thank goodness for a husband who 1) is an artist and knows graphic design 2) owns and knows how to use photoshop 3) has the patience to show me again how to use the scanner and photoshop, even though he knows I'll ask him again in a few months.

i spent a few days designing a quilt with the above fabrics, in different sizes/styles of block. At first I drew up a design that included 4 blocks - one full sized for the large print fabrics, one that was two large rectangles, a 4 patch, and one that was 1 rectangle and 3 small squares.

but that was too busy. oh, heavens, way too busy. and there was too much pink. (note the lack of pink in the above picture.

how did I know this? without cutting a single fabric? wellll - that's where my husband comes in. (many experienced sewers/designers will be thinking, "well, duh" just now. they can read someone else's blog while I'm busy learning new things) (ha! they don't read this blog anyway).

so we scanned in all of the fabrics and moved stuff around and swapped this and that and all kinds of stuff. we argued about color placement (i really didn't want my pinks and reds touching. I lost.) and block size; about adding this fabric and taking out that fabric.

in the end we settled on 8 inch patchwork blocks. I like it, finally. craig's co-worker (who, if you can't tell, plays guitar and has a fondness for rock) has a wife, who is having a baby - and this is for him. (the baby, not the coworker.) (although probably really i could say it really IS for the coworker) (I wonder how long this post would be if I cut out all of the words in parenthesis).

craig also came up with a really cool idea for the back of the quilt. pictures to come, I start cutting tomorrow!