Fun with scraps - Part Two: Confetti

I've been at my desk today getting some work done, thinking, "Yesterday was 'rest day' on the workout schedule, so why are my arms and shoulders sore and tight today?" Oh. Right: I spent HOURS yesterday afternoon standing in front of my flannel design wall, moving my arms around and up and down as I tweaked and fiddled and played with these (micro exercise really does add up):

These are my confetti bits: the print pieces are no more than about 2" square, most smaller, each with varying width aqua strips around three sides. There are 4 or 5 that only have aqua around 2 sides, 'cause I ran out. Which means I used up that particular fabric leftover, hooray! (Should have saved a strip for later, more to come on that), but didn't. Here you can see I've slapped them up on the wall in rows by height, which I thought might make the next step easier.

For assembling a layout, I took two pieces of ribbon and pinned them at a right angle on the wall, to keep the work in progress at least close to rectangular. Then I started in the corner fitting confetti bits together, aiming for mid-size composite blocks for easier seaming later:

Having things in rows by height was helpful, as I could quickly find an alternative when the first piece I tried turned out to be too tall or short, or if the height was right but width was all wrong. Of course by the time I was midway through this stage that system had deteriorated, but it was worth doing.

I thought I would peck away at working toward a layout over a couple of days, but I couldn't stay away from it. The challenge of fitting all the pieces together was part of the appeal of this method. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, and I love (love!) jigsaw puzzles! To me, this is creative play-time at it's best, and I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon when it's too steamy to play outside.

Here's what I came up with. I've got 4 confetti pieces left over, and that's fine; I'm not going to be obsessive about fitting them all in. The strip of fabric on the right is some of the coordinating Amy B. fabric I've also got leftovers of. Seems like it would make a good border, when I get to that stage:

None of these are sewn together yet, and when they are, all those many many 1/4" seams are going to shrink it down quite a lot. Fingers crossed it will still fit together, roughly, when the composite blocks are sewn up. Then I'll do some trimming and squaring up before finishing the seams. That's what I'll be working on later today; more pics to come when I've got 'em.