Overlapping octagons make some lovely secondary shapes…

Three different shades highlight where the octagons overlap once, twice or three times.

This design could be made as-is using squares, rectangles and half-square triangles. Or you could turn it 90 degrees and make it on point using mostly squares and rectangles and a few quarter-square triangles. Following the shading shown here, you’d need only 4 colours.

This design would be perfect for playing with transparency – combining fabric and colours to create the effect of translucent layers. To see what I mean, check out my Pinterest board Quilts: Transparency.