That definitely sounds like the watercolor technique. One of my early quilts was this sort. There are a great many books (and probably youtube presentations) on the method. The class I took started with a lot of 2" squares and a piece of fairly light fusible interfacing that was printed with a 2" grid. Position the squares for the pattern you want (this generally takes several tries) then press them to the interfacing. sew seams in one direction. Clip to the seam at each cross line then sew the other way. I am glad I did it once, but probably won't do it again as I did not care for the feel of it.