This Is Why...

...I have so many UFOs.

I have been trying to find a layout I like for my Medallion Exchange Quilt.

I have spent hours on-line looking for sashing ideas (plain? or pieced?), layout ideas (on point? or straight set?) and just trying to find something that inspires me.

I have laid it out on point,

straight,

with wide sashing,

narrow sashing, 

and on point, wide sashing around medallion, narrow sashing between blocks.

And, now I have decided there is not enough contrast between the lightest gray and the medium gray. They look the same in these last two photos. I also think the design made with the squares near each end of the sashing looks incomplete. And, I don't think I like the colored hourglass cornerstones. I think the sashing or border between the medallion and blocks should be different than the sashing between the blocks but I would still like to introduce some gray, I think.

I'm thinking of doing away with the hourglasses and adding more dark and light squares at the ends to make that look more complete. 

Where the red arrow is pointing? I think there needs to be a dark square there and eliminate the medium gray strip. I think this would make a good cornerstone instead of the hourglass. I also think that purple I used on the other end is too close in value to the grays. Or maybe I should use black sashing with the colored hourglasses for cornerstones. Or would the other idea work better with the borders that have been used in the medallion?Would black sashing make them, and the blocks, then appear to be 'floating' on the black background? 

So, now I will go make up one of those sashing strips with the changes I am thinking about and try and find something for a 5 inch border around the medallion to make it the size that will work with that.

Oh, and I am thinking the setting triangles I will need might be black or darkest gray some with fan blocks to go with the fan blocks used in the medallion. I am thinking some might need some applique to tie-in with the applique in the medallion. 

I am spending so much time thinking and testing ideas that pretty soon I will get tired of it and put it away.  I may never get this quilt together!