Tip on adapting a design to fit your space.

Wendy's blocks arrived and she has asked for a peacock theme and her block is six inches square...  I wanted to do a whole peacock which really lends itself to a rectangular space such as at the left...

I had already gathered lots of peacock images a couple years ago when I was working on my challenge block so it was easy to go to that file for inspiration.

Usually when you see peacocks in a square format,  they are either in a "tails up" position or are very stylized such as art nouveau or Jacobean.. 

I had some criteria in mind... First for materials I have a rather rustic gold cording that I hope to use for this block and so the design has to accommodate that.  I want to focus more on the tail than the rest of the bird and it has to fit in a square....

Something such as this is leaning towards what I am thinking...  The tail is bold and simple enough for cording but I am not crazy about the general design.... so I get out my scissors and print several copies of the image and cut it into puzzle pieces... and start playing around...

I'll cut out the head and neck, the body, and the tail and start arranging them and rearranging them until I see something  that brings a spark and will fit in a square format...

Something like this....  I use paper cut outs a LOT in my crazy quilt work.... most often when I am testing the size of design...

So if you have a design you like but it is not the right shape, rather than spend a lot of time with pencil and eraser......cut it up and arrange it to please you.

And speaking of peacocks, remember a while back when I posted pictures of my neighbor's peacock who escaped and lived at our house for about a week... Here he is by the door to the barn...  He loved all the glass doors where he could see his reflection.  He   was growing in his new plumage.  There is so much focus on their tails that you don't realize how huge their bodies are.