Medallion Quilt

Well, I decided to participate in Emily's medallion quilt along over at Em's Scrapbag.  First, I had to make a center medallion, and I remembered that I loved the blocks designed by a quilter who blogs at betukbandi.  Her quilt, "Round the Year," is lovely, and since I enjoy paper piecing, I chose Block 10 but omitted the circles.  The "Round the Year" quilt features blocks which are appliqued to the background, but I doubt that anything that I applique would hold up 😀, so I chose to inset this center medallion into the background using the instructions given on her blog.

Here's the finished circle.

Hmmmm. . . .  I think the background is disproportionally large, but it must be 24.5" square.  What to do?  What to do?  In looking around on Pinterest, I saw a quilt with squares interspersed with background fabric, so here's what I'm aiming for before I put on the first border that Emily has designed. 

Nothing is cut or sewn yet because I will need to do the math to figure out how many squares to include and the size of  the background piece between the squares.  Some squares may even need to be left out.  I will add those 1.5" squares and trim the medallion to 24.5" Then I'll be ready to add Emily's first border which she has posted.  Thanks, Emily, for creating this medallion quilt along!