My muse is whispering sweet somethings ...

I'm getting a handle on the diagonal concept for this new quilt. I kept looking at my Excel spreadsheet puzzling about how I could make those squares become diamonds. Duh... I finally used Excel to make a page of blocks so I could manipulate them with my hands, and then I printed and cut them out. It was like handling playing cards or a stack of stamps. I had to touch them before I could figure out how to see it in Excel. Isn't that funny? The workings of the mind are strange. Some people can see the concept right away; and others, like me, have to use trickery.

The square configuration to the left was my first attempt, but then I had to stop and think whether I wanted this quilt to be square or not - and not was the answer. So back to the drawing board.

You would think it would be easy just to rearrange the squares, but taking the square apart and creating a rectangle wasn't as easy as it should have been. I actually had done the math in my spreadsheet and knew that I needed a configuration of 3 squares across and 4 deep, on the diagonal, to get the size I wanted, but only my fingers could see how to arrange the squares.

Mind you, all this design work is only for the top of the quilt. I figured I needed to get that settled before I even thought about the borders (or sashes).

After I fit the paper squares together by hand, I then could keep looking at it out of the corner of my eye as I created the same concept in my spreadsheet.

Here it is in Excel. I made all the rows 16 pix high and 16 pix wide, except for the rows between squares. The row between the squares is a border of sorts. I darkened it in Excel so it would be obvious that there's something there. The half diamonds that fall outside the inner rectangle are there only there in this image. That area between the two rectangles will be some sort of border. To have those half diamonds as part of the border is a possibility, but I think I will have to wait until I make some progress on the real quilt before I made that decision.

By rotating the screenshot 45 degrees to the left, I now have a better idea of how this is going to work.

I believe the quilt I'm using as a template (the Fassett Square Clamshell) uses something like 3" squares to come to the final size of 67" wide and 93" long. I want to end up with something with a little different width to length ratio, so I adjusted the size of the little squares until I found a combination that would work. Each square in the 7 x 7 square will be about 2.5 inches, with a 1-inch border between each of the 7 x 7 squares. This should give me approximately 64 x 85 for the top, and then I can add a 15-inch border (30-inch increase in width and length). That should cover a double or queen without any problems, and not look too strange.

This is a little snapshot I found on the Internet where Fassett's book was for sale. It shows a corner of the quilt and a little more detail about the fabrics that create this wonderful effect.

I don't know what's so wonderful about this pattern, but I just love it. Mine will look very little like it when I'm done. The quilting and the colors will make a huge difference, but I hope I fall as much in love with the one I'm making as I am with this one Fassett designed.


Here are the fabric candidates for my quilt. There's no way to tell how this image (aura) will change when I cut these little strips into squares and start laying them out in pattern. All bets are off at that time. This process is the emotional one. I have to look at each color configuration out of the corner of my eye, sneak up on it and accidentally look that way, stand outside my sunroom and look at the mix through the window - all sorts of tricky things.

In the end, this quilt should look like a pink and violet flower garden, muted by grays so that it has a shadow-like quality. It should make the bed look like it's covered by flowers, and they are about ready to fall off. It should be something you want to crawl under for a wonderful rest.

I think I've been looking at my potted plants too long this summer. The angelonias are growing out of their minds, and I love them. Will this quilt look like a flower garden of angelonias?

Who knows what I'll be thinking as I watch the colors begin to form their own imagery.

Margie asks "Will it be done by the time we're home?" (She and John are still traveling - oh, how fun.) And my answer is "Hahahaha!" That was a good chuckle. Thanks, Margie!

That's enough work thinking about the quilt today. This is not something I can rush. It's about time to turn on my TIVO and catch up with all those old shows like Murder She Wrote and the Hallmark movies. I work on Mandi's afghan when I do that. Here I am, "watching" TV and running in yarns. See the little pile of cut ends on the arm of my couch? I don't have too much more to go - another week or two, maybe - and then I'll be done. Periodically now, I lay down on the floor and see how it feels to be covered up with the afghan. I think I need about 6 more inches or so, just to make sure she will be able to snuggle her feet in the bottom.