The Blocks That Are Building ME!

I got about the business of cutting out the printouts of my fabric last night. I'm kinda glad I did it this way because I'm so paranoid of cutting the actual fabric wrong!  And so many of the patterns I'm looking at give me painfully LITTLE guidance!!

And I NEED GUIDANCE!!

Explicit instructions. How much, how long, which side, which direction. Explicit.

So, going off the grid, here, with this quilt for Angela? I'm not sure if I'm up for the challenge!

But, armed with my engineering quad-ruled paper, ruler, pencil, scans and paper cutter, I set about to figure out how to make the quilt blocks.

Oh, and I used a few of Mookie's crayons, too. Mostly because they were handy, and I was lazy. And they worked to give me the visual I needed. I wish I could become a fan of Crayola Washable Crayons on Facebook.  I ♥ them.

After much drawing and erasing and drawing, and then cutting, here is the final product:

Block A on the left, and Block B on the right.

Again, these are just paper samples of what I will be doing (hopefully? maybe? possibly? unless I am convinced to do something else?) for Angela's baby's quilt.

I want the large orange dot to be a recurring fabric in each of the quilt blocks, so I plan to alternate between blocks A and B on the actual quilt. I have a variety of oranges for the center of A/outer ring of B, and a variety of blacks for the middle ring of A/center of B. I added (by painting) black sashing around each block because I kinda felt it needed it.

And, much as I would like to just cut the strips at 2 1/2" and run with it, I know I'm going to have to fussy cut at least the fish fabric so they are all swimming in the same direction!  I'm not sure, yet, whether or not the large dots not all going in the same direction bothers me.

Seriously. I think my Perfectionist Badge is getting in the way! And, Lord knows I can't take it off for fear of being excommunicated from the Absolutely Straight Society. Of which I am a long-standing member, thankyouverymuch.

Oooh, ooh. I just had an idea! I'll be right back...

Okay, here's what I've got:  a 12 block "quilt" and a 15 block "quilt". Forgive the ickiness of it all, and just "visualize" with me. :o)

What do you think? Which do you prefer? 12 or 15?

There will obviously be some variety in the blocks, since I'll be using different fabrics for each block, this is just a mock-up.  And the actual pieces in the blocks will be somewhat asymmetrical and "wonky."

Another option for me to do later is to applique (whasachusayyyy??) circles over top of the blocks, (hopefully) randomly.  But I guess that is a decision I can make when (a) I am finished, and (b) if I have time!!

Because I am fully aware that the making of the quilt top is going to be QUICK compared to the actual quilting of the thing! Eep!! 

Or do I scrap it all and make a rag quilt out of the fabrics? Wouldn't that just be easier, doggone it?

Please, pretty please, weigh in. I need the support of my bloggie world. Mookie doesn't seem to care much...