Quilt by the Numbers - Assembly and FMQ Planning

Last post on this quilt in progress was 3/5/21 – yes, about one year ago – where I left off trying to arrange the 48 blocks I'd made. The 8 rows of 6 had a few blocks that just did not go together; the blocks with the figure prints, my favorites, were not prominent enough. I tried grouping the figure print blocks all together and that arrangement was too busy. 

A few blocks did not have enough contrast and others, those predominantly navy with yellow details, just looked olive drab dark at a distance. Acknowledging that I do poorly at random arranging, I strove instead to make order out of chaos with a pattern. Throwing out some blocks, making more blocks, and ordering them on a diagonal by color seemed to do the trick for me. The blocks I'd thrown out were the olive drab ones. I needed more yellow blocks and something to pair with yellow. I invaded my stash for some fabrics not in the initial layer cake. Solid white stuck out like a sore thumb but white with tiny orangey-yellow dots came to the rescue. It was still two-toned like the other prints.

Since I last touched this project about a year ago, I have made additional blocks and re-arranged them into a square quilt of 64 blocks; 8 rows of 6 changed to 8 rows of 8.  A few blocks made up in multicolor fabric were cheerful but seemed to stick out oddly among the other two-toned blocks. I kept those somewhat distracting-but-happy multicolor blocks, relocating them toward edges so they would be a bit more subtle. I liked that fabric enough though, that I was able to locate and buy some on eBay for the backing. Most likely I will also use that fabric for the binding. I made my quilt sandwich and hung the assembly over my upstairs railing so I could stare at it, waiting for FMQ inspiration to come to me.

Now how to FMQ this? A basic block has three triangles on a diagonal. Standing back I noticed that quartets of four blocks either appeared to surround circles (with out-pointing middle triangles) or surround diamonds (with in-pointing middle triangles). Each quartet measures about 17" x 17". There are sixteen quartets in this quilt

Since this quilt has a contemporary feel, I wanted the FMQ to reflect the same tone so I auditioned concentric circles and concentric diamonds. I liked the effect but needed to play with the spacing and size. I do not want this quilt too densely quilted and get in the way of a gentle drape (or take me forever to quilt). I am toying with the idea of unequal spacing and perhaps some embellishment between concentric shapes.

I slid two extra blocks inside sheet protectors and sketched some possible fillers between concentric shapes. I tried diagonal lines inside the inward pointing triangles; four of these would form  concentric diamonds. I tried arcs inside the outward pointing triangles; four of these would form concentric circles.

I then spent an inordinate amount of time with an excel spreadsheet trying to calculate what specific circle diameters were needed to encase a integral number of small circles. Eventually I realized that even if a got compatible sizes, correct to three decimals places, I still needed to have rulers in that particular size. I went with the "eyeball and trial and error" method and finally came up with a configuration that could work with some minimal fudging at the stitching phase. I made a paper model and then tested the stitching out on some spare blocks to establish how difficult the actual execution would be. In my next post I show my testing and final design commitment.