I always start mine with an 8.5" muslin square, take my 2" ruler and lay it diagonally on the square, and then draw a pencil line on either side of it. That's the line against which I lay my strips. One thing I discovered is that when I planned the colors those quilts didn't turn out as pretty as the one where I purposed used just my "ugly" fabrics and sewed them on randomly. This one has the most awful fabrics in it - there's some pink tiger fabric next to a camouflage next to a chintz and a 1970's green and it turned out so much better than I expected.
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