Postage Stamp Quilt-A-Long (My 2nd Quilt-A-Long)

I found a quilt a long that looks like fun. Rachel from P.S. I Quilt is hosting this pretty fun little project. She just had a baby too, so I figured if she can do it with her new baby, I can do it with my two lazy greyhounds.

I decided to ultimately use up some of my blue/purple stash. I really have too much fabric just sitting around doing nothing. I would like to reduce that amount by 50% by the end of the year, we'll see how that goes...

Part One: Below are my strips. Instructions were to alternate a solid (in my case - white) with a Jelly Roll strip (in my case any blue/purple from my stash). We were told to make 8 sets of each: 8 of solid-color-solid-color-solid and then 8 sets of color-solid-color-solid-color.

Part Two: Below are my 2.5 inch (depth) strips. Oh man, I probably had nothing short of 130+ strips. Man, this quilt is going to be much, much larger than I had initially anticipated it being! Fun :)

Part Three: Below are only three of the blocks that I put together. I am planning on making this quilt very scrappy and I intentionally added a bunch of light and a bunch of dark fabrics, so I am putting the entire quilt together (strips non-sewn into blocks) to set everything up first so that I don't end up with awkward dark areas and visually weak light areas. Seems to be working...

5 x 5 blocks

Part Three Continued: Here is the set-up that I am going with... I think that it's pretty much working out for me. The only hitch in my giddy-up that I have had is that all of a sudden my boy greyhound thinks that he needs to jump up onto THIS very bed (he doesn't jump up onto beds) and root around, rearrange all of my well-thought-out-and-painstakingly-strategized blocks, and just about make me cry. Well, I calmed down, plugged in my iron, started over, and went to town. I think I win.

Michonne: ONE MILLION, Ihop my grehyound: ZERO

blocks sitting next to each other, hoping to avoid too much 'dark' or 'light' in any certain area.

This dog is pure trouble. Don't let that cute expression trick you!

 
 I'm pretty excited b/c I am making this quilt for a good friend who has NEVER received a quilt from me, but has been my BFF since college. So like I said: Pretty Excited!

As a side note: I have my strips all laid out on our guest bed - so that I can see where areas are too light/dark heavy before I sew anything together. This is just how I work. Well, I came home from work today to a roughed up bedspread with strips all over the floor/bed/pillows/etc.... my silly greyhound hopped up on the bed and was rooting around, making himself comfy on top of my quilt parts. Needless to say he was on my short list today. Luckily for him, everything ironed out alright... :)