Laying it All Out There

This weekend I cut all of the strips for the 16 blocks for Levi's bed quilt and did a possible lay out.  I'm sure I'll rearrange these blocks MANY times in the next week.  There is going to be black sashing between each block, as well as around the border.  The binding will be either yellow with black pindots or black with cream pindots.  Those fabrics, along with the backing, have been ordered and will ship tomorrow.  The backing is all kinds of retro awesomeness.  You can view it here. 

Here's how the layout looks right now:

Viewing it on screen, I can already see things that need rearranging, for example, the block in the bottom row, third from the left looks jarringly like an "S," and the reds blend together in the block in the top row, second from the left. And I don't like the black blocks in the middle section.Also, I think I want to rotate each block 45 degrees.  Or maybe every second block 45 degrees.  I'm not sure.  What do you think?

Oh! Are you wondering what I'm using to lay out the blocks? At first I was going to use one of our walls as a design wall by covering it with a white sheet and using masking tape, like so:

It didn't take long to realize that this was a terrible idea. First, it was finicky working with tape.  Second, the tape was causing the fabric to fray when I needed to remove it to rearrange stuff.  I could have used pins, but it still would have been finicky, plus 100s of straight pins and a nine month old baby are a bad combination (recall, my craft room is also my living room and my dining room and the play room and the laundry room and so forth).  Finally, Levi thought tugging the white sheet and trying to rip it off the wall was SO MUCH FUN.  I needed a new plan.

My brother in law gave us a ton of microfibre 11x11 inch clothes which we use to wipe Levi's face after each meal. Fabric clings to mircofibre beautifully! No pins! I can move the squares around to my hearts content.  Problem solved! 

I ended up cutting waaaaay too many fabric pieces. I guess that's what happens when you are modifying a pattern.  Also, it was only once I started laying out the blocks that I decided to use the same five prints in two blocks (the block on the bottom left and the block in the second row from the bottom, second from the right are the inverse of each other). This meant cutting additional pieces to get the right compliment.  I probably have enough left over scraps for another whole project! Its a good thing I really like this fabric line.

I'm hoping that some of my crafty friends will be able to visit me this week to help with the layout. I'm itching to start piecing but know I have to get the placement right or else I won't be happy with the finished project.  Stay tuned!