Laying out a scrappy quilt

I have been working on the LOTUS quilt I wrote about in the previous post.  From each strip of fabric you cut, you make two blocks.  I have been making them two at a time, using one for the top half of the quilt and setting the other aside for the bottom half.  When I make scrappy quilts, I like to make all my blocks first, so that I can lay them out in a way that somewhat balances the colors.  These blocks are so big, they are hard to layout on my design wall.  The other problem, is I have to climb up on that bench you see the other projects hanging on, in order to put blocks at the top of my design wall.  My husband made this for me , and he angled the back to be a little lower than the front to keep it from turning over on me.  I am having some pretty bad inner ear problems and dizziness right now, so he gets very nervous when I start climbing up on that bench.

Here are the first two rows (total of 6 rows in quilt) on my design wall .  I can get three rows on there but possibly get all six if I set them sideways.  I kept wondering how I could do this in an easier way.

 

Then I remembered the triangles that you get when you cut the blocks out.  I pulled two triangles out of my leftovers for each fabric, and used a flannel board I made (cardboard covered in flannel).  This allowed me to layout the fabrics for the entire quilt  in a smaller area.   Now I am ready to start assembling the blocks into rows and rows into a quilt top. (The triangle on each side are cut in half to make a straight edge.) 



 



 

This was fun to play with, and may be a technique I use often in scrappy quilts in the future.