Command Decisions

As you may or may not know, designing and sewing a quilt on the fly cannot be done without certain essential design elements in place. It is extremely difficult to just start sewing and watch the fabric evolve underneath your presser foot.

You may recall from a previous post that "the vague plan for Rambo Bright is crumbs, stars, and other improv blocks; possibly set on point; then bordered by some Nate blocks a la Malka." This plan is more than enough to start sewing when most of your plan consists of "winging it."

The plan was refined further when I put two and two together.....literally.

You see the block on the left? In yesterday's post that block was the biggest one in the pile. I needed a way to tame the size. Also at the back of my mind was my next design hurdle that I hoped to conquer in this quilt: setting blocks on point. How do I solve both problems? Slap a ruler on it and cut it. The star on the right? I needed to add some size.

This gives me a size reference for calculating how many blocks I need for the finished quilt size I desire. It tells me that I need to figure out setting triangles. It presents the problem of alternate setting blocks: to be or not to be?

The block on the left (below) was boring until I added a river of red. This is the result of another decision I made: To mix up the warm and cool spectrums in order to put more life into the work.

I made the most marvelous find in my scrap bag - a rainbow strip set from the Punk's baby quilt (7 years ago). You'll see it figure into a lot of blocks.

Do I sash? Do I use plain and/or pieced alternate blocks? Do I just squish all the blocks together and let it be a really huge hit of jumbly colour (thus the working name of Rambo Bright)?

What would you do for this set?

PS No ruler was used in the making of these blocks, save for the final squaring up. (Even chaos needs to be contained.) The places where you see matching seamlines? That's all done by guess and by golly. I guess everybody has a talent and I'm tooting my own horn!