Lesson 1

Making Octagons and Assembling Unit 1

 

Making Small Octagons

Making octagons is critical to this quilt... it doesn't exist without them. Two basic octagons are involved. One easily assembled from standard piecing that has already been covered on Treadle On. It uses full size soled blocks combined with half-square triangles on the corners. That one will not give you any problems. However, there will also be smaller single block octagons. These aren't hard to make, once you have the measurements needed... that's the hard part. In this lesson, you will learn to make the small octagon unit, in two sizes, and to assemble the large octagons.

Unit 1 of this pattern is a large octagon with a small octagon in the center. It's a neat looking block. The thing is, an octagon should have 8 equal sides or it looks funny. It took me several many tries to make the small octagon come out with equal sides. Here is how it works:

 

 

Here you see the basic pieces cut to make our small octagon. Each one takes a large square and four small squares. I'm using odd scrap because I'm still testing and establishing measurements. The large block represents your background or color fabric, depending on which octogon you're making. It will be either 3 1/2" square or 4 1/2" square, depending on the size of main unit you are using for your quilt.

(See previous discussions of quilt size on the main page)

After several trial and error attempts, I established that the small square measurement should be 1 3/8" for the 3 1/2" octagon and 1 11/16" for the 4 1/2" octagon... and yes, it must be pretty precise.

 

Here the small squares are laid carefully onto the corners of the large square. Using a pencil with a fine point, draw a line from corner to corner of each small square, where your seams will be.

 

 

Here the seams have been sewn. Sew exactly on your lines! If you shade to one side or the other, your octagon will be off.

 

 

Here the corners have been trimmed off, leaving the usual 1/4" seam.

 

Ironing vs. Pressing

A word here about iron vs. pressing. Our next step is going to be to PRESS the trimmed corners over. Pressing is gently, gently putting the iron on the piece, as you want it, i.e. the corner folded over, and letting the steam set the seam. Ironing is moving the iron around. On this piece you don't want to push the iron around. It may torque or distort the piece and totally foul up the careful measurements you have established.

 

 

Now, these being test pieces, I need to make sure that in the finished piece, i.e. when it is installed in the quilt, the little octagon will be true. That means that each of its sides will be close to equal. Here I am getting ready to draw a pencil line on the octagon 1/4" in, where the final seam will be. I'll draw this line on all four of the yellow sides, and then measure all sides...

 

 

Here you see the four lines I've drawn. Using the dividers, I have checked the length of each pencil line and the length of the green print piece edge between the lines. All eight lines should be very close to equal. Using this techique, and several test blocks in each size, I established the need for the small squares to be 1 3/8" for the 3 1/2" blocks and 1 11/16" for the 4 `1/2" blocks.

 

 

 

 

Here are the two final octagons, one in each size, that I arrived at. I'm not showing how many it took to get these two right!

 

I highly recommend that you make a few test blocks so that you're sure you understand making this block.

 

For this quilt, you will be making two kinds of small octagons... one kind will have print fabric for the corners, as shown here, and one kind will have print fabric in the center and background fabric on the corners.

 

Alternative Small Octagon

There is an alternative to making the small octagons as shown above. In my opinion, it's a lot more work, but it may appeal to some folks. This would be to make them as a pieced nine patch block... essentially the same way you will be making large octagons (see later instructions). Briefly, this method consists of cutting five plain blocks... one for the center and one for each side, and then making four HST's for the corners. Assembled, this will be an octagon. However, using the 3" square for an example, you would be working with 1" squares (plus the usual 1/4" seam allowance). This is pickier work to me than getting the measurement right as above, and heck, I've already done that for you. Also, you're going to be needing quite a few of these pieces. so you're talking a lot of hst's and small pieces.

 

A No Small Octagons Alternative

Finally, you can significantly symplify this pattern by not using the small octagons at all. This means that your large octagons will have square, rather than octagonal, centers, and some of the other pieces on the quilt will feature another pattern. I planned and designed the pattern to emphasize octagons, but this, too, is an alternative. You'll understand it better after you've seen the instructions for assembling the large octagon, which are next.

