What came first? The fabric or the design?

When designing quilts I've tried it both ways. For the Hidden Wells quilts I drew up the design and then went shopping for the fabrics. For my Bear Paw quilts I bought jelly rolls and then figured out the design as I went along.

However, every now and then I buy fabric for no other reason than I love it and it's on sale (do you need a better reason?).

I bought this "It's a Hoot" jelly roll because it was the Daily Deal over at The Missouri Star Quilt Co. I've had it since November and I just can't decide what to do with it.

I started by drawing up this mixture of 9-patch and fence rails.

It's fun, but to my eyes it's a little too busy. Then I tried a friendship braid, mixing in a little bit of a white jelly roll that I also have lying around.

I have a Creative grids ruler that makes it really easy to cut the wedges but I'm just not happy with it. So I tried again with a very basic stacked coins design.

I think we have a winner! Sometimes simple is the way to go. As an added bonus, it should be super easy to piece together!