All my HST were made ahead of time. The HRT were paper pieced and where it made sense, I created a paper pieced pattern in the shape of 2 HRT sewn together to avoid a seam!
I enjoyed the QAL quite a bit and appreciated knowing at the start how many HST and HRT were required for the whole quilt. I decided my blocks would finish at 8" which means my HST are 2".
This is my tentative layout. I like how new shapes are created when blocks are laid with each other. With a 3 x 4 block layout, the quilt top would be 24" x 32". I'd like to turn it into a 36" x 36" layout so that I can donate it to a local hospital - they use quilts 36" x 36" to cover incubators in the NICU. Work to be done on the final layout since I don't really want to make new blocks.