The octagon shape is a good one to welcome into our quilting world. It not only brings interest but an attractive, almost circular quality to our work
– Lin Clements
THE OCTAGON SHAPE
The word “octagon” is derived from a Greek word meaning eight angles. An octagon is a geometric shape, specifically a polygon, with eight equal angles and eight equal sides (see). The sum of the interior angles is 1080° and the sum of the exterior angles is 360°. In a regular octagon, the interior angle at each vertex is 135°. We use the octagon quite often in patchwork, although not always in its “true”, regular geometric form. shows some examples of blocks that use the octagon shape or create octagons when other shapes are sewn that gaps are left when we try to nestle octagons together, so other shapes are needed to create a repeating pattern.