Assembling Your First Large Octagon

The really important block in this pattern is the large octagon. This is the "impact block" that will establish what first impression your quilt will make when someone looks at it. It will establish the shape impact, and the color impact... whether bright or subtle, intricate or just scrappy. I chose to use my blue fabrics for my first real block. You will be cutting squares of both print and background in your basic "square" cut, i.e. 3 1/2" if you are basing your quilt on 3" squares or 4 1/2" if you are basing your quilt on 4" square. You will also be cutting some squares of each fabric one inch larger, or 4 1/2" for a 3" square quilt or 5 1/2" for a 4" square quilt. These will be used to make your half-square triangles (HST's). I always mamke these oversize and trim them down to size. HST's have been a standard Treadle On block for many years. If you are not familiar with making HST's, I have imported the folder with the Treadle On HST instructions. You may access it from this link:

Treadle On Half Square Triangle Instructions

 

Instructions from this point assume you know how to make HST's and have practiced doing so.

 

Here is how my assembly of the large octagon went:

 

 

Basic pieces for large octagon (mine is for the 4" squares). Here you have background pieces cut 4 1/2" and print pieces cut 4 1/2", plus pieces some of both background and print cut 5 /12".

(Note: I always start my HST's by cutting my squares larger than they need to be and then trimming the block to size... gives me more accurate HST's than other methods.)

 

I've used the larger (5 1/2" pieces to make four HST's and have trimmed them down to the basic size of 4 1/2".

 

Here I've laid out "whole" pieces to establish the frame of my octagon.

 

 

I've added the HST's in the corners and, voila! An octagon! Note that this octagon has a square center. As noted above, an option would be to just go ahead and leave it that way. This basic block was the foundation for many, many traditional blocks. You can leave the center square and your quilt will still look fine... But, IMHO, it will look better if we add corners to the center block, making it also an octagon of matching proportions.

 

 

I've already mentioned a couple of times that I established the necessary measurement of the small corner squares for making the small octagon, and that they came out at 1 3/8" for the 3" square quilt and 1 11/16" for the 4" square quilt. Most quilting rulers aren't very accurate at the 1/8" marks, and few even have 1/16" divisions. I wanted those corner squares to be accurate, so I took a piece of clear plastic and scribed lines at 1 3/8" and 1 11/16" using a sharp awl. This spsecial ruler let me cut strips in these sizes very accurately. You can get clear plastic at major hardware stores, local plastics factories (scrap is fine), or you can use the thinner pattern or template plastic available at quilt stores. This is not a necessity, but it is a great convenience.

 

Okay, if you reviewed the instructions above, you know what's going on here. I've put the square on the corner of the block that will be the small triangle in the center of my large trianagle.

 

And I've sewn and trimmed it...

 

Here's the large triangle... a nine patch block... the center octagon, four HST's and four blocks of print.

 

A Digresson ot Discuss Fabric Effects

Look at the last picture again... In this quilt, I will have 12 of these large blocks and they will each be a different shade of blue. That will give me my color variety. If you are using basic colors (someone mentioned crayola shades), the same approach will work fine... likewise, you could choose a dozen different prints of any family of color variations.

However, some folks will want an even more varied color impact... the scrappy approach. You could make each element of this nine patch block a different scrap, i.e. have 9 different colors showing in each block. Wild!

However, if you like, you can get even wilder. I'm going to give it a try with my other quilt in the 1930's fabrics. This "super wild" approach would involve turning each of the four side squares into a four patch. If you wanted to go even further, there is a way to split the pattern piece of each HST and make it two colors, but if you want to do that, you're on your own!

 

 

 

OK... back to our large octagon... Here I've sewn the pieces into three rows.

 

This is the back of the piece. Press the seams to the dark, or print, sides. This will automatically result in their laying in a facing relationship, making it easier to sew the seams. Again, press, don't move your iron around.

