Quilt by the Numbers - Solution Pending

This week I just wanted to do something fun. As a side benefit, it fit in with my 2021 goal of becoming a closet quilter. I have had two layer cakes in my closet for a semi-long while. How long is a semi-long while? Since 2015. I had flown out from California to Oklahoma for the birth of my daughter's second baby. We were in Sooner Quilts in Guthrie with him just days after his birth. I bought the two layer cakes on clearance sale in a quilt shop in Oklahoma. I published a post about our visit there dated July 27, 2015. There were no selvages on the 10" squares but I guess the fabric dates around 2014. I was attracted by the numbers and the colors.

Little Isaiah was cool with blue but red just made him mad! Tastes and preferences are formed early.

The fabric line of the layer cakes I bought is called FIGURES by Zen Chic by Moda designer Brigitte Heitland and is described on her website as:

FIGURES is full of delightful and pleasing contrasts and delivers everything you expect from a well designed collection: It has a central motif, namely stenciled numbers; it has a color theme centered around variations of blue; it has a range of hues from light to dark, and it has both large scale and small scale graphic patterns in the form of buttons, points and plus signs. Add to this some bright yellow groupings of abstract daisies and dandelions and you get a collection of graphic fabric designs that are urban chic, versatile and lots of fun.

The pattern I wanted to try out was called Kira by Gudrun Erla (GE Designs). Two layer cakes, 42 squares each would make a full size quilt that required 80 squares, 40 light and 40 dark. I opted to go with a 48 block lap size, based not only on how ambitious I wanted this project to be, but for another reason. I realize often layer cakes do not have a equal apportionment of lights and darks. I could appropriate some lights from the second layer cake to even out the imbalance from the first one. [NOTE: I make no promises that I may not change my mind and go for a larger size by adding in some solid pale squares of a different fabric line.]

I split up one layer cake and laid out the 42 squares pairing a light with a dark and adding a 6 more squares from the second layer cake to total 48, the number required for a 48 block, 63" x 80" lap size quilt. I kept the colors segregated into coral, yellow, navy/blue and turquoise columns.

I started with the coral squares, my favorite color, and was thrilled with how the first four blocks came out. Light and dark were so well-defined and those triangles peeking out from the diagonal seams made me smile. Clearly I was in the honeymoon phase of this quilt and I gleefully plunged forward, sewing up all the pre-paired squares I'd stacked up. Within two days I had whipped out all 48. Woo-hoo!

Then I displayed all 48 blocks on my design wall, ending the honeymoon phase as the first matrimonial fight hit. Although I liked each block they did not necessarily play nicely with each other. Some lacked the desired level of contrast despite my initial pairing considerations Maybe I should have scattered the block colors instead of grouping them? Maybe I should pay more attention to a consistent line of those diagonal triangles? Maybe a should toss out a few problem children and make replacements – I really enjoy the piecing part of the process. Those multicolor splats, although quite cheerful, did not seem to fit. 

My initial attraction to this layer cake was the featured figure fabric. Maybe I should make a few more blocks with it and sub out those blocks that do not suit my fancy? Perhaps group all the numbers in the center? Even that subtle white block with pale gray numbers serves a useful role. Aargh!! I merely need to leave this to marinate up on the wall for a few days. Maybe if I sleep on it the solution will eventually come to me in my dreams. I will "figure it out".