I have a tendency to show a block or a stack of fabrics and the next time that project appears it is finished quilt top or a completed quilt. How a design actually becomes to a quilt remains a mystery! So I thought I'd walk you through the design process for my Lab Puppies quilt.

I had fat quarters of my Lab Puppies fabric in 5 colors. I found I could fussy cut the pair of dogs into patches 5 inches wide and 4 inches high without "wasting" any of the printed dogs.

I also had 2 stacks of 10 inch precuts. One stack was 1930s reproduction fabrics and the other was solid colors which coordinate with 1930's fabrics. They were in my stash, purchased previously from Keepsake Quilting. I decided to alternate my dog blocks with pieced rail fence blocks, with strips cut from the patterned '30s fabrics.

Here is my original layout on my design wall (the fuzzy side of a picnic tablecloth).

Symmetric layout, with fussy cut dog blocks alternating with rail fence blocks

It was nice. Nothing wrong with it--just not exciting.

I gave myself a time-out see if an idea for better layout surfaced. I decided to sit down and watch Lisa Congdon's Creativebug class, More Sketchbook Explorations. During the video of the first chapter she commented that the eye prefers a "little bit of disruption in the overall composition." BINGO! I literally shot out of my chair and went to the cutting table.

I cut 4 inch squares out of the stack of solid '30s colors. I randomly placed a single solid color block next to a dog block in each row of the quilt.

Lab Puppies "Disrupted" Layout on the Design Wall

The random block create a much more interesting design!! My eye recognized the disruption but only the purple solid square really stood out. I had to really look to find the solid patches in the other rows!

I love the "cross-pollination" between different genres. A drawing/doddling class provided the idea for the the "distrupted" layout which made a better quilt design!

In my next post I'll discuss my unconventional borders.