Thursday, July 16, 2009

Thinking Out Loud

So, today I've been fiddling with blocks in my Quilt Design Wizard software. (This is like a beginner's version of Electric Quilt.) There are a lot of options for setting my scrappy star blocks, so I tried several layouts.

There are enough diamond pieces to make 25 blocks. So that is where I started (Ignore the odd piece that is wrong colored. I started with a red white & blue layout):

25stars

Hmmm. This would work up to about 90 inches square. Don't think I want to go for that size. I have 12 blocks now, so how about something smaller?

scrappystarsonpoint

Oh, much better. About 70 inches - but I'm still not quite sold. Let's try something different.

chkrbd-stars

Well, now. I think we are getting somewhere! This particular layout takes 30 blocks to make up 58 x 66 inches. I would have to cut out 5 extra sets of diamonds. Ha! Like I don't have scrap bags overflowing!

That's a lot of blocks! I think this quilt just became a WISP - Work In Slow Progress!

Edit: OK, those numbers do NOT make sense! It's been nagging me all day - why would I be making more blocks? So Quilt Wizard had these as 8-inch blocks when they are more like 11-inches. That makes this layout 73 x 84! If I change the layout to 20 blocks (4 across, 5 down), then the size is 62 x 73. So that's what I'm doing. Hey, I'm an artist, not a mathematician!

4 comments:

Vicki W said...

Yep, I love the last one!

Anonymous said...

I like them all, and I think one thing all quilt programs should do is clearly, IN BIG NUMBERS, keep reminding us what size blocks we are working with!
Judy B

Sparklyjools said...

I've just seem your quilt posts. I like them all! I couldn't do it in a million years - love to see them though!

Kay said...

I like them all too. But aren't your blocks all with a dark background?