For the last couple of weeks, I have been starting at my stack of fat quarters for the Sewcialites Quilt Along, wondering how I would decide which fabric to use for which block. Fat Quarter Shop released a coloring page, but these are prints, which changes the look, so I didn't think I would get an accurate representation.

I don't have fancy quilt design programs, but I remembered that I have Photoshop as I was staring at my computer. After work, I did some quick Googling and figured out how to create fill patterns and use those with the paint bucket tool. Then, after a little bit of trial and error, I was able to make my layout!

I have the same number of HSTs in the same layout as the original layout, but I did change the orientation of a few of them. I think messing around with those took me the longest out of the entire layout. I kept changing colors, color combinations and even had them all solid background for a bit. For the solid colors, I pulled a screenshot of the fabric I was going to use (I looked up the Confetti Cotton coordinates that went with the fabric line I'm using), used the color selector tool, then filled the HSTs with the color.

It wasn't without its hiccups. Once I filled with the pattern, it was difficult to change to another fabric on some of them because of the way the paint bucket tool works, but I used the polygon lasso tool to select the area I needed and then filled it. It doesn't look as perfect, but it's still good enough for me to get an idea of which fabric I'm using.

After I filled in all of the patterns and colors, I watched the Fat Quarter Shop Livestream, where Kimberly went through each of the blocks, matched them to their number, and then filled in the square at the top, so I have a second reference point. I'm giving myself a little pat on the back for this, and I'm excited to start Sewcialites.

Off to starch my fabric!