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Some of you are interested in knowing how I did this so I am going to tell you my secrets to making a successful "Happy Lappy" quilt. Have you had trouble selecting just the right fabrics or colors? I'll show you the easy way to do it with my step-by-step plan and the secrets I used to create a colorful scrappy by controlling the colors. Even if you are a more skilled quilter and want to make this quilt but in other colors, I'll show you the best way to bring out those colors to make it really stand out.

Here is a pic of the quilt we will be making:

The quilt is set 11 blocks by 12 blocks and is a total of 132 squares. The quilt is made up of three (3) types of blocks. You will need:

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57 Large HST's (cut size: 4.5")
52 Dbl. prs. HST's (cut size: 2.5")
23 Whole squares (cut size: 4.25")

For the large HST's, you will need to make:
# Color
-----------------
17 Red
7 Purple/Light
6 Navy/aqua
5 Brown/peach
4 Orange pink
4 Orange peach
4 Fuchsia/med. aqua
2 Burgundy
2 Lime green/lt. blue
2 Lavendar/pale green
2 Bright pink
2 Rust/peach

For the Dbl. Prs. of HST's, you will need to make:

6 Red
6 Blue
6 Purple
9 Green
4 Brown
3 Rust
2 Pink/light
1 Orange/peach
1 Orange/light
1 Light Pink
1 Yellow light
1 Burgundy
1 Black/blue

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Next are the steps I took in creating this quilt. The best way to do an unplanned random look is to work from your scrapbag using up what you have and adding to your design wall "as you go." (So don't cut all the fabrics out first.)

Step 1) Make 10 or so Large HST's in various reds cut from 4.5" squares and scatter them on the design wall. Always work in a diagonal manner, from left to right, placing them "1 up and to the right."

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Step 2) Make 7 purple Large HST's. Put them on the design wall in the same scattered way as in Step 1.

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Oops. Some of the pics are turned backwards but you get the idea.

Step 3) Make 6 navy/aqua Large HST's and place on the design wall in the same diagonal way scattering the color.

Step 4) Make a few of the Whole Square blocks and scatter them on the design wall.

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Step 5) Now we are going to make up some of the dbl. prs. of HST's and put some of them on the design wall next to the Large HST's. Always work in a diagonal manner. You'll be moving your blocks around later for a final adjustment, but keep in mind, your strongest blocks of dbl. prs. will go right in the center diagonal starting from bottom left to top right. This is where you want the impact of your strongest contrasting blocks to be and this is SECRET #1.

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Step 6) Continue making more dbl. prs of HST's and Large HST's until you are finished.

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Step 7) Fill in empty areas with the remaining whole squares of all florals.

Step 8) Final adjustment. Take a look at all your dbl. pairs of HST's on the design wall and select two (2) blocks that are your most piercing of colors. They will be known as your "focus point" blocks. This is SECRET #2. They will be placed in the center or off center like I have done. My two focus point blocks are the plum/light blue combos seen here. There's an orange floral separating them. Do you see how they stand out?

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Step 9) Beginning at the top of the design wall, moving left to right, scan with your eye the first 4 blocks, then the next 4 under them, then finally the last 4. In this 12 block section, make sure this section is so pleasing colorwise so as to be an only quilt if it had to be. Make sure there is a good variety of opposing colors. Remove any blocks that hinder. Scan each 12 block subsection of the quilt to make sure there is color excitement and colors blend. Be sure to add low contrast blocks.

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Step 10) Find a home for all wayward blocks pulled in step 9.

Step 11) Sew blocks together. Join rows. Add borders and finish off.

In working on this quilt, I discovered several things. If a quilt has a random placement of blocks, it's a good thing if the border does too. This is SECRET #3. Sashings and a plain border would be way too dull for this type qulit. The random look border goes hand-in-hand with this quilt. I tried several border looks:

Finally, I decided on this beautiful dark teal floral which was just a shade darker than my inner border. This is SECRET #4. The dark teal did not show up at all in the photo of my quilt but look like a gray fabric. Here's a pic of the inner and outer floral fabric: