mainly bamboo. So, I didn't use all the ones I had and used them near the bottom. Isn't it great to be finished?

Of course it is! I hadn't realised doh!

Oh My Freaking Gosh!!!! YOURS IS BEAUTIFUL!!!! I don't know how to do the cubes..i have the first book.

But see, yours has that upper left light color going down to the the red and darker colors to the bottom right. That's how mine was supposed to be but I got my rows mixed up and made it to "wide' to lay that way and had to turn it. Gosh I just really love that...your red POPS so nicely!

'nuff said....I'm jealous :mrgreen:

I bought that fabric at least 4 yrs ago, maybe 5! And the black and gold is what i'm using for my binding. Would have loved to do the back in it but its to expensive.

Agian, beautiful quilt!

Well, you just have to get the book with the cube technique and try it. You could use some of your leftover hexagons, if any, and maybe some fabrics you already have. I like blenders or hand dyes for the cubes. Anyway, if you do it this way, you could make a wallhanging. There are some of the most stunning quilts in that book.

Omak, you aren't interfering in anything! You are ALWAYS welcome, you should know that!! And why should anyone remove anything? Your information is as valid as anyone elses (and more than some
:mrgreen: ).

Hey now, no need to be mean, I resemble that remark!! And you ARE!!!

I had two whole bolts of that fabric, but gave most if it away, and when I went to cut out my strips last night I discovered I didn't have enough from one source. Since the repeat was only 12 inches, I decided to cut 24 inch sections, but only had enough for 4 before moving to a different batch. And guess what, it is printed differently on the fabric!! I've tried to match it up, but I guess I'll have to cut the strips and hexs before I can tell if it works. Sigh.

That is ok by me but I have been corrected a few times too although it seems harmless to me.

How much fabric do you need? I know it depends on the size quilt you want, but are there some guidelines for maximizing one's options? Also, I love that no matter how you arrange and cut and sew all your blocks coordinate! Much
easier than selecting all the fabrics separately. I'm in love with this pattern and plan to try one soon myself! Thanks.

Do it with us! We will help you!