playing favorites

Yesterday both me and my oldest started losing our voices. Last night, a croupy icky cough started. This morning had me in tears struggling to breathe and wondering how people with asthma can keep from panicking. I. Don't. Like. It.

Since I feel icky and utterly uninterested in doing anything I should be doing, I decided to make a few more x+ blocks. A friend of mine recently sent me a box of scraps and I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of the unusual (for me anyway) fabrics into some of the blocks. Here's the eight I have so far:

Do any of you, while working on a scrappy, improvised quilt, ever find that some blocks are sort of...meh...and others just jump out at you and go, "Me! Pick me! I'm your favorite!"? I certainly do. This one is my favorite so far. 

I noticed that I tend to like more graphic quilts and blocks. Busyness and a lack of good contrast makes me feel squirmy and unsatisfied inside. Really. It does.

But the bottom line is, I know even those "meh" blocks will have their place in the big picture. Even if their purpose is to make the really cool blocks pop out, still. So I keep them and try not to hate on them too much, because I know that eventually they will be an integral part of the finished deal. There have even been times while working on a quilt that I've thought the whole thing was going to be an unmitigated disaster, and the end result was something that I couldn't believe. Like the Scrappy Sunrise quilt I made a few years ago. 

I absolutely detested every single improv'd block as I was making it, but once it was quilted...wow. Love was in the air. 

So even though I'm totally guilty of playing favorites from time to time, in the end no block will be left behind. Unless they're really ugly. :)