Block Layout Tryouts

I have completed 448 diamonds for the Midnight Gardens quilt.  Whew!  And goodness, they'll all need to be trimmed.  But before I start doing that, I need to know how they'll be laid out (it makes a difference which side I trim first).  I had intended to spread them all over the floor, but realized it would be better to take photos of a single block and lay them out on the computer.  

In doing so I discovered a few things.  First, I may nix the idea of using different combinations that I had considered last month.  That might have worked if this was a scrappy quilt.  I'll play some more with that when I get a chance.

It's amazing how the same pieces in a different orientation change the whole look.  I found that some blocks I really liked weren't as nice when all put together.  I captured five different layouts. 

First is what I call Solid Middle (above).  I liked the high contrast points.  All put together it makes two distinct shapes.  

Next up is called Master (because I thought I was following the pattern, but it turns out I wasn't).  I think this one is my overall favorite.  The layout is opposite of the instructions (but very close to another version I saw online).

 

This one I named "Dark" because all the points are the dark side of the diamonds.   I really like the block.  The overall pattern is interesting - looks like it's woven. 

 

This one is called Reversed.  I swapped the Dark diamonds with each other.  Also somewhat of a woven feel, and seems to create a bunch of x's (big black ones and small white ones).

 

The last one is called Bright.  This is the layout that best matches the original pattern.  

Writing this post has given me some time to really look at the quilt.  I forget when I'm buying fabrics to consider the yardage and the fact that the fabrics with most yardage will dominate the quilt.  I think I want to back off on the black - that should reduce the woven feel and bring out a diamond feel which will go nicely with the star-like center of the blocks.  I have some fabric in my stash I can play with and see what it looks like.  

Which layout do you like best?  And be prepared for some more test blocks!

 

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