how do you make a quilt sing?

Now sometimes I know how I want the quilt to look before I start. Maybe I have sketched it out. Maybe it is a custom order. Maybe I have made a similar quilt and I just want to change the colors or the size. Now that doesn't make the quilt any easier to make--now changing one fabric changes everything. You can't swim in the same river twice, can you?

Other times though I like to just play. Start and see where it goes. Of course I do have an idea in my mind. Maybe I know the colors and the sizes. I can almost visualize the quilt. It is there--I just have to discover it. Figure out the solutions. Make it sing.

That was the case with the quilt I started a couple of weeks ago--blogged about making it--one block at a time.  I do want this quilt for the Baltimore Craft Show. So I started making what I know. That is the way I have found to keep moving forward. So I made the blue blocks. A deep rich blue. Not too busy. Gradually changing color. Isn't it wonderful? And I realized I wanted an intense green yellow window. Great color, isn't it?

So I pieced a rectangle using those thin tiny strips. I can remake this piece later. I just want a guide to see what it will look like.

Not bad is it? But is this where it should be? Down at the bottom of the quilt? This time I don't even know if this is the bottom? Hmmm. Squares of green against squares of black? Is this too simple?

What if I move it up? Test out a couple of colors for the bottom. Time to make what I know--the next two rows of the top.

OK--this is coming together. What do you think?

The black seems too dark. Let's see about the teal. Should I include yellow with the teal? Or is that too much?

 Yeap--too busy for this quilt. Let me try a block of teal. Interesting.

Too light--that won't hold the bottom enough. Let me try again.

Much better. Finish piecing it. Aren't the colors great?

Now to work on the green--that looks a bit clunky. A bit expected. I think I have an idea. But that is for today. We'll see. And as for the next quilts in this series--don't I have lots of other possibilities? What will I make next? And you,  what do you think?  Is the quilt starting to sing? Do you ever work like this or do you know what it will look like when you start?