Oh I DO like this one!!

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Sometimes when something just doesn't sit 'right', then you need to fiddle with it a bit - and the last few layouts I did .. they just didn't feel right.

I opted to go with the Prairie Queen block - this block will have the same blue, but the greens will be scrappy - I'm going to use as much of the dark and light green from the Big Ohio as possible and use other greens that are close to it to fill in the spaces.

I have another fabric that has red flowers, blue berries on a cream background - I think that that is a better choice for the smaller ohio blocks .. now i might not have quite enough, but I have a few other fabrics that I can use as well that will work very well with it.

I moved the Underground Railroad blocks inwards one 'ring' and moved the prairie queen blocks outward - that puts the light closer to the browns and seemed to make a huge difference .. it changed the whole look of the quilt. And now the browns seem to be more balanced ... I took the one set out with the red dots on a background that made it seem to blend in with the rest of the quilt .. I think that also made a huge difference .. i did NOT like that blending spot at all!

This is pretty close to how it's going to end up - of course the greens and some of the blues will be different fabrics, but they are very close in tone to what i have used here.

I'm giving a kudos to myself and a kick in the backside as well .. i discovered the reason that quilt pro wasn't taking my fabric scans .. twit for brains here, had the images to large - they are supposed to be no larger than 100k bah! :S **shakes head** So this layout was actually done in quilt pro and paws are crossed that the library holds this time .. I'm still upgrading when I can tho - this version is so old that my serial number wasn't accepted when I tried to upgrade before. I'll call them this time and see if I can't push it through that way.

Welp - it's late and I didn't want to be up at 4am ... but I am tired, so that's good news .. I'll be asleep shortly

**kittyhappydance**

This poor quilt ...

I've changed my mind again .. this poor quilt .. I could almost feel sorry for it .. but at this point, it's not feeling *MY* pain and frustration ... ;)

I started to look at the layout pic I did again this am when I finally got up .. and i realized that the sections with the underground railroad that I'm having such kittens over, won't even been seen when it's on the bed for crying out loud (!!) You'll see part of it .. but not all .. I'm like .. "Grace, you're a twit!!" .. so I shifted the sections over towards the big Ohio Star all around and rather liked that .. it did disrupt the sister's hearth variation I drew up, but at least it would be visible .. and of course I've not measured our bed .. every time I go to think of it .. Reg's sleeping in it .. he might not appreciate a tape measure across his nose ;)

Then I looked at it again and the flow seemed to stop abruptly, I put the split background underground RR back in the corners. I moved the grouping of 4 Double X for the same reason the underground RR got moved .. so that pushed my simplex stars and sisters off to the edges, where most of them won't be seen again .. (@@) (<- rolling eyes .. ). Reg LIKED that sisters hearth .. that is the ONLY block he picked .. so i took the simplex star out of the edge and center blocks in the big Ohio and put them in there ..

I do like this layout - (heh .. I liked the last one too :S) .. but with the shifting around, I have the 'big' blocks in the middle and then framed by the smaller blocks .. which means I'll be able to get away with a more simplistic border as well, since I will already have the middle of the quilt framed ..

I'll let this gel in my mind again .. I'm off to work on the math for this - I might even start cutting .. heh .. I had better cut soon before I change my mind again ..

Changes again ...

For some reason this time I wasn't able to look at fabrics tossed willy nilly on the table and pick them out for my blocks - (which should have been my first clue) .. so here i was scanning all my fabrics in to do them in photoshop .. well i started with one colour, then decided to do the rest as I KNEW that I would just have to add more ..

Long and short of it - found some fabrics that really worked out well, but then it dawns on me .. this isn't going to be scrappy; this was gonna look crappy!! Not enough of this or to much of that and the colours that I have just weren't working together .. I really want to have the underground railroad in this quilt as it really shows motion and was a popular block at the time - but i'm still not sure of it .. I suppose I could use Crocket Cabin (slightly earlier period) or jacob's ladder - there's also buffalo ridge too .. this layout might not stay at this point either .. It could just be because i've used the default colours for the blocks and not used other's that are closer to what i have available .. that green for the ohio star .. blech!! At any rate ..

I do like this one better .. I have cut down the number of railroad blocks that i'm using and that will mean that I can likely use an FQ for each section .. that's not set in stone yet .. heh .. i have to do my math all over again :S .. **SIGH** But I trust my math now, and it'll be a snap to get it going .. altho I do have rather have to start from scratch with block meaurements etc ..

The basket blocks just seemed to make it to busy to me as well .. plus i figure i'm going to have enough qst and hst with the other blocks .. I used simpler blocks - more simplex star, added the double X to replace the basket block (and used them so they look like an Amish Star ;)) - Kept the one block that reg loved and picked out for the quilt .. the one block he picks - I guess I had better keep it, and used more ohio stars .. that i think is a nice compliment to the center block being an Ohio star block ..

Okay i've been fussing with this since 11pm or so and it's now 3:50 am .. I'm off to bed .. where did the bloody time go!?!?!?!?!