Size Matters

IF I inserted yellow blocks between the green and the orange, I'd have to shift things around, so here I did that, leaving space for the yellow blocks to go. (I still had to find yellow fabrics for those blocks, but let's leave that aside for the moment...)
 

The rail fence blocks I've been making from Sujata Shah's book, Cultural Fusion Quilts, (which is a really good book, by the way, and it's still in print, so go get one...) Anyway, the finished blocks measure sixteen inches square. A quilt four blocks by five is 64" x 80".  But for the design to work best, the quilt would have to be FIVE blocks by SIX. I'd need to make FIVE yellow blocks, and one extra block each of PINK, ORANGE, BLUE, PURPLE AND GREEN. That equals 30 blocks in total.

DETOUR AHEAD!

Now you may have noticed that in the previous posts I had four pairs each of Blue, Green, Purple, Pink and Orange. Each fabric is unique, so that means 40 unique fabrics. If I were to make 30 blocks, that would mean I'd need TWENTY more unique fabrics. And lemme tell ya, even with MY really terrific stash, that can be tricky. Not that I don't have the fabrics, but that I may or may not have sufficient YARDAGE to make really good pairs that meet the requirements I have already set for myself. Remember, I'm trying to DEPLETE the stash, not add to it by going fabric shopping. So stash hunting I will go. I'm a big believer that my best creative decisions come when my proverbial back is against the wall.

BACK TO THE SIZE...

If I add yellow blocks, which I am planning to do, then the size thing gets cuckoo. Thirty blocks arrange FIVE rows of SIX yields a quilt 80" x 96", which I think is way too freaking big. 

HOWEVER....

If I keep the blocks 3x3 (instead of 4x4) then the blocks are 12" square. And an arrangement of 5 rows of 6 yields a quilt.... 60" x 72" which I think is just peachy keen fine and dandy. That's within my comfort zone, but when I think about why I am making this quilt, and the overarching project, then clearly I don't want extra blocks left over. So a big quilt this shall eventually be. 

AND AS TO THE DESIGN...

I really like the idea that simply moving around a small block in each of the larger blocks, and then arranging the colors and prints just right will allow me to have my cake and eat it too. I can keep the zigzags of each color WHILE keeping the colors more or less in their own 3x3 block.  

In other words, I get to play with my viewer's heads, which is something I really like doing.

Yeah I know, I'm a bad woman.