Nickel Tops Pieced

Finally, the Nickel quilt tops are pieced!  I've been loathe to work on them over the last week because of the heat--piecing requires the iron to be on.  And who wants to add to an already warm house?

But on to the Nickel tops!
Here's the first one, looking more yellow than blue

and here's the second one, looking more blue!

This second one was made with the leftover small units from the first.  I would have liked the first quilt to be bigger, but I ran out of the blue fabric, and I didn't want to add a different blue.  The blocks had been sewn and it was too late to mingle a new blue into the mix.  But it measures out at 49" x 65", so it's still a nice lap quilt.

As for the second one, I played with different settings

Option 1

Option 2

Both of the above options required either a yellow or blue square in the middle, but I wasn't wild about either setting to put those in.

Playing a bit more, I came up with this

 and again, by rotating the orientation of the lights and darks, came up with it's compliment

 Then I finally settled on the Idaho Beauty layout from More Nickel Quilts (affiliate link) but auditioned different centers.

Solid blue center of a different blue fabric

Piece of blue stars that is also going on the border

Or using up more units!

So I liked the last option, but again, didn't have enough units with the same blue.  But what if I made a few units with a similar value blue, then made another row to make this quilt bigger?  And voila!

The center stars are slightly darker, and a few dark blocks appear next to the other stars, in the upper and lower center.  Overall, a good compromise, and I rather like this one!  And in case your wondering, I did rotate the units to make yellow stars, but because of the wild fabrics, they just didn't look as cohesive as the blue stars do.

Some people just sew their scrap quilts and let whatever happen happen, but I like a bit of order about them.  And I could just stitch a panto on these and be done, but I think I'll have a bit more fun with the quilting.  I'll keep you posted!

Stay cool, and Happy Quilting!