I just thought of another design that would be striking using the right colors--the rail fence pattern. It would be stunning in red & black. There is very little fabric waste too since you are dealing with strips that are sewn together and then cut into blocks. goes together really quickly and the end result looks complicated but it was a piece of cake. If you would rather not use strips, you could cut shorter ones the length of each block and simply stitch them together. Sometimes, my strips tend to have little humps when I don't take the time to cut carefully--so I tear my long strips and they come out straight that way.