Sunday Playtime ~ Disappearing nine-patch

So today's the day I decided to dive into something called the disappearing nine-patch.  It's basically where you start with a typical 9-patch block, the cut it into quarters and twist and turn the quarters so they end up totally different.  The tutorial I followed was by the Neighborhood Quilt Club.  

I started with this

Then I took a deep breath, got out my rotary cutter and cut each block in half - first horizontally and then vertically.

so that I ended up with this

In reading the tutorial, I decided to follow layout 1 in turning my blocks ~ this is what it looked like when I finished putting all the blocks together.

I keep looking at it and wondering if it's too busy?  So I tried layout 2 and got this ~

a different kind of busy.  :)  So now I'm not sure which way to go ... but at least I have a couple of months to decide!

On a brighter note ~ I signed up for a class in November to make the "In From The Cold" quilt by Kate Spain for Moda (you can get the free pattern here).  Here's a pic of my stash for this project ~ can't wait!  (I may have to keep this one!)