Fall Quilt - Days 1 and 2

I'm making a fall quilt!  It's going to be a floor quilt to use in the living room where David hangs out.  When my mom and aunt were here and we went on a quilt shop hop, I picked up material to use with a pattern my aunt had. 

You can see the material in the picture above.  The yellows, oranges, and browns are fat quarters.  The red/yellow/orange print and the red material were bought for borders, and the leaves material for the backing.

But I don't like doing things by a pattern.  I like to make my own pattern.  I really like symmetry, too.  So, what started out as an easy quilt pattern with big blocks has turned into this:

I used an Excel spreadsheet to experiment with some different patterns.  I saw a picture of a quilt with this pattern and liked it, so I made up a pattern to match and for use with my materials.  The print that was supposed to go for a large border became the 83 red squares in the pattern at left.  The 12 fat quarters of red, orange, and yellows - all different prints - are used in rail fence sort of block.  The blocks are arranged to frame the red squares. 

I did a lot of math to figure out if I had enough material to make the pattern change.  In the end, the fat quarters and the red print are going in the middle of the quilt, as shown in my pattern.  I mapped out an arrangement that uses the fat quarters symmetrically throughout the quilt.  Using that layout, I only need 4 different rail fence blocks.  That simplified things for me.  The nearly solid red will now be a skinny inner border and binding.  The leaf material from the back will now also be a ~4" border in the front. 

Once I knew it was going to work out - I didn't even have to buy more material! - I was anxious to get started.  First I cut my fat quarters into 2" strips.  I used my strip cutter, which I LOVE.   At my mom's suggestion, I put the strips in Ziplocs according to which of the 4 different types they will be. 

Then today, Day 2, I cut the 83 squares (5x5") from the red print and bagged them.  I had more time, so I started sewing the strips together.  Of the four different block types, I got two of the sets of strips sewn together.  I love the way the strip sets look the same at first glance, but on closer look you see they are made of different materials.

I'm really in the mood to just keep going.  Next up is to sew the other two strip sets.  Then I'll cut all the strip sets into 5x5" blocks.  Then I'll get to arrange the blocks and see if all of my calculations were correct.   However, the kids are out of school tomorrow, and their patience and level of self entertainment will not allow me to quilt while they are here.  I'm trying to think of fun things to do with them (pumpkin patch?  zoo?)  and not be quilt-cranky.  (But maybe after they go to bed tonight...)