from Marta with Love

When Quilting is Plain FUN

This, my friends, is the Octagonal Orb quilt block.

I’m in an online quilting bee (for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, you can find out what a bee is here), and February is my month, so I chose this block for my quilt.  Seven people in the Quilts for Cancer bee have made their Octagonal Orb blocks for me so far, and they are looking really great together.  This one happens to be mine.

I decided as I was assembling this block that it is my favorite of any I’ve made.  This is saying something, because I love making pretty much any modern quilt block.  After completing a more improvisational piece like my Marbles quilt, this Octagonal Orb block reminded me that I’m more drawn to the therapeutic (for me, anyway) process of sewing in assembly-line fashion.  If you’re Type-A too, you’ll understand where I’m coming from on this.  There’s just something so satisfying about following instructions, step by step, to get to your finished product.  If you follow the instructions: success!  If you think you’ll skip over this, or over that: well, you get what you paid for.  I love small detailsI think they truly mean the difference between something good and something greatso this process is fine by me.

I really look forward to making more Octagonal Orbs and trying different color combinations within the “rings.” This block requires a little more TLC than most, so any quilt made up of these would certainly be extra special.  If you want to make one of your own, head over to Elizabeth Hartman’s blog** to check out the tutorial.

**Be warned: this woman is seriously talented.  Visiting her blog means you will undoubtedly spend several hours scrolling through her posts (unless you are nothing like me, because that’s exactly what I did the day I found her blog for the first time).  She is a serious inspiration to me.

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Bee Blocks
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5 Comments

  • Molls

    Love your color scheme, Martie!! Umm, Elizabeth's Sparkle Punch Quilt….SWOON!!!

    February 16, 2012 at 8:00 pm Reply
  • Kari

    Cute blog! The block is amazing. I haven't seen a whole quilt of them yet. It is going to be spectacular!

    February 16, 2012 at 8:09 pm Reply
  • Bern

    I would love to learn how to make this block. Where can I find the instructions? Thanks for sharing.

    February 17, 2012 at 6:41 am Reply
  • Marta

    Hi Bern, thanks for visiting my blog! Here is a direct link to the tutorial:http://themodernquiltguild.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/octagonal-orb-quilt-block-tutorial.pdf.

    February 20, 2012 at 1:02 am Reply
  • Phil

    I love the grey. It is warm and t-shirt’y perfection to me.

    January 4, 2013 at 10:39 pm Reply
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