Octagon Nine Patch Update

Octagon 9 Patch - October 2015
Octagon 9 Patch – October 2015

I was anxious to get the Octagon 9 Patch back up on the wall. There it sat for a few weeks and now I have taken it off the wall again. I couldn’t get all the blocks up on the wall anyway and I wanted to use the design wall for the Carpenter’s Wheel.

The exercise wasn’t completely useless, because I got to look at the pieces for awhile. I really have a lot of warm colors in this piece. I like that it makes the quilt feel warm, but I wonder if I need more cools. Also, as Julie said at one point, the solids do look a bit like holes. I think I can mitigate that by having Colleen quilt in each one.

Also, in realizing I couldn’t put all the blocks up, I figure out that I needed to count the blocks and decide on the layout. Sounds stupid, I know, but I always think the piece will just come together. It would if I had an infinite design wall, but I don’t so I have to count.

I had a brilliant idea after deciding to count, but not wanting to count only to have to count again in a week because I forgot the number. I pinned the blocks together in groups of 10. Yay! or DUH! depending on how daft I feel at the moment.

Snowball blocks: 110

9Patch blocks: 111

Without really trying, I have a very similar amount for both types of blocks. Perhaps I counted before?

Now comes the math. I have to figure out how to lay out the blocks – basically starting with a nine patch or an octagon is mostly what I need to figure out.

The other thing I was wondering is if I need to put another row between each row.