I love a mistake, don't you?

Especially a really dumb mistake where you find that your calculations were so off the first time that recalculating the numbers actually resulted in a need for way fewer blocks (or material) required.

I did just that over the weekend. I found a 'happy' mistake.

Stupid, but happy. Oh, and I nearly broke Lesson #5 to smithereens in the process. Not to mention Lesson #7 - Don't make color decisions in a poorly lit environment. NEVER!

In ciphering for the Ocean Waves quilt, now on the cutting table, I somehow miscalculated the need for whole center blocks in place of the pieced blocks. (And actually, I know how I managed that error, too...but I won't go into it now.) Suffice to say, I only require 18 bird print squares to piece into the fray - as opposed to the frightening 35 or so I named earlier - along with another bunch of half squares and quarter squares that will fall into the corners and along the edges of the quilt.

Eighteen! - what a lovely number. :)

I've also reassessed how I will be configuring the color scheme for the blocks. Yup, I did.

Instead of framing the birds on all four sides with a pair of materials, I will be using the more traditional (and familiar) method of piecing those elongated hexagonal facets with the color pairs, and most likely infusing a lot more brown into the pairings to help the other colors in the whole blocks (and in the pieced blocks) shimmer. My intent has always been to have those brights absolutely sparkle, and I think the brown infusion will make that happen.

The first of the blocks will be constructed over the coming weekend, so I will keep you posted.