Evolution of a Quilt Design

I've been working on a quilt design using half square triangles. It is supposed to be for an Accuquilt Go tutorial, except I'm having the hardest time getting my Go Baby fabric cutter to work. There has been a lot of back and forth with Customer Service, returns (shipping costs adding up!), deliveries and scrap fabric. In the meantime, I'm working out what I'm going to make.

This idea started months ago. I knew I wanted to use one of the half square triangle (HST) dies and my stack of Heirloom fabric by Joel Dewberry.  

I made this sample block awhile back and I really liked it!

The stars looked a lot different once I put them together. Kind of plain and flat. I didn't really like the secondary shapes that formed. Especially the square. It's so... square.

I tried adding another block to break up the stars and set it on point. This is a sweet little layout, but not really what I was looking for. It didn't feel like a good match with the modern, graphic fabric. It would make a super cute baby quilt though.

The HSTs weren't sewn together in stars yet, so why not use one of my favorite HST layouts. I love the repetition and the scattered colors. I added a taupe color to ground the light Heirloom prints. This quickly became the front runner, but I wanted to push myself further. What else? What else could I make?

At this point, the kids are asleep, there is some kind of show playing on the TV (background noise) and the DH and I are working away on our laptops. I gave the "rotate block" button a workout in EQ. It was the DH's idea to break it up into quadrants (I'm sure it was his sci-fi influence). Brilliant! I really liked the movement here and also the crisp white and the warm and bold Heirloom. The only thing I didn't love about it was the overall square shape. Again with the squares.  Picky Pickerson. I know.

What else...

I stopped for the night and in the morning I decided to try again but with the actual fabric and not the computer. I don't know how many incarnations of HST layouts I went through. There were a lot. Stripes? No. Zig zags? No. Chevrons? No. Broken Dishes? No. My arms were getting tired. What else?!

Why not start with something I already liked and expand on that idea? Change it up a little. This is a riff on the pillow I made for the Pillow Talk Swap.

I knew I was done and I had the one when instead of thinking, I could make this, I was thinking, I want to make this. Right now! I left the room, came back... peek. Yup, I still like it. I had lunch, got the kids from school, went to the library and Target. Still like it? Yes. I really do. It's bold, crisp and scrappy. The blocks are big enough to show off the gorgeous fabric and there is a lot of movement and interest.

I hope you like it too. Tutorial coming really soon.