It took me a while to get the big diamonds more or less arranged... Here are my rules: 1. As much as possible, don't repeat the same print in the same row or column as itself. 2. Absolutely do NOT have them next to each other. Diagonal neighbors are OK, adjacent ones are not. 3. Don't have all the light ones clumped together, and don't have the dark ones clumped together. (This ought to be obvious.) Likewise, contrast organic shapes with hard edged ones; sparsely filled ones with densely filled ones, etc. 4. Distribute the prints all over the quilt. In the middle, along the edges, etc. Don't limit one print to the edges. 5. It's not a bad idea to alternate, light, dark, light diamonds in rows and columns. You can tell they are light and dark by walking across the room and taking off your glasses. The values will show up and you won't be distracted by the pattern of the print. If you can see clearly across the room without glasses, then squint when you do this exercise. 6. When you cut out your big diamonds from giant prints, fussy cut them so you end up with a beautiful block. When I was in art school I brought in a painting of milkweed pods. My professor took one look at it and said, "In real life these are beautiful, you made them look ugly. Don't do that." 7. When you have a directional print, and you cut a diamond with a pattern facing one way, MAKE SURE YOU FLIP AT LEAST ONE BLOCK. Yes, that means making a bouquet of flowers point down. 8. Don't be too matchy-matchy. Ever. Just because you can buy eight fabrics in a designer's "line" DON'T DO IT. That's a recipe for a boring quilt. 9. Have some fun, dammit. All quilts tell a story, even if you're not aware of it. This is a pinkish quilt, so fun pink pigs work. And it's a quilt of flowers, so bugs work too. 10. Don't worry about being too perfect. There's nothing worse than a quilt that is "overworked." You don't want your quilt to look like a machine made it. 11. Relax. It's only a quilt. And though it kills me to admit it, most people will never notice the little details you put into it. So leave them some surprises to find later. The same rules apply to the medium sized diamonds. You can click all the photos to supersize them so you can check out the little details.