What was she thinking?

If you looked at the color guidelines and wondered what I was thinking when I made this choice ... I'll tell you the answer. But first, here are my 9 blocks.

I'm donating my chances, as usual ;-)

I thought the use of white (as opposed to any "light") would keep the quilt fresh and light and the conscious addition of gray would create a more contemporary scrappy look.  The gold (or yellow) is the unifying color to make all our blocks related.

It may not be a combination for a kids quilt, but I am liking the blocks we've seen so far.

Now that I have (finally) made my blocks, here are a couple of sewing notes that might help if you are having problems or are a little intimidated by making a block with quite a few pieces.

1. Take your time.  It's worth it NOT to rush through this one.  Do take the time to actually draw those lines across the white squares.  Stop and press the seams after each pair of seams or pair of triangle.
2. If you are having problems making the block the correct size, you can incrementally measure the block as you are making it.  The center square is 3.5 inches.  After you add the first round of strips, it should measure 6.5 inches.  If it's too large at this point, you can square up and trim before continuing.  If it's too small, it will continue to be too small. 
3. As always, scrappy blocks are a great opportunity to play with color combinations and layer your own rules onto the block guidelines.  My mantra when cutting strips for this block was "light, bright, dark, dull" and most of my blocks contain a combination of fabrics that I would describe with those words.  In most of mine, I put the 2 golds adjacent to one another in the non-triangle corners (and the same thing with the grays).

Anyone else have a tip for sewing these blocks to share?