 

 

And here is the finished large octagon. 12 1/2" x 12 1/2"... the first of the large blocks, or Unit 1's of my quilt

 

 

I'm proud of the work I did to get to this point. Here you can see my dividers checking one of the inner edges...

 

and here another. All 8 checked out almost perfectly the same. They don't have to be absolutely perfect, or course. All they have to do is pass the "man on horseback" test... would they look like octagons to a man galloping by on a horse. However, you should do enough test blocks to have some confidence and make them the best you can.

 

 

I'm going to post these instructions so you can get underway and practice making small octagons. My own next step is going to be to make a large octagon in the 30's fabric so that I can see, and picture here, what the scrappy effect will look like.

Dick

Scrappy Octagons

 

I did get the chance to make a scrappy large octagon this afternoon. I'll show it first, then discuss a few things to be aware of in making one:

 

 

 

 

 

These two images give you two views of the block, and I can use them to show you what i did right and what i did wrong.

First, the scrappy large octagon clearly works. It looks good, and 9, 12 or 16 of them on a quilt top are going to look even better! When you add in some other things I'm going to have you do further along, this is going to be a spectacular quilt, whether you go scrappy or just use a different single print in each of the large units.

This is actually a usable block... but only barely by my standards (which in many respects are pretty lax). Let me show you how i did it first:

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, it should be apparent that this block is really no different than the single print blue block I did first. It's just that I use a lot of prints to create the same structure. I turned the four primary color blocks, East, West, North and South, into four-patch blocks, using four prints for each. Then I used four more prints for the HST's at the large corners, and finally, four more prints for the corners of the small inner octagon. Now, some colors repeat here. I was in a hurry to make a sample block and did not follow my usual practice in randomizing. i'll call that mistake number 1, though in fact it was deliberate in the interest of time. However, there are too many repeats of print in this one unit, and, same prints pieces adjoining each other in the Southwest cornber. More on randomizing later.

I made my four patches by a common method... knowing I needed 2 1/2" squares to end up with a 4 1/2" block that had a seam in the middle in each direction, I cut 2 1/2" strips and sewed them together. Above you see the 2 1/2" strips laid on top of each other ready for speed piecing. Once the stips were together, I cut them into 2 1/2" double pieces, then sewed those together in pairs to produce the four-patch blocks you see in the large unit.

My second error was much worse than my first, and in fact was just plain a dumb error. It's been so long since I made any four-patch blocks, I forgot my own advice to use the same principal I use with HST's... make them oversize and trim them down so you are working with perfect squares. This block is sloppy as a result. The cumulative small inaccuracies in seaming from square to square can gang up on you. Study the very center of the bottom edge in the first bock photo. You'll see that the middle two blocks are really not well aligned. If I use this block in the final quilt, I'll have to fudge the seam a bit when I get to that point in order to pick up enough fabric to be safe. Fortunately, I don't plan to use this block.

 

My Method of Randomizing

 

When I randomize, I like it to end up truly random. Here is an award winning quilt I made that really was random, all 3600 or so pieces...

 

 

This is "Rainbows Crossing". It won Best Traditional Quilt at Quilt America in Indianapolis in 1998.

 

The quilt above is thousands of 1 1/2" squares. To make this quilt, I cut 2 1/2" squares, put them into a paper grocery bag and mixed them up like raffle tickets. Then I pulled them out in pairs and sewed those pairs together and put the pairs into another grocery bag. then I took those out by pairs and sewed them together... well, you get the idea. In the case of the subject block, a four-patch, the process would stop at this point and you would have a whole bunch of oversize four-patch blocks, which you would then trim down to perfect size. In our presnt case, I would (will) cut my small squares to 3", rather than 2 1/2"... pair them up then pair up the pairs, and I will end up with 5 1/2" four patches. I can then trim these to perfect 4 1/2" four patches.

Four-patches are one of the standard Treadleonian exchange or TOBE blocks, like the HST's, and have an instruction page on the Treadle On site. As with the HST's, I have imported this set of instructions to thhis folder. If you want to review the making of four-patch blocks (as I should have done!) use the link below:

 

Instructions for Four-Patch Blocks