Appliqué top completed

Above is the final pieced top made with the appliqué squares. (Cropping makes it look a little tilted; it's not.) I spent yesterday using Photoshop to try out a number of lay-outs for this quilt, narrowing it down to four possibilities.

A) 4 vertical squares, pushed left	B) 4 vertical squares, centered
C) 4 rectangles	D) 2 x 2 squares

Much as I liked the idea of getting more color in by using horizontal rectangles of colored fabric (layout "C"), I think the simple square works best. Of course, Christy Marnell, designer of the Posh Tot quilt pattern, had already figured that out :-)  This will be a generous-lap-size quilt, about 57 x 77".

I had been thinking I would put a 2" frame of color around each square, but that resulted in a quilt that was bed-size instead of lap-size, and I didn't want to go that large.  So I tried layout "D" which I could do with larger borders.  Nice, but not as striking as layout A.  I solved the size problem by going to colored frames of just 1-1/4" wide, with a separating black sashing between the blocks of 1".  The blocks themselves are 15".  Done!

Now I'll put this aside, and go back to the triangle quilt, which needs a back and then quilting.