What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Looks old fashioned to me, but I like old fashioned so that is ok.

Some rather fiddly blocks, and if it was a real old quilt it would have all been done by hand.

I like the first one best because there is more quilting being shown off.

I love having room to show off quilting motifs, and making the sashing, either pieced and/or appliqued, as the coloured bits of the design with a few scattered blocks can leave plenty of room for quilting.

Love the first design but would replace some of the blocks with blank spaces for quilting. The second design has space for quilting with out any changes.

The first design was designed on a standard grid with blocks and sashing, but the results looks like a central design with borders. I would make it as though there were borders, and would make the outer border narrower.

Second design is interesting, and the use of sashing is more obvious.

I like all of them, but especially the last one.

One day I was sick of playing with block designs, so started playing with sashing. the worst thing about this project file is the title, but I am yet to come up with something better.

Then I added some pieces to the blocks to interact with the sashing.

When I can think of a catchy title I have another project file which has been waiting for exposure for a long time with applique sashing.

I love playing with quilt top designs using the sashing for a large proportion of the overall effect.

I also like that many of the designs I find playing with sashing leave plenty of space for quilting to share the limelight.

I called this sashing a lot of names while trying to get it to connect nicely during design, most frequently it was “that Twisted Sashing”, though a few other words crept in from time to time!

I like both variations of the sashing, but I think the first one needs more work, while the second one is workable as it is.

I love the sashing in this design. I rarely use sashing in my designs, though in many of the quilts I have made I have used sashing, but not one as interesting as the one shown above.

I like the border on the second design, but am asking myself what if I make some changes of scale of the end elements?

PS I apologize for not posting this earlier, but I had a few other things I wanted to do and forgot, but I did get those other things done!

Interesting!

Interesting, with lots of room for some interesting quilting!

The blocks are pretty insignificant, but who needs attractive blocks when the sashing is out of teh ordinary?

Love the second design!

Very busy!

Love the second design! The blocks are still busy, but there are a lot less of them.

Love the sashing too.

What happens when you use three different sashings in a quilt top?

All sorts of very interesting quilt designs appear.

Love the one above. Those blank blocks are a great place to show off some quilting.

I should start a new project file with these plus some other sashing designs … I know it would be a lot of fun!

One of my favourite colour combinations, and I love the results.

Love the second one too … no favourite from me, so make up your own mind!

It started like any other Triple Play tutorial.

Jenny, Misty, and Natalie were each asked to design a quilt with pieced sashing. Simple, right?

Natalie’s Pieced Sashing

Natalie created a cute arrow sashing with strip sets and hourglass blocks.

Misty’s Pieced Sashing

Misty used a traditional Seminole technique to sash her quilt with diamonds. And then, there was Jenny. (Oh, Jenny!)

Jenny’s Pieced Sashing

First, Jenny stitched stacks and stacks (and STACKS!) of half-square triangles. Then the sashing began. 

She made pinwheel, chevron, and herringbone sashing. She made flying geese, square-in-a-square, and sawtooth. And then…she kept ...

Every so often I stop playing with block designs, and play with sashing designs instead.

As you can see in these designs the sashing can be used as border designs too.

And then of course, you can add some blocks with some tricky bits pieced to form a frame around an applique.

Who needs fancy blocks when you have fancy sashing?

Well a few fancy blocks helps fill some of the spaces in a design.

Some of the sashing in the last design for today is pretty simple, but the red one more than makes up for the simple black lines.

Blue is not my favourite colour, but I do like this design a lot …

… and I love the second design!

A couple of days ago I shared some designs with much more elaborate sashing than is usual. I opened the project file while looking for the pieced sashing designs I had stashed away, and carried on looking, and wondering what if I challenged you to try drawing some pieced sashing.

I suggest you start with 3 inch wide sashing for 12 inch blocks, that is draw a 3 x 12 inch rectangular block with a 3 inch square block for the corners.

The example I have shared above include a version of the corner block to use at the quilt ...

Sometimes I play with sashing instead of blocks in Electric Quilt, and I have left the block lines in the design above so you can see that the blocks, even if they have some applique on them, are not the stand out feature of the design.

The blocks forming the cross in the second one are connected by pieced sashing, with the contrast strips placed across the sashing strip, instead of the more usual lengthwise placing.

The sashing in the design above creates some spots for feature blocks or a framed spot for quilting motifs.

Love the last one, and ...

Same as yesterday … almost!

Can you pick the difference?

Which one would you prefer?

I would use today’s version around simple applique blocks, yesterday’s for more complex designs.

I have been playing with the block design I shared a couple of days ago, which I had hoped to use between applique blocks instead of sashing.

I love the design but it has to be sashing … pieced with a little bit of applique.

With more play time I will change the quilting motifs to applique, and add quilting motifs to the outside blocks, but that will not happen today.