Messy Progress

I am so excited to be sewing this quilt after weeks of fussing with colors and layout.  I liked my initial design but it felt like it was missing something.  I was trying to make it easier to square than my first kite quilt.  In doing so, I lost some of the haphazard feel of the original, which is what I like about Shattered Kites.

I tried several radical changes and hated them all.  I liked my original design best.  Eventually I added some black across the middle and made one of the edges a bit more jagged.  Of course, moving one colored piece is never that simple.  Shifting or removing one kite cascaded into moving three or five kites to keep the colors balanced to my liking.

Working this quilt is a little like piecing a jigsaw puzzle.  I took a photo before I started.  Pin, sew some seams, then lay it all back on the floor to make sure it still matches the photo.  Pin some more and repeat.  It's a lot of up and down, but it seems to work.  Is there a better approach?

The partial seams are a mess.  At one point it looked like a lump of scraps, but then it suddenly starts to snap into place.  I'm getting close to the end, so I can see more of the full quilt and there's less up and down since I can see what pieces go where as I finish each seam.  I started sewing from opposite corners and worked to the center.  I gave up ironing as I work; it makes continuing a partial seam a little easier to work with (I don't worry about catching the fabric wrong on a pressed/folded seam). But I suspect it's going to be a mess ironing it all in the end.

I'm chugging along now.  I hope to get it sandwiched some time this weekend.  I'm already brainstorming how to quilt it.

Sharing with Freemotion by the River's Linky Tuesday and She Can Quilt's Scraptastic Tuesday.