Woe is me!

At least 4 times this weekend, I have sat down to lay out the blocks from my disappearing 9-patch baby quilt and have gotten so frustrated with trying to lay the colors out, I have given up. I'm trying too keep from having too many of the same color large blocks together and from having any of the same color touch each other, except if they are kitty corner from one another. Maybe I'm just too particular for this?

When I laid out the pieces originally, just to see what things would look like it looked like this:

 Now. See how the second row down has 4 blues in a row? And see that the top right corner has three yellows touching? And there's other areas that are equally sad, especially the bottom right corner.

I think that I have created for myself some sort of impossible puzzle. Any normal person would totally just go with it and say "whatever!" if two of the same color big squares were next to each other. I am, in fact, not a normal person.

So on my table sits the pile of blocks. Haphazardly stacked together out of anger.

What do you think is the best way to go about setting up these blocks? I'm going to try to put together one long row (6 blocks) and then keep working on adding more long rows so I will only have to worry about the colors of the block above (or below) and the block to the side of the block I am trying to place. Which seems like it would be a lot simpler than working out from the center and occasionally ending up with a hole where a block should go.

Patience is a virtue, right?