There are 14 All that Jazz Competitpors blocks to be made up into another quilt…14 is not a number that divides into a quilt shape so lets make that another 2 quilts…How to split them 3 x 4 works as a quilt but that leaves only 2 blocks, that’s not enough for a second quilt…3 x 3 would also work as a quilt and leaves 5 blocks which does work as a second quilt by setting them with 4 plain blocks into a 9 patch.
The next question is which blocks to put in which quilt?…I reasoned that the 9 block quilt would blend more different styles of block and that the set of 5 blocks would need to be reasonably well matched blocks….so decided to start by chooseing 5 blocks that I liked together.
On closer examination of the blocks I found that the embroidered area of one was 1″ oversize, normally that would have been a problem because I wouldn’t have liked cutting it back to size but if I put it at the centre of the 5 block set then it can stay full size…and that gave me a starting point for spliting the blocks into 2 quilts.
When I took All that Jazz quilt to Anne to finish the binding I also took the competitors blocks and we lay them out on her bed and tried different combinations…
  
We didn’t make a final decision but I got a feel for the blocks and we layed out a couple of combinations that worked…I then visited Sharon, and showed her the alternative combinations, she prefered the brighter combination so we left them layed out on the floor and layed out the 9 blocks to cross check that both quilts would be well balanced, we did swap a couple of blocks, Stephnie’s fantasticaly beaded fan looked great in both quilts but enhanced and did more for the 9 block quilt so that is where we put it…we also decided to use a dark purple fabric from my stash for the borders.
These are the 5 blocks for one quilt.
And the 9 blocks for the other quilt…which I have trimmed to size and stitched into rows of 3…The photo shows the blocks on my sister’s floor so that we could decide how wide to make the strips that I am putting between the rows…I suggested adding the strips between the rows to make the finished quilt a rectangle rather than a square because I personally prefer rectangular quilts, Sharon liked it because these 2 quilts are reasonably small and the strips make it a slightly bigger quilt…seeing it layed out with the purple between the rows I think that setting the blocks like this will give this quilt a distinctive look.
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