Sunday, January 20, 2019

Overlapping Octagons

My "Overlapping Octagons" is progressing, but nowhere near completion. Here are the units I've made so far, randomly placed on the design wall.

Overlapping Octagons: Try-out on the design wall with 4.5" red (the new neutral) centres.
I thought I would use as many of my 19th century reproduction fabrics as possible to make space in my sewing room. Unfortunately most of the "reds" look more like brown, so I shall be adding brighter reds to the mix.There was not much blue, and that has nearly all been used now.

I started by planning to use neutral squares; changed my mind to using red ones; changed back to planning neutral and went for it. I forgot to take a photo, but 4.5" neutral squares, surrounded by dark blue strips were so boring! I decided to go back to the red plan and to add neutral and green as well as orange to the strings.The neutral squares went into the hourglass blocks, and strings; cut smaller they are much less ugly/boring..

Although I planned to cut everything freehand, that hasn't been the case. Only the hourglass blocks and some of the strings have been cut freehand, a lot of the strings are actually strips left over from other projects. I didn't dare cut the squares freehand; 4.5" is definitely still out of my comfort zone!

At present I've no idea how large I'm going to make this, and how I'm going to finish it. I'm enjoying using up scraps like this: really satisfying!

Happy sewing

Marly.
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6 comments:

  1. Kathy S.January 21, 2019 at 3:48 AM

    Way to use up those scraps! I still have a bunch of pink 2.5" strips of strings. I'll keep my eye out on this project.

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  2. AnnJanuary 21, 2019 at 10:47 AM

    I do like projects that help up use up the scraps. So much better than having them lie around for years. You are really moving ahead.

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  3. PipJanuary 21, 2019 at 2:03 PM

    I'm loving the red and the little pops of orange, I think even though the reproduction reds might look a little brown they will still look good in the end product.

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  4. Sujata ShahJanuary 21, 2019 at 7:55 PM

    Marly, I love how you describe your scraps. I am also thinking about using my 19th century fabrics but haven't begun to gather them. I see you have used free-form blocks for the quarter square triangles. Interesting how those gentle curves make octagon a little circular. A suggestion.. Randomly, try using some blue center squares just to see what happens.

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  5. June DJanuary 22, 2019 at 7:55 PM

    Lovely. I especially like the four point blocks with the curved seams.

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  6. KrisRJanuary 25, 2019 at 10:01 PM

    You sound like you have gone through similar gyrations to me. :) I've tried QST, HST and solid cornerstones. I just can't decide which I like best. Only the QST give the octagon illusion. I like your freeform QST...they really add movement.

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