I'm about to SWOON!

The mailman finally brought my fabric!

Flurry by Kate Spain for Moda Fabrics

Thanks to the Madsens @ Green Fairy Quilts for the great deal on the fat quarter stack and the super quick shipping!  There's still plenty of time to join the Swoon-Along.  Just sign up with the Flickr group to post your progress and see all the great blocks our fellow Swooners are coming up with.  For more information about the group, you can visit Katy @ I'm A Ginger Monkey.

Waiting for the fabric has given me quite a lot of time to think about how I'm going to approach this project - after all, I'm anticipating family snuggle time under this quilt at Christmas time for many years to come ... so I had better like it!!

My first thought is that instead of using two main colors plus a background color for each block, I'm going to use four colors + background, like these inspiring blocks ...

1. that's better!, 2. swoon front, 3. Swoon Block # 3, 4. Swoon 3 of 4

If the blocks were smaller, than I think {for me} using two colors would make more sense so as not to make the blocks too busy.  Because the blocks finish so big, though, I feel like more colors will make the blocks interesting.  Plus, I'm using my go-to white-on-white polka dot print for the background -- you know how I love that fabric!! - so hopefully the four-color-scheme, plus a solid red sashing will help keep things balanced.

Secondly, Flurry has four colorways: red, white, green, and blue ... so I can use each colorway in each block.  With that in mind, I think I'm going to make the quilt using a 4x4 grid, rather than a 3x3 grid.  With the four colorways, the larger grid just makes sense.  Plus I really want this to be a BIG blanket.  

I don't want the blanket to be too gargantuan, however, so I am going to scale the blocks down to 20" rather than 24".  I was toying around with the idea of making the block as a 64-square grid, as Lynne from Lily's Quilt's has opted to do.  I like the idea of keeping the square-ed-ness to the block construction ... and to be honest, I really am not a fan of flying geese blocks ... but my fabric line has some fantastic larger prints that it would just be a shame to cut these up more than I have to.

Finally, since it's going to finishing over 90" square this quilt is going to be a beast to quilt!  Rather than spend my precious sewing budget on sending this bad boy to a long arm quilter, I think I'm going to experiment with a "quilt as you go" type technique, and then attach the finished squares to each other with the sashing and french seems.  That's the plan right now.  We'll see what materializes towards the end.