Thanks Macybaby, I ran into this on one I'm doing now. It called for orange and I had a lovely orange with some black marks in it. So now I've got these black marks to contend with. I've got several bolts...yes..I can't help myself sometimes with large red and black prints and some with yellow and black prints. I'll just save them for another project.

My overall goal is to sew up the fabric that I have, joined the fabric moratorium and have only one more order due here today.

Is this a disease or what??

Yes Battle Axe, I think it is! I'm also using stash and on the moratorium, but just canceled out my stash usage with the purchase of my background fabric...go figure.

Last night cut fabrics for the "circle" pieces and have started on the "chain" pieces. Based on those fabrics I pulled out four pieces to use for an outer border. Then went shopping today to find the best background piece to use with said choices. I found it! Now in the washer so it's ready for the first step this week. It will definitely go with 2 of my 4 border picks; I'm ready to roll!

Still on the fence about color choices..... either do a 3 color but red being background color then blue for chain then white for circle. Of course using scrappy in each color way and use civil war fabrics. Or 2 color red and white or blue and white.

Or a solid background white or grey and just go scrappy for chain and centers hmmmm. Decisions , decisions and the answer is not make 2 :D

Oksewglad, you posted you were figuring out how much fabric needed per block when going with your scrappy reds... So How much is needed for the X, the O, and the background of the block? Are your calculations based on a 1" cut or finished square?

hi oksewglad ...my husband refused to keep his new t's aside for me to wash seperately. so ...i washed three (dark colors) together with ten colorcatchers on regular cycle & large load water level. wasteful yes, but when he got home fr work & saw all the dye saturated (drk green, blue & drk brown) ...each catcher sheet marbled with all the colors of his t's i finally got him to listen.
i do scrappy more than anything. little tiny pieces ..and make the blocks then wash before joining all together. color catchers were suggested by quilty friends on another site. i experimented with how many color catcher sheets per load. no matter how saturated the sheets are i've never had dye bleeding on the fabrics.
i sort darks, mediums & lights ...sometimes i have a lot of shades of a dark (green, black, red etcetcetc) and will make one load of just one of those individual colors ..just in case.
i love love love color catchers. when i first started quilting i did my fabric the way i did my clothing --like colors together. worked ok until one time i mixed three shades of light green. one faded on another ..what a mess. had to go back & buy more greens.

and i never ever use the washer agitater ..not even delicate --lol delicate not in this farm girls' vocabulary either. i only agitate by hand. especially when doing already pieced blocks.

Hi rogue:wave:...these pieces are a little bigger than what we sometimes use:D

givio...I am not figuring background fabric as I will be using the same bg fabric throughout the whole quilt. I plan on cutting bg fabric as I need it. Following instructions in Lyn B's PDF, the cuts are 1.5 and 2.5" for the 15" finished block.

According to my calculations each block:

Circle (O's)
1- 1.5 x 26" strip
1- 5 x 6.5" piece, subcut 2- 2.5 x 6.5 or 1- 2.5 x 13" strip

Chain (X's)
2 - 1.5 x 15 (one for 4P's, other for 9P's)
1- 5 x 6 piece, subcut 2- 2.5 x 6 or 1- 2.5 x 12" strip

I have not figured how many 1.5" strips I will need for connecting sashing 9P's. These I plan to do scrappy darks...originally going to use both dark and light reds, but changed my mind. As I cut into my red scraps I am cutting 1.5" strips for the connecting 9P's. I am not going to do the first pieced 1.5" squares border, but planning on the "floating border" before the outer border.

If anyone else has figured differently please correct...I have added a little extra length to allow for ruler slippage. Have 23 circle sets cut and 16 chain sets. Figure an extra 3 blocks can be used in a bed runner if I want.

Oksewglad, your calculations sound right. The Quilted Twins have Bur Surrounded as a free pdf pattern on their website and their block also finishes at 15" . I downloaded their pattern and I'm thinking I'll use it as I go along. https://www.quiltedtwins.com/s/Scrap...ed-pattern.pdf .

Thanks, NZq for the verification...guess I could've saved some time if I had seen this earlier..oh well...have all chain and circles strips cut out. Thanks for the scrappy version pdf as well. Will download it as a guide..who knows maybe some day I will make one really scrappy! I see she has used 25 blocks and made the quilt square and no border. Work today...gotta dash.

would this be a good one to use scraps of red, white and blue to make a Quilts of Valor quilt? I think I will join, but just wanted to see what you all thought?

duh! I just clicked on the fabric requirements and they were showing red, white and blue! so, I think I got my answer.
hoping scraps will work! I'm in!